to a crowd of about 30 people, many of whom flew in from Connecticut, Frisco, and various locales in Canada. and for a few who were big fans but had never had the chance to see him play, this was their first gig.

the gig was the living room in the huge house that ive been stayed at with matt here in the suburbs of sin city.

matt told his fans through his site that he was going to be in vegas and he was going to be playing to a few dozen people and i guess people emailed in and he gave invites to the “winners” and they all came here and oh yeah apple was here too.

and these two dudes from currentv

and your boy.

and its really sad that a lot of americans dont know about matt because seriously how many musicians of any stature let alone one who is currently #2 on amazon.ca for a record that doesnt even come out for a month, invites friends fans his favorite computer company and the press to come into his vacation and listen to what hes about to tour with on an acoustic guitar barefoot while wearing shorts?

and not charge you three grand, prince.

i got to meet miss604 who liveblogged the event perfectly and gracefully and far better than i imagined. she took pictures and was later relived from that duty by the totally capable duane storey who had a sweet camera and was uploading them to flickr within minutes of taking the pics.

it really shows you how quickly a live event like this can be spread through the world if you have people working as a team who know what the heck theyre doing and are fans of the subject.

matt ended the show with a cover of daniel johnstons true love will find you in the end and lets add love to the end of the paragraph above. when you have people working together who are loving what theyre doing the end result is not just something good, its something beautiful.

which is what the evening was.

it started with people showing up, taking off their shoes, meeting each other, then matt emerged and went around the circle and met everyone and seemed to remember where everyone lived.

then everyone hung outside and chit chatted by the pool. now these are matt good fans, which means theyre smart, theyre mellow, and theyre sweet as hell. so basically they drank as much water as i drank beer.

eventually the group made it into the living room and matt lounged on the bad ass leather couch and strummed some tunes casually and talked to the people. we were waiting on some people who couldnt get their yet. later when the late guy arrived we found out he was a heart surgeon. so there were many predictable jokes about how the person about to get a transplant better hope that matt’s show doesnt go too far into the night.

in the middle of the show the docs beeper went off and he had to leave. thirty seconds he returned and someone joked, patient died? but the doc had just forgotten his keys or something. whoops.

matt chimed in with, didnt mike moore just make a movie about this?

the new album is called hospital music.

after the show we adjourned to the kitchen, finished off the drinks, matt signed autographs for people who brought stuff and posed in pics with them and then they went home.

everyone was glowing.

one of the guys outside said to me, that was the best show ive ever been to.

i was all, yep, and it was some dudes house.

and then a convertible packed with fans sped off into the desert night.

photos by duane storey