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Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas talks about Tulsa tour stop, Super Bowl.
By Jennifer Chancellor
World Scene Writer
Tuesday night’s sold-out
Matchbox Twenty concert kicked off a string of sold-out American dates in spectacular style. Frontman
Rob Thomas and his band spent five days rehearsing and readying not only a tour but a Sunday Super Bowl pre-show performance, he said in a pre-show interview.
Matchbox Twenty has its full stage setup out for this voyage, filling the stage with intricate rigging, expansive lighting and staging and a mini-arena setting swaddled in intimacy. This tour also formally introduces Tulsa drummer
Stacy Jones to the band’s six-piece touring lineup.
Songs included “Parade,” “Bent,” the blues-tinged, near-bouncy, power pop twists of “Disease” and “She’s So Mean” and “How Far We’ve Come” -- songs from the group’s canon and the first all-new album in 10 years, “North.”
Thomas is an accomplished vocalist with his band, as a solo artist and with an array of notable musicians, including Santana and Willie Nelson and Tom Petty. To name a few.
His vocal acuity skillfully throttled a three-guitar onslaught, weighted with moments of pendulous bass drum and percussion. The audience bounced in time. For a tour kick-off, this night was tight, elaborate and polished. Heck, it was for any show, anywhere.
“We kick off this tour tonight on ‘Tulsa Time,’” Thomas said. “I promise you, we will give you the best tonight you could possibly have.”
The audience sang every word, held every beat of the band’s hit “3 A.M.” Thomas’ vocals tumbled effortlessly into his cordless mic, a hand raised to the sky, reeling back the 1990s with a smile on his lips as he followed with “Real World.”
New tune “Overjoyed” found Thomas in the spotlight, beseeching fans with a single guitar to support him as the love song swelled to fill the theater, it’s overall production as elaborately and thoughtfully staged as any venue ten times its size.
The near two-hour concert also included “Girl Like That,” “All Your Reasons,” “I Will,” “Unwell,” “So Sad So Lonely,” “English Town,” “The Way,” “Bright Lights,” “Sleeping at the Wheel,” “Put Your Hands Up,” “Back to Good,” “You’re So Real” and “Push.” An interlude of Jane’s Addiction’s classic “Jane Says” split the band’s rocker “Long Day.” Another, later break in “Radio” squeezed in a few unexpected bars of Rod Stweart’s “Stay With Me.”
This is not your parents’ casino show. Not. Even. Close. This, folks, may be the set stage for a roaring reemergence into our musical lexicon. Welcome back, gentlemen.
The band also plays a sold-out concet Friday at WinStar Casino in Thackerville before heading off to a pre-game concert for the Super Bowl.Opening act and season 11 “American Idol” champ
Phillip Phillips charmed the capacity crowd with an amiable, upbeat acoustic set that featured acoustic guitars, cello, hand percussion and pristine harmonies.
NFL Super Bowl XLVIIRob Thomas proves that tailgating can be as fun as Sunday’s Super Bowl game itself, when his band
Matchbox Twenty joins bands including
OneRepublic at the preparty.
Both perform as part of the pregame show, and segments will be aired on “
Super Bowl Today,” 1-5:25 p.m. on the CBS network.
Beyonce will perform during halftime, with likely guests including
Jay-Z and a reunited
Destiny’s Child.
Alicia Keys will sing the pre-game National Anthem.
American Football Conference champ the
Baltimore Ravens and National Football Conference champ the
San Francisco 49ers kick off 5:30 p.m. Sunday in New Orleans. The game will be broadcast live on the
CBS Network.
