Having arrived at the Apollo reasonably early, I was quite surprised to see how full it was downstairs long before the main act were due to appear. Support band Headway certainly could have no complaints about audience numbers but the pressure was on to win over the waiting mass and to a great extent they did just that. This quintet from Nottingham have been together since 2003 and whilst their predominantly piano driven material is perhaps a little lightweight at times, there was enough decent guitar segments provided by vocalist/guitarist David Wright and lead guitarist Joe Watts to keep my interest. Not surprisingly, the current EP “The Start” featured heavily in the set and although it was the more guitar based “Finish What We Started” and “Always The Same” that caught my attention, Headway got a reasonable audience reaction throughout and gave a good account of themselves tonight. 

On to the main act and by now the Apollo was packed and getting pretty hot and people were clearly eager to see Matchbox Twenty, returning to the UK for the first time in some five years, following the departure of long time rhythm guitarist Adam Gaynor during a period where most of the band members were pursuing solo projects. Opening song “How Far We’ve Come” perhaps reinforces that they really are back and gets the evening off to a good start, with Rob Thomas immediately on stunning vocal form. He’s a good front man and effortlessly worked the audience through songs old and new and seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage.

 

I did have a slight gripe throughout the evening though because, for me at least, I felt that occasionally the sound was a little too heavily dominated by those excellent vocals. Musically the mix was clear enough but given that there were four guitars being played at times, it really should have resulted in a louder, fuller sound than was actually apparent to these ears. Still, I doubt if too many people noticed as they were thoroughly enjoying the run through a significant part of the back catalogue, with the like of “3 am”, “Back 2 Good” and “Real World” keeping the attention of the audience.

 

“Long Day” and “If I Fall” injected additional tempo and gave Kyle Cook the opportunity to show his stuff on guitar but it was probably his solo on “Bright Lights” which shone best of all tonight. All the time the show was well complimented by creative lighting and backdrop images of past albums which all worked pretty well. The other musical highlight had to be the big sing-along version of “Push” which first brought Matchbox Twenty to my attention. It was well delivered and the audience loved every minute of it, making for a great finale.

 

Matchbox Twenty crammed some 21 songs into the set-list tonight for a very appreciative audience and, whilst they may be a little MOR at times, there is no doubting their sincerity with the people who go and see them play. I was also impressed to see them selling a decent concert souvenir program (remember those !) for £5 which is excellent value in my book and I cannot say that I saw anyone leaving The Apollo without a smile on their face, which perhaps says it all.

Dave McKenzie