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Singer-songwriters aren’t exactly a rare breed on the music scene at the moment, and worse, for every Regina Spektor or Patrick Wolf there are a hundred James Blunts or Nerina Pallots, riding the flavour of the month wave all the way to the middle of the road. Luckily for Bristol, however, Scott Matthews doesn’t fall into this category, and has neither the watered-down acoustic pop nor the soft good looks to appeal to legions of housewives.
Support act, Andy Gower, also manages to avoid this trap but often sounds like Noel Gallagher embarking on a solo tour. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (after all, Noel’s a talented man when he wants to be) and Gower does pull out some catchy tunes; but his post-britpop wares seem somewhat insignificant compared with what’s to follow.
Even though he admits he’s feeling like shit, Scott Matthews offers up the perfect musical feast for a Sunday night, mixing lo-fi alternative rock with a touch of country and blues. It is safe to say he isn’t the most original of artists, and many of the usual influences are here: a bit of Elliott Smith’s guitar plucking here, some Dylanesque lyrics and harmonica there. But there’s another all-pervading presence here tonight in the shape of the late Jeff Buckley. Everything from his delicately powerful tenor vocals to the reverb-filled guitar strumming echoes with the sound of Jeff’s ghost. To Matthews’ credit, he’s not trying to appear as a reincarnation (his home-town of Wolverhampton would be an odd place for a second coming after all). Rather he seems to share Jeff’s eclectic influences, his song-writing style, and even his witty inter-song banter - tonight featuring Tom Waits impressions, tales of Patsy Kensit coming to his show, and an impromptu song to pipe smokers.
But most importantly Matthews’ got it where it really counts: the songs (a few of them at least). ‘City Headache’ pounds with the oppression of urban life, while the achingly beautiful ‘Elusive’ is full of anxiety, fear and anticipation. As his haunting voice mesmerises the whole room the audience are welcomed in to his very intimate musical world, even if they’ll never quite shake that lingering feeling that they’ve heard something very similar before.
