Okay, guilty pleasure time – here’s one of many bands that fall into that category for me.

This one’s for Mel, who just wrote a great memory-jogging post about 10 of her favorite concerts.

One of those concerts, was a 1997 Grog Shop appearance from Matchbox 20, who were in the midst of finally breaking BIG nearly a year after the release of their debut CD Yourself or Someone Like You.

Cool for August and The Cunninghams were also on the bill, which was really a really good triple bill of “radio rock” for the time.

Apparently, this must be the week where I recap a bunch of shows that I missed for no apparent reason from artists that I really love.

In 1997, things were pretty busy for me at the radio station, so either I was at a ton of shows leading up to this one, needing a night off from rock and roll, or perhaps I had other pre-existing show plans.

All three bands came by the radio station and played acoustically that morning, and you could tell that big things were ahead for MB20. Acoustic sessions are always great for putting the spotlight on bands that can actually play their instruments, and also offer a painful dose of reality that exposes bands that aren’t the greatest musicians. On this particular morning, all three bands sounded great.

I became a bigger fan of Cool For August after that morning, and of course, for all of the great success that was projected for them, they bombed instead.

These days, people know Matchbox 20 as a band that is loved by soccer moms globally, but in 1996/1997, their record label put a serious push behind Matchbox 20 as a ROCK BAND. The first single released in 1996 was “Long Day,” and it tanked at every format besides Mainstream Rock where it charted top ten.

The label kept working on their plan to make Matchbox 20 a household name, and thanks to a little song called “Push,” Matchbox 20 finally had a multi-format smash that kicked things into full gear.

The Grog show (cap. 250) came at the tail end of a full year of small venue touring that was coming to a close as Matchbox 20 made the leap to larger clubs.

Their next Cleveland show was another sold out show, this time at The Odeon Concert Club (cap. 700) (R.I.P.) That was my first MB20 experience, and I would end up seeing them about 5 times over the next year and a half.

Always a sucker for a good cover song, and ESPECIALLY an ’80s cover song, MB20 sucked me in with their cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” which sent me on a quest to find a good bootleg show with “Time After Time” in the track listing.

I purchased this show initially on a bootleg titled “The Fire Down Below,” a clever reference to Australia where the show was recorded for a television broadcast.

Little known fact – just like the K-Ci & JoJo video, Burgo also recorded this Matchbox 20 show.

I kid, I kid.

Later, I got my hands on a better quality version (which sounds great, by the way,) and that is the version I’m sharing with you now. It seems like I listen to this show on my Ipod at least once a month – I LOVE the 8 minute version of “Long Day” that closes out the show.

Becoming a headlining act with only one album under their belt found Matchbox 20 playing a setlist that included all of Yourself, with a great non-album track called You and I and I, and various cover songs to fill a headliner-length set.

There’s a lot of good on this disc, and only one real miss, a Beatles cover of “Don’t Let Me Down” featuring MB20 guitarist Kyle Cook that is wretched. If you’re even a casual fan, you will dig this, and if you’re a diehard fan, this is essential stuff!

And on a side note:

Plain Dealer pop music critic John Soeder got a chance to catch up with Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas, 10 years after his first conversation with Thomas in 1998.

One more side note that I have filed away in my list of cool rock and roll encounters – I had a chance to have dinner with Matchbox 20 about a year after they had broken big with “Push.” It was one of those cool moments that really makes you appreciate the good people in the music business. Despite having sold millions of albums, the MB20 guys remained the same good down-to-earth dudes that had come to the radio station for the first time a year prior.

Just had to share that for those of you that might have the belief that all “rock stars” are dicks – that’s not always the case!

Anyway – listen and enjoy!

Matchbox 20
Live in Australia
1998

complete zipped download

Track Listing:

Argue (video)
Girl Like That (video)
Damn (video)
Real World
Shame
Hang
Tired (video)
Kody
3 A.M.
Busted (video)
Push
Back To Good
Time After Time (video)
Don’t Let Me Down
You and I and I
Long Day

Relevant Links:

Matchbox 20 official website

Purchase Matchbox 20 – Yourself or Someone Like You – CD or MP3

Purchase Exile on Mainstream (greatest hits) – CD or MP3