By Andy Argyrakis
Tour Spotlight: Mat Kearney
“
City of Black & White Tour”
Aragon Ballroom/Chicago, IL
Saturday, May 16, 2009
While the mainstream world first met Mat Kearney when he debuted on Aware/Columbia in 2006, his Christian market origins date back to 2004 upon releasing the freshman effort Bullet on Inpop. Across the last five years, he’s earned throngs of dedicated followers in both scenes, at first being labeled as an acoustic hip-hop performer before shifting toward a more traditional singer/songwriter approach.
Both sides were on display during his latest and biggest tour to date, which finds the thought-provoking troubadour joining English alt-rockers
Keane and subsequently landing Kearney in front of several thousand concertgoers a night. That sure is an attendance surge for a guy with a guitar who got his start in coffee shops and colleges, though nowadays he has a four-piece backing band to add some electricity to his otherwise acoustic platform.
With the fleshed out backing band, bountiful production and a synchronized light show, Kearney split a near hour long set between his first crossover project, Nothing Left To Lose, and the brand-new City of Black & White. Considering this show took place three days before that disc hit streets, audience participation during fresher cuts was admittedly thin, but everyone was attentive nonetheless.
The show opened on the new note of “All I Have,” a robust modern rocker that benefited from a fully charged plugged-in sound that found the familiar voice kicking up the intensity an extra notch. The fellow newbie, “Fire and Rain,” was filled with dynamic surges similar to fellow faith-based band The Fray, and though it wasn’t a cover of the James Taylor tune of the same name, Kearney was quite eloquent with his metaphors of a relationship’s changes amidst shifting personal seasons.
Although his lyrics have never spoken overtly of faith, material from the past and present certainly wasn’t shy about the singer’s personal convictions. During “Crashing Down,” he pondered, “
What have I got to live for, if it’s just my own dream,” while “Closer To Love” sought romantic commitment through cries of “
Prayin’ Lord come through/We’re gonna get there soon.”
From a strictly stylistic perspective, “Here We Go” found Kearney falling somewhere in between the soulful storytelling of Jason Mraz with the swelling hypnotic swirls of Coldplay. He also let those rap roots rise to the surface on “Undeniable,” a decision that earned the cheers of previous fans and possibly confused those who may have been introduced to his tunes via pop radio or “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Although it would be easy to question Kearney’s motives for abandoning those hip-hop flourishes across City of Black & White to find wider commercial acclaim, he actually appeared more natural and comfortable in the straight-up singer/songwriter vein on stage. Additional variety came during “All I Need,” which was presented as a pleasant piano ballad, followed by a switch back to the guitar for “Lifeline.” The latter track is amongst the current disc’s most provocative cuts, thanks to seeker-friendly lines like: “The world is too big, to never ask why/The answers don’t fall, straight out of the sky/I’m fighting to live, and feel alive/But I can’t feel a thing without you by my side.”
As expected, the evening ended with the smash single “Nothing Left To Lose,” which is a textbook example of Kearney’s calming croon intersecting with warm acoustics. Even with a laid back approach, the track is still amongst his most contagious to date and had the masses gallantly chanting, “Come on and we’ll sing, like we were free.” Given his noticeable growth even in just five years and widespread audience attraction, Kearney’s clearly basking in the creative freedom, while simultaneously staying grounded in his higher calling.
View exclusive photos from this concert.
Read our review of City of Black & White.
For a complete list of tour dates, visit matkearney.com.
