When An Angel Makes Contact

Matt Mays
The Mod Club – 01.20.07
Rating: 9.5/10

On a cold and wet Saturday night in Toronto, it takes a lot mustered up courage to go out and see a rock and roll show; especially if you have to stand in line at Toronto’s premiere live venue for 45 minutes before getting in.  Saturday night marked Matt Mays’ triumphant return to Toronto after he had spent about a year writing and recording his latest release, ‘When the Angels Make Contact’; a complete diversion from his usual alt-country rock when playing alongside El Torpedo.

If you came to the sold-out Mod Club on Saturday to see a loud and rockin’ Matt Mays and El Torpedo, you were probably very surprised, but hopefully not disappointed.  Mays put on nothing short of a theatrical masterpiece using the variety filled songs from ‘WTAMC’ as a sonic backdrop to a splendid performance.  With giant screens behind and on either side’s of him projecting scenes from his movie debut, Mays played the entirety of his latest album from start to finish. From the moment the lights went down and the first note of ‘The Past’ was struck, Mays completely captivated the crowd.  On this particular night, however, Mays was not accompanied by El Torpedo as his band; rather he was playing alongside a completely different 9 member line-up on guitar, synthesizer, two drum kits, and beautiful Macy Gray-looking Alanna Stuart as his back-up singer, and a DJ.  Wait, what? A DJ?  That’s right.  Given the multi-genred nature of his latest work, Mays has shown that he can even dabble in a little bit of hippidy-hop; hence an itchin’ and scratchin’ DJ playing trippy sound effects and shearing vinyl scrathes.

As Matt Mays played through the entire album in his pseudo-70’s burgundy suede suit, he showed his versatility by not only singing his head off, but by also playing a wide array of instrumental tracks, dabbling in sounds of reggae, hip-hop and soul.  Mays took the audience on a splendid journey through his newest material playing songs like the drum-driven ‘When the Angels Make Contact’ and the slick sexy seductive ‘Midnight is the Time’, proving that he could even take a bite from Barry White’s forbidden tastes – I think I even saw a few girls cry.  Although only an hour and ten minutes long, Matt Mays left the crowd roaring for more.  Unfortunately, Mays didn’t play the acoustic version of ‘Cocaine Cowgirl’ he delivered Londoner’s the night before – C’est la vie!    

This particular Saturday night was proof that Mays could go down in history with the likes of other Canadian greats like Neil Young and Burton Cummings; but for now we won’t get ahead of ourselves.  We’ll just wait for LP # 4 to arrive and see what happens.  

REVIEWED BY:  CRAIG HILL

1 comment February 7th, 2007