A man standing alone on stage, armed only with his acoustic guitar
and his words, has to be good, or the crowd will quickly turn against
him. Each additional musician filling the stage is an extra level of
protection for a man about to lay his soul on the line. They help
divide the focus of the crowd. Place an attractive female on that stage
and all of a sudden eyes are just as locked onto her as the man with
the microphone.
Kristian Matsson, a relatively short Swedish folk singer goes by the name The Tallest Man on Earth, and when he took the stage at Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night, he might as well have been. He seemed to feed off of the undivided attention laid upon him. He exerted a commanding presence that is hard to accomplish, especially when still building a following. But there was something about the way Matsson engaged his crowd with an intense eye contact and, more importantly, masterfully written songs.
When I was walking along Delancey following the show, I overheard someone joke "I really like that song. You know the one he played over and over." I guess this is a common assessment of lyrical songwriters—I've even heard this complaint about Bob Dylan. There will probably never be another songwriter quite as brilliant as Bob Dylan, and while every year another singer-songwriter is given the unfair title of "the next Dylan," The Tallest Man on Earth is definitely the closest thing I've seen in a long time. Like Dylan, Mattson knows how to tell an engaging story through well crafted prose, all while never losing his musical focus.
With songs loaded with substance, and his ability to command a large crowd, while standing alone on a dark stage, The Tallest Man on Earth has a bright future ahead of him.
Dividing tour headline duties with The Tallest Man on Earth, John Vanderslice opened Saturday night's Bowery Ballroom concert, after headlining Music Hall of Williamsburg the previous night. Vanderslice has always been been one of the most underrated indie musicians since since crafting his debut "Mass Suicide Occult Figurines" in 2000. Despite the critical acclaim his received over the years, he's never quite become a household name. "Romanian Names," his new record and first on the Dead Oceans label (which I consider the best label in music currently), is his best to date. The songs are consistently great from start to finish, and during his set at Bowery Ballroom, they were definitely the highlights, especially The Shins-like "Fetal Horses."
