I take any chance I get to go to The Commodore Ballroom. It is one of the premiere live music venues in North America. The fans think so. The artists think so. I think so. So, when I saw that Matt & Kim (M&K) were coming to Vancouver to play The Commodore, I jumped at the chance to get to see them live. Seeing them live has been an experience few years in the making for me. The last time they came through our fair city, I was ravaged by food poisoning on the day of the event, and didn’t get to go. This time around I was sure to avoid all sushi, Indian and Mexican food for a week leading up to the concert. No virus was going to keep me from seeing this band.

Once again, I was joined by my good friend Evan at this concert. He, unlike me, was not familiar with M&K going into the concert. I took this as a challenge to not only get him to have fun at the show, but to get him to become a fan of the band. After what can only be described as “too many adult beverages” before the show, we were in prime form to go see the concert. We got our tickets from will-call and entered the Commodore just as the house lights were dropping for M&K.

M&K are currently touring across North America in support of their latest album Lightning. Like their previous releases, the album is filled with high energy techno-pop-dance songs, which provide a jolt of energy into you that is hard to ignore. Once the duo got up onto the elevated stage rig they perform on, the energy in the room rose. After just one smash on her snare drum, Kim had the crowd erupting with joy. The crowd was moving with ferocity from then on. It wasn’t one of those crowds where you are fighting for position to dance all night, or one that has a mosh pit in the center. Sure, we were all dancing and screaming along to the lyrics, but a certain level of respect was provided by our fellow concertgoers.

M&K both spent time in their seats. Matt behind his keyboard and Kim behind her drum kit. They also spent a large amount of time dancing and jumping around the stage. Kim would use her kick drum as a way to get elevated even higher over the crowd to induce clapping with her drumsticks. During a few hip hop interludes, yea they played some hip hop beats, Matt would dance around the stage. One look at the duo on stage showed you just how much fun they have up there.

The band also had a bag of tricks with them. This bag of tricks had 100s of balloons and confetti in it. These balloons were quickly inflated and filled the air at The Commodore for most of the set. Matt and Kim took turns shooting confetti into the crowd throughout the night as well. As the crowd got more and more amped up, so began the crowd surfing. Matt even joked “I want to see as many crowd surfers as possible for this last song.” Challenge accepted. Almost as soon as a person came down, another person as lifted up over head. Heck, even some drunk yahoo got up on stage and kicked some of the balloons back into the crowd.

M&K’s music is fun. It is high-energy. It makes you smile. It makes you sing-along. It makes you dance. Their live shows are proof of that. The tour they are on is not quite over yet. If you are on the fence as to whether or not you are going to go, trust me when I tell you “GO SEE THEM LIVE”. The live show was so good I got the following message from Evan the next day “I’m downloading matt and kim discography now…. it’s all your fault”. You’re welcome Evan.





Photos © Billy Bob Koruna