Mat Kearney & Justin King

My wife and I went to check out a show at Higher Ground on a Saturday with our friends. The headliner was Mat Kearney, with two openers, Justin King and Joshua Radin. Higher Ground is the premiere music venue in our area, with amazing sound in both of its rooms (one large and one smaller, though still pretty big). I am always excited to see shows there, even if they aren’t the kinds of shows I would normally see somewhere else.

Justin King was on first. He played by himself, just him and his guitars (including one crazy double-necked acoustic, which must have cost a fortune). That dude was amazing, especially with that particular two-necked guitar. He was playing two completely separate lines on the two necks, simultaneously. When he played a regular guitar, he would play two lines simultaneously on one fretboard. Sometimes it sounded like three. Really, really good. His technique reminded me a lot of Bela Fleck, though his sound was much different.

Probably should have gone home after that. Joshua Radin’s set was…unimpressive to me. I don’t like to say negative things about other musicians, so I’ll stop there.

Mat Kearney was pretty good, but most of his songs sounded identical. And he did this little rap verse gimmick on virtually every song, which got pretty old pretty quickly. It wasn’t until his last song, Nothing Left to Lose, that I realized I’d heard him on the radio before. Identically.

Good times with good people though, and Friendly’s dessert afterwards - yum.