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An evening with Matt Pless
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Matt on the streets of New York
"Matt who? No, never heard of him."
Well by all means allow me to introduce you. I had the privilege of attending a free show at Towson University last night, graciously hosted by their very own English Club. The featured performer was Matt Pless, a singer-songwriter I had never heard of before. But now, not even 24 hours later, I already have that elitist-swagger in my step that we all get when we feel like we've become acquainted with "the next big thing" before the rest of our friends. Now I know how the first guy to ever make a Facebook account or say "Check out this YouTube video!" must have felt.
When I got to the show – which was a relatively small event held in a classroom-turned-performance-space – my friend pointed out the night's headliner to me, sitting quietly by himself on a couch in the corner. An evidently soft-spoken and thoughtful individual, Matt Pless utilizes an entirely different voice as soon as he begins to sing. For the first time in a long while, I witnessed an aspiring musician who seemed to be more at ease while he was playing than when he wasn't. He didn't once attempt to hide his voice or his lyrics, putting them out for the audience's consideration as confidently as if he'd been playing a show for The Matt Pless Fan Club.
As for the music itself, I must admit that I didn't lose interest once in the entire 11-song set. Armed with an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and a distinct-but-likable voice, Matt is easily likened to a certain singer-songwriter who became famous with that exact instrumentation many, many years ago. But instrumentation aside, his compositions offer lyrically-potent social commentary, on par with the works of... well... that same famous singer-songwriter. So subtle allusions aside, Matt shares many admirable qualities with the legendary Bob Dylan, and could probably become comparably popular if the generation he's trying to reach would only begin to take an interest in lyrical craftsmanship and meaningful messages. Sadly, it seems that right now one or two catchy hooks, paired with the most popular emo-haircut and some good luck are the only criteria for success in this broken music industry of ours.
Matt Pless has clearly not accepted this paradigm, however, and seems determined to lace all of his songs with a greater meaning and originality not commonly found in popular music these days. The anti-war anthem, "When The Helmets Hit The Ground," is a plea to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, which Matt wrote for a woman he met who had a son overseas. Meanwhile, the ironic comment on the masks worn by "normal" families in the song "White Picket Fences" is sure to resonate with anyone who has ever felt that in some way or another they come from a broken home that still appears functional on the surface.
But don't get the impression that all Matt's music is serious by any means. He has his share of lighthearted love songs too, like the as-yet unrecorded story of the peasant boy and Amber-Leigh, or "She Plays With Dirty Needles and She's In My Arms Again." My favorite song of the night though, was probably "Talkin' Information Blues," a witty and comedic exploration of how the internet has changed social relations in recent years. If you have an internet-capable phone and a Myspace page, you can't help but directly relate to almost every line in the song, which is an impressive feat for any songwriter.
Although now that I'm listening to the CD I bought and looking back on my notes from the show, I'm thinking that "In The Past Tense" is also a good contender for my favorite Pless track. A touching and beautifully fingerpicked song, – stylistically reminiscent of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" – all I wrote about it in my notes last night was "Damn... That's a good one..."
So in case you haven't read between the lines and decoded the latent subtext of this article yet, I'll just come right out and say that Matt Pless has won my highest possible recommendation for music to check out. Both of his albums are available for purchase on iTunes and CDBaby.com, and some great songs are on his Myspace page that everyone can check out free of charge. Don't let me down, people. I know Towson has some local pride, we gave Michael Phelps a damn parade. But not all of us want to spend all of our time in a pool, so the least we can do is spend a few bucks to support some fantastic local music.
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