Matthew And The Atlas - Memorial
A Sunday autumnal night spent in the Norwich Arts Centre can often be the perfect spot to lift your spirits and your soul and tonight fits that description perfectly.
Opening up with harmonies that genuinely take the breath away and make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, ‘Memorial’ are a two piece Alt-Folk band fearing the quite brilliant song writing skills of Jack Watts and Oliver Spalding.
Not to be mistaken for Simon and Garfunkel (ask them about it) Jack and Oliver create beautiful music from the heart. Songs like ‘Latchkey’ (written in the midst of lockdown on a blow up bed) and ‘I Want You’ ( a song about being in a relationship, working nights and touring) fill the hall with richness and warmth. The wonderful reception they get from the audience is fully deserved and totally appreciated by them both.
It’s safe to say ‘Memorial’ will be the soundtrack to many a stormy night and peaceful day, if you’re reading this please go and give them a listen. They are hardworking musicians who deserve the best.
‘Matthew And The Atlas’ is the project of Matt Hegarty. He’s performing solo on this tour and this gives his wonderful collection of songs the chance to be heard in a new voice, delivered delicately and beautifully with a captivating tone and sound.
Opening with ‘On A Midnight Street’ a track taken from his sophomore album ‘Temple’ Matthew has the audience undivided attention straight away.
We get treated to a stunning version of ‘Pale Sun Rose’ and an equally beautiful ‘Old Master’.
We then take a journey through a number of songs from Matthew’s latest record ‘This Place We Live’ the highlights being the melodic, majestic ‘Pushkar’ and the sublime ‘Record Store’.
There’s also a real treat, a chance to hear a new song that was recorded with Bears Den ‘Change Coming’ taken from a forthcoming record is a song that will no doubt lift the belief of those who hear it.
Hearing these songs in an acoustic setting is a real blessing and you absolutely get the sense that everyone one in the room feels that.
There’s respect, appreciation and love for the songs we are hearing. ‘I Will Remain’ and ‘Elijah’ close the set, both of these tracks are arguably the most popular of Matthew’s discography and end the night perfectly.
But we get an added bonus of an encore, one that we’re told hasn’t happened often on the tour so far. A request from the audience is made and ‘To The North’ is performed, closing the set perfectly.
As the audience slowly departs the venue there’s a real sense of calm and also joy. Voices are heard about how wonderful both performances were and I completely concur. Nights like this are what the Arts Centre was built for.
