Matt Andersen – Vogue Theatre (Vancouver – February 1, 2014)

Andersen’s been touring solo lately but for this show he strode to the stage accompanied by Paul Rigby, a Vancouver native. Probably best known a key player in Neko Cases’s band, Rigby worked with Andersen on Weightless and it was a special treat for both Andersen and the audience to have him on stage for the show.

The show’s opening number was the new album’s I Lost My Way, with Rigby on Mandolin and Andersen’s booming voice filling the theatre. Andersen’s got a big, deep voice and it’s that, as much as anything else, that’s earned him the blues blues designation. There’s no rigid adherence to the limited structure of the three bar blues here, and the new material does a fine job of demonstrating that. There’s a rootsy authenticity to the solid songwriting here, and it’s not for nothing that Andersen won the 2013 Euro Blues Award to go with a handful of Maple Blues Awards won in earlier years.

It was a few songs in before Andersen addressed the crowd the for the first time, introducing a song as having been written “…for a friend everybody has…he’s the one with the girlfriend nobody likes.” This was followed by a short pause before Andersen finished the joke: “If you’re sitting there scratching your head wondering who that it, there’s a pretty good chance it’s you.”

This was a good sign of things to come as the witty banter continued not only between Andersen and the audience but also his sideman, Rigby. The two were obviously in their element.

With the audience clearly having a good time it wasn’t a surprise when someone shouted “We love you Matt!” The blush was visible in Andersen’s face when he responded: “I have a pretty good job. That doesn’t happen to everyone. Probably good that you don’t try that with your Tim Horton’s server, though.” What followed was a top of the lungs catcall thank you for a coffee and a doughnut: this was a man in his element.

The set unfolded with a mix of new and old material, including Let’s Go To Bed, Alberta Gold and  Keep Your Heart Between the Lines. One of the night’s highlights was when Andersen invited his opener, Nova Scotia’s David Myles, back to the stage for a rendition of So Easy before closing his show with killer rendition of Devil’s Bride, a song that had been requested by the audience at least a half dozen times through the show. Andersen’s voice rumbled into the microphone as the show drew to a close and a satisfied audience headed out into a cool Vancouver night.

It’s worth noting that opener David Myles played a good part in that happiness: the nattily attired Nova Scotia singer/songwriter took the stage before Andersen and played a solid 45 minute set of material from his previous albums. Myles had the audience hooked, and if the size of the between show lineup to buy his double album In the Nighttime was any indication, there’ll be quite a few more people at his show when he gets back to Vancouver next time.