Ten Years of Decomposer

You ever hear rumors of a tour announcement for a tour that you more or less had a hand in helping make happen, so before anything’s even officially announced you feel obligated to follow the entire tour? And even if you weren’t more or less obligated (even if it’s just in your head) you wouldn’t miss following it for the world anyway because they’ve been one of your all time favorite bands for the past ten years and they tour so infrequently that every show becomes top priority?

No? Just me?

Well the backstory alone is pretty great, but that’s a story for another day. Our story today begins with the day tickets went on sale for The Matches ten year anniversary shows for their second album, Decomposer, which is one of my all time favorites.

If you haven’t heard Decomposer, be warned that it is a little weird. The genre can’t quite be nailed down and put in a box. It might take a few listens. But I promise once you get it, you’ll get it. They’re one of the most unique bands out there and they weren’t afraid to try weird things. I’d like to think this album was ahead of its time. It should have brought them to the forefront of the mainstream, but instead it just gave them a fairly small but very dedicated cult following. I don’t think they mind the trade-off there.

Their US tour was a brief one taking up a few weekends in June. One show in Chicago, two in LA, one in Atlanta, and one in New York City. I scooped up tickets for all five shows immediately when they went onsale months prior, not sure how I was going to pull it off, but knowing that I somehow had to. Unfortunately life happened and my parents booked a cruise starting the day after the NYC show, so my five show tour dropped to four, but I’m sure I’m the only person in the world who would be disappointed about missing one show on a tour because of a cruise. But it’s the Matches! I’m fairly certain I have a reputation for being the girl who would never miss a Matches show at this point.

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Night 1: Chicago | Metro

      

Because my life revolves around music and my tour families, I couldn’t fly straight into Chicago for the first show of the mini tour. I flew into Indianapolis instead to meet up with two of my friends from the past Coheed tour for a night before roadtripping it to Chicago to meet up with a friend I know through the Matches, Jordan.

Now you may know Jordan from Sight Unscene. He had scheduled an interview with frontman Shawn Harris before the show, and as mascot of the podcast, I snuck in to watch and take videos. That’s a mascot’s job, right?

When Shawn and guitarist Jon Devoto walked up to the venue, we greeted them with hugs and some small talk.

At my very first Matches show on the 10 year E Von Dahl Killed the Locals Tour back in 2014, I wore an unofficial Decomposer shirt I had bought off the internet. Jon walked outside the venue and I shamelessly yelled asking for a hug. After he gave me one (and I was a little shocked he didn’t question me for that at all), he started asking about my shirt.

“We didn’t make that, did we? I don’t think we did.”
“No, I bought this off the internet.”

         

Weirdly enough, the band ended up creating a very similar, if not identical, shirt for this tour.

I wore that same shirt in Chicago and was met yet again with questions about it, this time from Shawn.

“How do you already have that shirt…?”
“Oh I’ve had this. Actually the first conversation I ever had with Jon was about this shirt.”

Eventually we went into the venue (the Metro—and it was a hella nice venue) and all sat down at a table in the Green Room to get the interview rolling.

They talked about Decomposer, the potential of making new music, and Shawn’s solo project St. Ranger, among a variety of other random nonsense. Here’s the whole podcast and footage.

After the interview was over, the band migrated to the stage for soundcheck and Jordan and I stood around unsure of what to do next. He wanted to go take some pictures of the stage but was afraid to make the move, so I decided to ask their manager, Pablo, if it would be okay. I absolutely adore Pablo, and I believe the feeling is mutual.

He saw me at my very first Matches show (and took some lovely pictures of me from backstage) and told me then that he’d take care of me.

He followed through then (specifically in regards to merch), and continued to do so this tour as well as he told us we could go take pictures from the stage and then did not make us leave when soundcheck started.

But before we made our way to the stage, I got a warning. The reputation of my Matches fam precedes us and apparently some of the venues found out.

“Don’t bring glitter or confetti to LA. We’ll get charged a clean-up fee.”
“Oh! Okay, I won’t! Don’t want you guys to get in trouble. Is tonight okay, though?”
“Yes of course!”
“Oh okay, cool. We’ll get it all out of our systems here then.”

And yes, he already knew about my plan to go to every show.

Soon enough Jordan and I are backstage while one of my all time favorite bands of the past ten years sets up their instruments.

That last one is in fact rubber duckies on Jon’s amps. They’ll show up again in LA.

I was sure someone would notice us eventually and make us leave, but the opposite happened. Pablo walked toward us and said, “When they start soundchecking, go down there. You’ll hear better.”

I was about to watch the Matches soundcheck.

It’s been close to two years since my first Matches show. Before my third show back in 2014, I got coffee with Jon and bassist Justin San Souci and I remember doing everything in my power to not freak out about it. Weirdly enough, I now consider Jon a good friend. I’ve danced in the background of some videos for his event production company Ivy Hill Entertainment (and here’s a bonus video, because Brent Walsh of I the Mighty), I sang some backup vocals for a friend’s song in his studio, and I’m involved in a hiking group he started. I might not spend as much time with the other three guys outside of Matches shows, but they at least know who I am as well. You’d think that would mean I shouldn’t fangirl so hard anymore, right? Well… That doesn’t change the fact that they’re still my favorite band and have been since I was 14. Here’s a lifelong dream about to come true. I couldn’t deal. I’m still in shock I was there to watch this.

I had been hungry since before the interview even started (and if you know me you know I get hangry), but I refused to leave before they were done soundchecking. How many chances like that do you get in life? Food can wait. Top of the list of things I don’t say often.

Eventually Jordan dragged me outside and down the street for food where we met with his friends Matt and Jeff, who you may also know from Sight Unscene. Soon we were back at the venue in line with my friends I’d met on the E Von Dahl tour, Danai and Whitney.

Michelle was MIA for a short time even while we were in the venue, but she had all the balloons and confetti with her, so we didn’t end up helping with the smuggling process. She got it all in fine though, and that’s what matters.

In the now ten times I’ve seen the Matches, I’ve never once seen them repeat an opening act, even when they’re in the same city two nights in a row. I think it’s a pretty great way to continue introducing their fans to new music and giving a wide variety of bands exposure rather than favoring just one or two. They don’t tour very often either, so it makes sense to do it that way.

In Chicago there were two opening bands, the Sweepyheads and the Scissors.

Right before the show started I saw August, a friend of mine from back in San Francisco, had posted on Facebook that his brother Andrew was the vocalist for Sweepyheads. So of course that got me pumped for their set. If Andrew was as big a Matches fan as August, then that had to have been a dream come true to open for them.

I was really impressed with them. They had that pop punk vibe I’m always kinda on the lookout for. They’re not signed and they seem to largely play in the Cleveland area, but I’d recommend looking them up.

Next up was the Scissors. As soon as they hit the stage, I remembered exactly where I’d heard of them. Members of the Scissors and the Plain White T’s joined together to create That Lying Bitch, a band whose songs are solely dedicated to one lying bitch of an ex-girlfriend. They opened for the Matches in San Francisco last December and I was entirely too amused by their schtick. They were loud and fun and angry and yet every song was more or less the same in topic.

The Scissors sounded very similar, for obvious reasons, except that there was much more variety in their music, so it’s likely something I could listen to more often. They have the kind of catchy songs that you know the words to before the song is even over. I’ve always considered that a good thing.

Night one and I liked both openers. That’s a good start to the tour.

Then it was showtime. First row, because duh.

Naturally, they played Decomposer front to back. So the setlist was fairly easy to figure out. They opened with “Salty Eyes,” one of my absolute favorite songs (this could pose as an issue… Just about every song on this album is one of my absolute favorite songs…) that inspired the “you belong” tattoo on my wrist.

But this time it was slightly different.

Very close to the start of the tour, the Matches made a big announcement. We’d been not so patiently waiting to hear if Epitaph would ever let them release Decomposer on vinyl. They got the rights back to their first album E Von Dahl Killed the Locals in 2014, but the rights to Decomposer belong to Epitaph so they had to make the final call. Personally, I had given up hope that it would ever happen. But it did. And it was better than just a vinyl release.

With the release of Decomposer on vinyl came the release of Precomposer, an album of Decomposer demos. In a way, it’s different enough to be a completely separate album. “Papercut Skin” and “Didi My Doe (pt. 1)” are two of my Precomposer favorites.

The intro music as the band walked onstage was the intro music to the Precomposer version of “Salty Eyes.” Cue me on the barricade flipping all of my shit.

We’d passed balloons out among the crowd before the band came on, but the crowd wasn’t exactly all on the same page. The balloons kinda just went everywhere all at different times. It was still cool, but I mean, come on, crowd. We’ve done this before with no issues.

“Salty Eyes” is a waltz. I feel like my little crew tried to waltz to it, but no one else was participating, so we gave up. I always end up waltzing around by myself though, and that’s okay.

Michelle also made sunglasses for a bunch of us that would give us button eyes. A crow with button eyes is the album artwork, and the sunglasses turned out super cool. Unfortunately I forgot to wear mine to the show. However, Jon wore his pair onstage which was awesome.

Following “Salty Eyes” is “Drive,” the song from soundcheck I posted earlier. That was a really cool song to see live.

“Sunburn vs the Rhinovirus” is one of my favorite live songs and I can’t even tell you why. They played it at a few of the shows on the E Von Dahl tour and I just loved it then. It’s also the only song that sounds almost exactly the same on both Decomposer and Precomposer. Here’s a video clearly not taken by me of the song from the stage.

And the song to follow: “Lazier than the Furniture.”

Here’s one not taken by me. “Didi My Doe (pt. 2)”

Shawn: “This next song was produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid and is the weirdest song on the album.”

I would have trouble naming the weirdest song on Decomposer, but he meant “You (Don’t) Know Me.” My very first Matches show I met some very drunk girls who kept making the “You (Don’t) Know Me” noise while we waited for the band to come onstage, so I joined in with them. My mind was a little bit blown discovering that the band does in fact make that noise with their mouths rather than an instrument or machine of some sort. I lost it a little bit that first time seeing it live.

After a few more songs and closing out the album, they walked offstage just long enough to give us time to call them back for the inevitable encore of non-Decomposer songs.

I’ve probably mentioned this elsewhere before, but fan participation is one of my favorite things. It makes it feel like you’re a critical part of the show. “Audio Blood” is one of those songs that generally produces a lot of fan participation. In most cities and at most Matches shows I’ve been to, during the quiet part of the song, everyone crouches down and then pops back up as soon as it gets loud again.

Chicago let me down a little bit. Michelle, Danai, Whitney, and I all crouched and I did my usual screaming “Get down! Get down!” at the crowd as we did so, but no one followed suit so the other three girls gave up. I didn’t want to give up, but once they did I kinda had no other choice.

But as usual, amazing song that I absolutely adore.

Very similarly, during the song “Scratched Out” (or “Track 11” depending on who you ask), the crowd will meow during the hums. I’m sure the band appreciated one stop on the tour allowing them to feel the hums, but I like being the obnoxious person forcing them to be stupid and meow along with us because we overpower them.

Yeah, four little cats in the front row did nothing.

And for the grand finale… At every show aside from the shows on the E Von Dahl tour, the Matches close with “Sick Little Suicide.” Before the song started, Michelle passed out confetti among our group and I raced through the crowd to get to the pit. I feel like confetti works best if thrown from different places in the venue, and also I needed at least one song to mosh and go nuts to since I rode the rail all night.

I goofed and threw mine a little early, but it still went over pretty well. And it’s an easy song to go nuts to regardless of confetti magic.

Overall, the boys did fantastic and there were no technical difficulties or injuries, which seems to be a rare thing for them. It was a stellar show aside from the crowd disappointing me a little bit along the way.

When the show was over, I wasn’t sure where my friends had wandered off to, especially considering I was the one who did the wandering. So I left the main part of the venue and went to the hallway where a mob of people was trying to get out the door. I didn’t want to accidentally get sent outside, but luckily Pablo saw me and pointed me in the direction of merch. He told me which shirt was the Chicago exclusive so I could be sure to grab one, as of course I was buying an exclusive shirt from each city on the tour.

Next to the Matches merch table was Sweepyheads merch table, so being the awkward human that I am, I turned to Andrew and said “You’re August’s brother, right? You guys look alike. I could tell.” That’s a normal way to start a conversation with a stranger, isn’t it?

And on the other side of the room was a line of people waiting to meet Shawn. I had never seen that before. Shawn’s a chill dude and he knew my name at my second ever Matches show, so I was not about to stand in line just to say hi and/or get a goodbye hug. I got my hugs before the interview, and I would see them all again in a week.

Before I left the venue, however, a couple that was in front of me in line at my very first Matches show back in San Francisco in 2014 walks by and I hear “See you in LA.” They’re from LA so I expected them to be there. Chicago was a bit of a surprise. But they somehow knew I was going to LA too. My reputation preceding me again.

Eventually I’ve rejoined Jordan and the Sight Unscene crew for post-show pizza. Night one: success.

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Night 2: Los Angeles | Teragram Ballroom

   

So here’s the struggle of spending an entire month traveling: You have to do things as cheaply as possible, and that generally means involving other people in your plans. Well sometimes your plans change and sometimes their plans change and then you end up scrambling to make everything work at the last second. I tend to stick by the fact that some of my best adventures were nights I didn’t know where I was sleeping, and that’s more or less what the Los Angeles weekend became.

Originally I had asked my friend and fellow Matches fan Ali (who put together the video for “Life of a Match“) if I could crash at his place in LA for the two back to back shows. He had said yes, but when it came down to it, he ended up getting sent on a business trip that weekend so he couldn’t even go to the shows, let alone house me. Welp. What now?

And then to make matters worse, my sister’s high school graduation got rained out for the night it was originally scheduled. I had planned to fly into San Diego on a Wednesday to see my friend Unicorn Steve from the last Coheed tour, but now I couldn’t leave my parents’ house in Florida until Friday due to a postponed ceremony that I didn’t want to miss.

Luckily Steve is just as insane as I am, if not moreso, because he offered to drive me from San Diego to LA and back three days in a row. Two for the shows and the third for my flight from LA to Boston. Because always on the move this month.

He had never heard the Matches before, so I instructed him to listen to Decomposer a few times on his drive up to meet me in LA. I had an extra ticket for the first night because I had originally bought one for Jordan. He couldn’t make it in the end, so it went to Steve. I think he listened to the album four or five times on that drive, and by the time he made it, he was a fan. I had converted another one.

I beat Steve to the venue and doors hadn’t opened yet, but I saw no point in joining the line. He moshes and my Matches fam normally doesn’t, so I decided to spend this show in the pit anyway. So I kinda hung out in front of the doors until he showed up.

I love hanging out outside of Matches shows early because the band generally comes by. I got my hugs from drummer (still) Matt Whalen and Jon and some other of my/Jon’s friends.

I’m not exactly sure how to feel about socializing with the band members while a line of fans stand behind me not moving. Like maybe I should feel weird about it, but if they wanted to come socialize too they could. The whole reason the band even knows who I am now is because I was never shy about doing so. They’re all super chill and friendly. But it’s still kind of a weird situation.

Case in point: that couple who was in Chicago.

They were in the front of the line in LA, and when they see me the first thing I get asked is “So you weren’t at soundcheck today?” Awkward turtle gonna go hide in a hole now. Do turtles hide in holes? Maybe I should be an awkward ostrich. ANYWAY.

It’s just kinda funny though, because I met them before I had ever met any of the band members. The guy was who pointed out Jon to me when he first stepped outside the venue at my first show. And I fangirled until I had selfies with all four of them, and then I fangirled some more. Now two years later, I’m talking to them and hugging them and offering to share my chocolate with them like it’s nothing. But it kind of is nothing. They’re just dudes. Dudes who play amazing music that I will forever be in love with, but dudes nonetheless.

Eventually doors open and Steve shows up. I’d hardly eaten all day, so thankfully there was a restaurant-type bar attached to the venue. The two of us caught up a bit and I did my best to prepare him for the madness he was about to witness. He had already heard the album a few times at this point, but I had to explain the cult following nature of the Matches and the band’s complete backstory, including when and why they broke up, how the E Von Dahl tour happened, and why this tour became a thing. And of course I had to tell him he was waltzing with me to “Salty Eyes.”

I remembered to bring my button eye sunglasses with me to this show, but quickly realized that maybe wasn’t my best idea, despite how sweet they look.

Sunglasses during the daytime, perfect. Sunglasses at night in a dark music venue? Umm not so much. I couldn’t see a thing, and I was also worried about moshing with them on my head. I didn’t want them to break. So I figured my best case scenario would be to find Pablo and ask him to hide them somewhere for me.

Naturally I couldn’t find Pablo for quite some time, but eventually I did, and being the wonderful human that he is, he held onto them for me with no problem.

Again, there were two opening bands. This time Maadwest and Black Map. I’ll be completely honest and say neither of them stuck out to me very much. I didn’t dislike either, but you’re not going to connect with/remember every band you see. It’s not a bad thing. I’d say Maadwest was more my type of music though out of the two. Black Map was a bit heavier.

Steve’s a smoker, so between bands we would walk outside so he could have a cigarette. Timing worked out in our favor as we ran into Shawn and his wife Lauren on our way out. Steve didn’t know who Shawn was but didn’t ask and just went with it when I introduced them. He assumed he was in the band although he could have just been a friend, but I wasn’t about to say “This is Shawn Harris, he’s the frontman.” He’d figure it out sooner or later.

The four of us talked for a little while. Shawn asked me what I thought of the opening bands. He said he really liked Maadwest’s album I Can’t Believe We’re All Idiots so he wanted them on the bill even though he wasn’t sure how they’d do live. Eventually we parted ways because Shawn had some important things to do, ya know.

As the Precomposer intro kicked off the main event, Shawn’s walking through the crowd talking to fans and taking pictures. He smiled and winked as he walked past me, while Steve and I are laughing saying “He needs to be onstage! He’s got a job to do!”

When “Salty Eyes” began, I grabbed my dance partner. We were the only people in the venue waltzing. I did not care in the least. I have my show traditions and this is one of them, even if no one else follows suit. We waltzed through the whole song and I was thankful to have a weird friend who was willing to drive 2+ hours to see a band he’d never heard of and waltz with me to their first song no questions asked.

Of course everything changes once that song ends. The animal in me comes out.

“OPEN THE PIT!”

I think I’ve discovered I just really enjoy yelling that.

But of course, the pit opened up. I was worried because there was a four-year-old girl on her dad’s shoulders not too far from us, but Matches fans are a family and she was shielded and protected the whole night. Strangers kept her safe. It’s a beautiful thing.

Now I’ve never really moshed to the Matches before aside from running through the crowd like a maniac during “Sick Little Suicide.” But the crowd in LA was fantastic and did not let me down. There were a few guys in the pit I noticed singing along just as passionately as me as we moshed and that made me extremely happy. And they were nice too, not too aggressive. We were there because we love this band, and moshing and dancing and screaming along together is how we celebrate them.

There was really only one other girl in the pit besides me. She gave me a high five for badass girl power when she saw me, but I quickly realized she was pretty drunk. At one point she asked me if she had made out with Steve and I was incredibly confused. I’m too busy enjoying my favorite band. I don’t have time to pay attention to who you’re making out with.

Sometimes weird things happen in the pit. I enjoy it.

At one point during the show, Shawn makes an announcement that the next night they would be recording the show for a live album and that they wanted a packed house. So if you don’t already have a ticket, you can show your stub to get one for night 2 for half the price.

Me: “Can he do that? Is he gonna get in trouble for saying that?”

Of course this was perfect. That meant Steve could come to night 2 as well. And as he was thoroughly enjoying himself, he obviously wanted to. Ignoring the fact that he was going to have to drive me back regardless.

Soon enough I noticed my friend Rob in the pit, who I’d met at a house party Ali threw last December at which Shawn played a private performance. Between Steve and Rob, I had no issue crowdsurfing.

I saved my first crowdsurf for “Shoot Me in the Smile.” That was the first Matches song I discovered when seeking them out. I had seen the videos on “Chain Me Free” and “Papercut Skin” on Fuse, but “Shoot Me in the Smile” was the song I listened to when I looked them up on MySpace. It’s had a special place in my heart ever since, as cheesy as that is. Not to mention it’s a pretty great song to crowdsurf to.

Pablo grabbed me from the stage when I made it up there and seemed happy to see me. This was my first ever Matches show spent somewhere other than the barricade, so he might have been wondering where I was hiding.

The encore was very similar to Chicago’s encore, but without “Audio Blood” unfortunately. I notice when my favorite live songs are missing. So I was unable to judge the crowd based on that. But they did play “Scratched Out” again, and Steve helped me meow. (Why did this boy question nothing? I’m so weird. I would’ve questioned me.) Thank you, Los Angeles, for also meowing along with me. #embracethemeow

And without confetti or a barricade, I only saw one option for sending this show out with a bang. Crowdsurf to the stage and hope people follow me. Rob and Steve were quick to send me up during “Sick Little Suicide,” but no one was quick to follow.

Pablo let me stay up there and bassist Justin SanSouci stepped back from his mic so I could use it, but being onstage alone is much more intimidating than being surrounded by other fans also going nuts. So I sang and danced for a short bit then looked into the crowd and made sure my boys in the audience were ready to catch me. I just had to wait for the perfect moment.

And I did. I launched myself off the stage at the exact perfect moment, when the music explodes after the buildup of “There’s a sick little suicide in all that we do…” repeating toward the end. It was amazing.

Aaaaand then I looked up.

And saw Shawn following me. I stole his stagedive. Whoops.

I got passed all the way to the back of the venue. It was sort of an incredible feat. I’ve seen Shawn get passed all the way to the back of a venue and then turn around and make it back to the front, but I never thought a crowd would think to continue passing me that far. That whole stagedive/crowdsurf was probably one of the most badass things I’ve done aside from the handstand in Denver which is likely untoppable.

When my feet finally hit the floor, the show was over. I caught up with Rob some and told him I couldn’t believe Ali wasn’t there.

“Well I knew Shawn was the guest DJ at Emo Night on Tuesday so I made sure he came with me.”
“Aww! Good! So he at least got to see him there!”

Cue so much jealousy from me. I’d been wanting to go to Emo Night LA ever since I first heard about it (Emo Night Boston has absolutely zero relation despite what you may assume), and the fact that I not only missed this one by a few nights, but also one of my all time favorite musicians was the surprise guest DJ? Ugh. One day.

We made our way over to merch where I noticed the shirt with the “You Belong” on it that I’d seen earlier was gone. Sold out.

Me: “Are the ‘You Belong’ shirts gone?”
Pablo: “Did they get sold? I gave them to Jon and told him not to sell them, I’d put them online. There were only about six left. It was the Australian shirt.”
Me: “So what you’re saying is that I should fight Jon?”
Pablo: “Yes. Fight Jon.”

And there’s the one shirt I did not get on this tour. However, I bought the LA exclusive shirt with Steve right behind me to get his discounted ticket for the next night’s show. They gave it to him for free because I bought merch. Well that worked out nicely.

Before we left I grabbed my sunglasses back from Pablo and chatted some more.

Me: “I feel so bad I stole Shawn’s stagedive.”
Pablo: “Nahhh, you got the crowd ready for him.”
Me: “Are you sure? I saw him behind me and I was like ‘Shit! I shoulda known he was gonna go!'”

After finally saying all my goodbyes, Steve and I headed back to our friend Amanda’s house in San Diego. It was at least a two hour drive and he let me sleep the whole way. More me feeling bad, but not bad enough to actually stay awake.

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Night 3: Los Angeles | Teragram Ballroom (again)

I woke up on Amanda’s couch in San Diego knowing we had another long drive back to Los Angeles again… Both ways. I was kinda dreading it, but obviously I knew it was worth it.

Amanda has the cutest dogs and I couldn’t help but selfie with them before we left. (Yes, this is totally an important part of the story.)

      

We listened to Decomposer a few times on the drive up and I was super excited to see Steve singing along to most, if not all, of the songs. Pat myself on the back for that one. Then I created a playlist of the songs they had been playing for the encores so he could learn the words to those as well. It consisted of  “Audio Blood,” “Dog-Eared Page,” “Chain Me Free,” “Yankee in a Chip Shop,” “Scratched Out,” “Life of a Match,” and “Sick Little Suicide.” Naturally, they changed up the setlist that night. Because of course they would. No complaints from me though.

August took a bus down to LA just for this second show since the band wasn’t playing the Bay this time around, so we met up with him before heading in the venue. He had apparently gotten off at the wrong bus stop earlier and had to make the trek from a different part of town. The three of us went to the bar to drink and chat and I likely stuffed my face with another sandwich like I did the previous night.

Did I even watch the opening band? I feel like we stayed at the bar. Well they were called Sharp/Shock and I know I heard good things about them, but in all honesty I don’t think we even went in the venue while they played.

At some point while we were hanging out, I got a notification on Instagram. I had posted the picture of the marquee and my friend Sarah (who lives in LA and is also a friend of Jon’s) commented:

Sarah: “Me and Brandon are heading to see Jon now!”
Sarah: “OH WAIT YOURE HERE!! See you soon”
Me: “Yeah I was surprised I didn’t see you guys last night! Haha. See you soon! 🙂 “

Brandon is a friend from the Bay Area who recently moved down to LA after he started dating Sarah. (I don’t pay super close attention, so I’m not sure when they started dating. But that’s besides the point.) I knew they had to go to at least one of the two shows and since I didn’t see them the night before, it only made sense they were coming night 2. 

Soon enough I see them come in and give them hugs.

Sarah: “I was asking Brandon if he thought you’d be here.”
Brandon: “And I’m like you know Lindsay isn’t missing a Matches show.”
Me: “Hehe, yeah, I’m hardcore.”

And as I always do when I talk about my love for the Matches (it’s not even intentional anymore, it’s muscle memory at this point), I pull down the collar of my shirt to show off my match tattoo.

Then the two of them are pulling out their All Access Passes so they can head to the Green Room.

Me: “Aww I’m never fancy enough for one of those.”
Sarah: “You have to bother Jon for one.”
Me: “I’ll just try to sneak in with you guys.”

The five of us head into the venue and Brandon and Sarah go toward the door to the backstage area. I don’t think Steve or August saw what I was doing until it was too late, but as they showed the security guard their All Access Passes, I just kinda slipped by and went through the door as if I had one too. I was with them. Of course I had one!

Lifelong dream come true of this tour part 2. Hanging out in the Matches Green Room before they go onstage.

Of course it’s chill, I mean we’re all friends here. No one in the band questioned me, and Pablo smiled at me as he walked past. They knew I didn’t belong (hehe Matches pun) but they didn’t care. I also noticed a guy I had seen going nuts in the pit the night before in there. I didn’t ask how he got access either. Just acknowledge each other and go about our business.

There was a cooler full of beer so naturally we helped ourselves. Free beer is my favorite kind of beer. Although I did really wish it wasn’t PBR. I mean it’s better than Natty Light, but… That’s about it.

I caught a glimpse of the booklets that were being included with the Decomposer vinyl orders. They looked hella rad (way to be Bay Area, Linds) and I was stoked to be seeing them before they were shipped.

The guys all seemed to be busy and the room was packed with family and friends. Brandon and Jon were talking so Sarah and I mostly kept to ourselves. She told me she liked my utility belt (Me: “Thank you! People on the east coast make fun of me for it, but I haven’t met anyone in California who didn’t like it!” Her: “That’s because California’s the best.”), we talked about California (Her: “I moved to LA from the Bay six years ago, but the Bay is really California.”), and I explained my nomad lifestyle of not really living anywhere.

Eventually the guys had to get ready to go onstage, so we headed back out. I realized I’d been rocking out to just about every song that was being played during this intermission between bands. Marko DeSantis of Sugarcult was DJing, kinda similar to how Emo Night is. I hadn’t realized until then that that was already happening. As far as I knew he was DJing after the show. Nope, both before and after.

We went back to the stage area and neither Steve nor August seemed upset that I abandoned them. They were becoming friends and weren’t heartbroken over not seeing the Green Room, so it was cool. I decided I couldn’t stomach the PBR so I tossed what was left of it. I wasn’t sure how into the show Brandon or Sarah were gonna get, but they knew as soon as the band hit the stage I was gone. Into the pit, never to return. Well, until the show ends at least.

The Precomposer “Salty Eyes” music started and I grabbed Steve and ran straight for the pit. Shawn’s onstage pulling a girl from the front up there with him.

Shawn: “This song is a waltz, so everybody grab a partner.”

Finally! And thank goodness LA is down with doing all the weird shit. Shawn asked everyone to grab a partner in New York in November 2014 and no one but my little group of friends did. This time the pit was full of people waltz-moshing. That’s one of my favorite things.

Do you belong to a song? Does it drag you along by the tongue at the top of your lungs?

I cannot even begin to describe how much I love that song and waltzing to it.

Decomposer is an album that I know forwards, backwards, upside down, inside out. I never thought there would come a time when I would be surprised by a setlist made up completely of the album played front to back. But this is the Matches we’re talking about.

Shawn: “You guys know this album. You know what song comes next. This is ‘Dog-Eared Page.'”

What.

I thought he was kidding at first and that the band just played along with it. I figured they would stop after the first line or two.

They played the entire song. The song that leads off E Von Dahl Killed the Locals right in the middle of a supposed front to back Decomposer set.

Ya learn something new every day. Apparently “Dog-Eared Page” was on Decomposer all along. I could hardly even mosh, I was too busy laughing.

The pit was seriously lacking in comparison to the night before, so Steve told me to take matters into my own hands and open a pit myself. Opening a pit isn’t quite the same as screaming “OPEN THE PIT” despite what you may believe. But it really wasn’t that difficult either. At some point I just threw myself backward into other people, and then continued to do so until a pit was formed. I was so proud of myself that I even left it for a second to tell Steve “I did it! Did you see me?! I opened that pit!”

The final song on the album is “The Barber’s Unhappiness.” They played the beginning the way it was on Precomposer.

I’d had to pee for the past few songs but I was not about to miss any of the show. When they walked off for the encore, I raced to the bathroom. I was washing my hands when I heard the first few notes of “Audio Blood.”

Me talking to myself in the bathroom frantically grabbing paper towels: “I gotta go, I gotta go, this is my song!”

I raced back into the pit and found Steve with no problem. When the quiet part of the song came on (“This is how we bleed in audio. Let down your skin, let the wind blow through your veins.”) everyone crouched. It was beautiful. Seeing an entire venue full of people crouching in unison just because a song seems to call for it it an amazing thing. I’ll probably never stop being impressed by it. We all jumped up on “Sweating in the dark!” and went right back to moshing and going nuts. Thoughts going through my head of how I might get lyrics from this song tattooed one day.

Remember when I said they recorded this night for a live album? Of course they had to change the set up a little bit. And I can’t wait to hear the finished album because there’s a chance you can hear me completely losing my shit and shrieking when they start playing “Got the Time.”

“Got the Time” is a Joe Jackson cover the band used to play back in the iMusicast/L3 days. It’s not on any of their albums, so many people wouldn’t know about it. However when Shawn brought Marko DeSantis onstage and hinted at a throwback, it was only me and one other guy in the pit who knew what was going on.

And to make matters more insane, Shawn jumped offstage into the pit and moshed with us. While he sang.

Now this is the point where I would normally say something along the lines of “Holy shit I moshed with Shawn Harris while he sang” but this is actually the second time this has happened. The first was at Ali’s house show. But it is different moshing in a backyard versus moshing in a pit.

But I moshed with Shawn Harris to one of the most throwback-iest of songs. Beautiful.

There was another unexpected song on the setlist tonight. Not nearly as unexpected for me, but as “Jack Slap Cheer” started playing, Steve looked at me and screamed “I don’t know this song! Lindsay, you fucked me!”

Whoops.

Were we going to be cats in LA again? Not if the band had anything to say about it apparently.

Shawn: “If we had written this song with meows instead of hums would you guys have liked it? Or would that have been too weird for you? Raise your hand if you would have liked it. Okay now raise your hand if that would have been too weird. So here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna hum the first two times, then meow after that. So it’s both.”

Remember Jon’s rubber duckies?

When it came time for us to meow in “Scratched Out,” he ran back to his amp and grabbed a duck.

Jon: “QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK.”

I still think he’s secretly embraced the meows, but this is forever one of my favorite memes.

And for the grand finale.

Steve knew I wanted a redo of the previous night’s “Sick Little Suicide” but this time not be flying solo onstage. He said he’d just start picking people up and sending them to the front. Luckily I wasn’t even the first person to jump onstage. As soon as I saw someone up there I start signaling to be crowdsurfed. And this is what happened.

It was beautiful. So many people joined us onstage to jump around like idiots. It was kinda the coolest thing ever.

When the show ended, the room kinda cleared out a bit. I didn’t want to leave just yet because Marko DeSantis was coming back to DJ again. The mostly empty room was a bit depressing, but then I heard Daryl Palumbo’s voice. Daryl is the vocalist of Glassjaw and Head Automatica. I’m not too familiar with Head Automatica, but Glassjaw opened for Coheed and Cambria on their last tour, meaning I’ve seen them live 7 times. One of my really good friends Adam (who you might remember from Denverender or Weerd Science) is a huge Glassjaw fan, so me being the ridiculous human that I am, I pulled out my phone to attempt to sing whatever this song was that was playing to send to him.

I was right in guessing Head Automatica, and the song is called “Beating Heart Baby.” It has now become one of drunk Lindsay’s favorites.

I saw August and a few other people in a corner of the venue talking to Justin and joined them. I walked up just in time to hear him saying they were finalizing a Bay Area show in November. I knew they hadn’t forgotten about the Bay.

I headed out to the merch area after that where I officially met one of the guys who had been going hard in the pit both nights with me and his friend—the guys from the Green Room actually. They were originally from Atlanta and had hosted the band long before they ever made it semi famous. They were impressed I was as big a fan and knew “Got the Time” and established that we’d see each other at the next (and unfortunately for all of us, final) show.

And because in that pit and on that stage we’re all family, a girl who danced around with me during “Sick Little Suicide” found me to give me a hug before heading out. It was sweet.

While I was saying my goodbyes to everyone in the venue, Steve and August were realizing that they had gone to the same Warped Tour in the Midwest one year. August for The Matches and Steve for Coheed. I always find it funny but somehow not really surprising when you notice just how connected everyone in this scene really is in some way or another.

Overall this was my favorite show of the tour. Everything just went so perfectly. So naturally I crashed hard in the car on the long drive back to San Diego that night.

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Night 4: Atlanta | The Masquerade, Hell

I wasn’t meeting up with the friend I was crashing with in Atlanta until after the show (another COTF, Kaitlyn. There seems to be a theme here… I’m on a Matches tour but crashing with COTFs every stop along the way. Huh.) so I had my backpack full of everything I owned that wasn’t in storage (moving cross country after this tour because of course I was). I was hardcore on the struggle bus trying to figure out what to do with it during the show before I got the venue. I was not about to mosh with my clothes and hairbrush and, well, everything. I was messaging Pablo and the fan from the LA Green Room and just not having any luck.

I was also in a hurry to get to the venue when I got to town so I didn’t have time to make a confetti run. Oh well. We were gonna have to do without again.

Luckily I was able to leave all of my stuff at a booth outside where I’m assuming you can buy tickets or something. Me: thanking the girl profusely as I run inside the venue.

When I made it inside I went straight to my Florida girls Nina and Catherine. I met Nina at the Slim’s E Von Dahl shows in 2014, and she brought Catherine along with her to the Fillmore shows in December 2015. Always happy to be reunited with more of my Matches fam.

There were three opening bands at this show. The first was Coma Kids, a band of maybe high school or college aged kids from I want to say Pensacola, Florida. They were pretty decent, but I got excited when they covered one of my favorite Jimmy Eat World songs.

The second band was Modoc from Nashville, Tennessee. I was really into them. But it was a little weird because the bassist of Modoc is Dylan Rowe, who was also once the bassist of the Matches when Justin SanSouci left the band. That was only about a year before they broke up, so he really only toured with them, but still. I can only imagine how weird it would be for him to be opening for a band he was in for a short amount of time.

The third band was called Auspice and they were a local Atlanta band. That’s literally all I could tell you about them. Well that and it seemed like they had their own audience there for them, which was cool because that’s how it was when the Matches were an opening band.

But yeah, I wasn’t really feeling them for some reason, so I left the pit to go walk around the venue some. I wanted merch and I hadn’t eaten all day. Important things.

First stop was merch. I didn’t catch the merch girl’s name, but she was the sweetest and a lifesaver in more ways than one. I was afraid shirts were going to sell out, so I went ahead and bought a few before the Matches went on, but I was not about to hold them. So I asked if I could leave them there, and to my surprise, she said yes. Me: more thanking profusely.

I was also on a mission to buy shirts for one of my best friends Alanna. She wasn’t making it to any of the shows on this tour, but she wanted the exclusive merch, so I had to try to get them for her. There was one shirt (the red one like I’ve had for years) that was being sold at every show, but I hadn’t gotten it for her yet. I asked for a small and the girl said she was out of smalls in that shirt.

Well crap.

So I took a medium and left it with the rest of my shirts I had just bought and then left the merch table.

I’d barely eaten all day, so thank god this venue sold food. I made my way over to the bar and ordered fries, and was greeted by one of the guys I had met in LA. We talked for a bit, I got my food, and then we went up to the balcony and hung out with the rest of the LA crew.

The fries ended up being too much, which is always a wonderful problem to have. I left them with the guys so I could head back down to my girls in the pit. It was time.

Nina was there with her boyfriend, but when the first few notes of “Salty Eyes” came on, she turned to him and said, “I have to dance with my pretty friends now,” and the three of us put our arms around each other and awkwardly three-person-waltzed. It was fantastic.

I got bits and pieces of different songs recorded throughout my mini tour. Here’s a clip from “Clumsy Heart.”

After a few songs I decided I wanted to try to mosh. I backed into the pit and almost immediately regretted it.

Me? Regretting a pit? What?

This is The Matches we’re talking about. Not a hardcore band. In the slightest. Very much so the opposite. Yet somehow this was one of the more rough crowds I’ve been a part of. I was a little afraid to be too close to the guys moshing. At one point someone literally shoved me to the point of I fell on the ground. You’re supposed to pick people up when they fall, not push them down intentionally.

So I snuck my way back to the front where Nina and Catherine had moved closer to the stage. It honestly probably wasn’t even an intentional move on their part. The whole crowd was all over the place. It was intense. Kinda made watching the band a little difficult.

Had I not taken any videos of “Little Maggots” yet? This is one of my all time favorites.

Then much like in LA, I learned that maybe I didn’t know Decomposer as well as I thought I did. Right in the middle of the set, Shawn starts playing “Jack Slap Cheer” (another E Von Dahl song) and the rest of the guys join in and play the entire thing.

What even is this album anymore?!

Right before the last song (“The Barber’s Unhappiness”), for some reason Shawn started impersonating Bono. It was pretty spot on.

How you know a band is really legit live: they do weird shit like this and no night on tour is ever duplicated. I love it. It gets boring when a band repeats the same jokes over and over every night.

I was very pleased to see the crowd all crouch down during “Audio Blood.” As far as I knew that was a Bay Area thing, and they hadn’t even played Atlanta during the E Von Dahl tour, but either they just knew and were ready, or they didn’t question me and my little crew when we crouched and motioned for everyone to do the same.

However, my being impressed with the audience wore off when some idiot guys tried to mosh to “Life of a Match” behind us. That is in no way a moshing song. Please just let me enjoy it in peace, bros.

I want to blame the roughness of the crowd on the fact that the Matches hadn’t played anywhere in the south in at least seven years. There was a lot of pent up energy there.

But at the same time, I really don’t need some girl trying to fight us to get to the front. That’s not cool. And neither are the guys being handsy. Not about it.

There was also some guy who kept launching himself off the stage in a way that almost terrified me. I stagedive. I don’t do what this guy was doing. He would kinda just come out of nowhere and then be flying straight toward us. Luckily I’m assuming there were guys in the crowd with good reflexes, although I can’t say for sure.

But again, Atlanta proved they knew what they were doing and meowed their hearts out to “Scratched Out.”

And of course, the band closed with “Sick Little Suicide,” and the pit was insane.

After the show I ran back to merch to grab my shirts, and the girl there gave me a very pleasant surprise. She had found one last small in the red shirt and saved it for me to give Alanna. I successfully acquired all the shirts for both of us, and this merch girl (whose name I wish I had gotten) saved my butt. Me: all of the thanking profusely.

I saw Catherine talking to Dylan Rowe so I join them. They’re talking about their pet birds and I have nothing to contribute to the conversation, but Dylan says something about remembering me. We’d only met once before (at one of the Fillmore shows in December) so I was glad he remembered.

Then I went to find the rest of the guys and say hi. I hugged Jon and Justin (couldn’t find Matt) and they both asked if they’d see me in New York the next day. They’ve come to expect to see me at every show, which I love, but unfortunately that was one show I was not able to make. Telling them that made me really sad and I had all of the FOMO.

Then I found Shawn and got my hug and a selfie.

He was talking about how he loved just playing shows on weekends and would totally continue doing that if he could, then joked with me that I would quickly go broke if they did that.

Me: “Hehe, too late.”

Then he asked me what my favorite show on the tour was and said I was the expert. I about died. Shawn Harris called me the expert on Matches shows. I mean it’s kinda true, but it was wonderful to hear.

I told him the second night in LA was my favorite, and he said Chicago was his. I was completely honest and said I was disappointed that the crowd in Chicago didn’t crouch or meow. It was a great show, but the little things matter to me. LA was just insane in the best way, though, and it was by far my favorite.

Then I was getting calls from Kaitlyn, the COTF I was crashing with. I hadn’t met her in person yet, but she’s a sweetheart.

And that was the end of my mini Matches tour.

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Night 5: New York City

But it was not the end of the tour, and here’s the show I missed.

The majority of my Matches crew was at the New York show. I feel like the majority of all of my music crews are in the New York area. (Yet I chose to move to San Francisco. Meh, I’ll be bicoastal. It’s cool.) So of all the shows to have to miss, I was really upset it had to be this one.

Look at all dem cuties.

Obviously I wasn’t there so there isn’t much I can say about this show, but I do know that my crew kidnapped Shawn and Jon and brought them to Union Square for an acapella sing-along. Why did I miss this?!

From what I can tell, they sang “Scratched Out” and “Superman.” Flashbacks to that time outside Gramercy Theater on the E Von Dahl tour when Shawn and Jon played “Superman” acoustic.

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So there ya go. The Matches are the shit and I love em to death. I highly highly highly recommend you check out their music if you haven’t yet, and go see a show if they’re ever playing near you. It’s not often, so do it when you get the chance. You won’t regret it.

Remember when I mentioned my friend Unicorn Steve who had never heard of the Matches before these shows? He eventually ended up buying posters. That’s how much he liked them. I feel like buying music is one thing, because you can have almost unlimited music, but you really only buy posters from bands you love. I’m so proud to have introduced him to them.

They’re playing one final Decomposer show at the UC Theater in Berkeley, CA, on November 19th. Be there. And feel free to come give me a hug.

Decomposer is a thing that you can still buy on vinyl for the time being. This includes Precomposer as well, which again, I recommend you do it. And you can do so here.

And what about that recorded LA show? That’s called Recomposer and you can buy it here.

And last but certainly not least, here’s a really cool thing. Chelsea Christer (SanSouci? They’re married now, so I’m not sure what name she’s going by) is a filmmaker making a documentary about the Matches called Bleeding Audio. And it looks phenomenal. I’m so stoked. It should hopefully be out in time for festival season next year.

You can still donate to the project here. Please do. I need this documentary made, please and thanks.

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But wait! There’s more!

The Matches released THREE studio albums. Not two. Decomposer was number two. You know what that means? It’s time to pressure the guys on social media to start thinking about a tour for A Band in Hope. #10yrsABandinHope #ABandinHope2018 #ABandinHopeTour

Let’s do this thing, shall we?