Matt Pond PA and Dan Mangan

The New York based singer songwriter Matt Pond has been amazing audiences since his early days in music opening up for bands like Superchunk. His live performances clearly exhibit that he has perfected his craft in delivering his music in a concise and captivating way. Matt Pond’s many years of touring and performing in front of crowds has allowed him to flawlessly play through his music in a fast pace and professional manner. His music has strong pop rock elements that have interesting polyphonic sounds and great dynamics. Matt Pond has recently been touring with a full band consisting of a keyboard player, a guitar player, a bass player, and a drummer. The band’s sound is clear and rhythmically precise. The dynamics of the guitar and piano are keenly orchestrated to produce a jangly sound as they play riffs that bounce off of one another. Matt Pond has a clean, crisp voice that is at the forefront of the music and is able to harmonize with the band to create catchy melodies. The piano player often uses the Wurlitzer setting on her synthesizer to get the smooth pop sounds of the ‘60s that you might hear from a band like The Zombies. Matt Pond is able to put on show packed full of energy. Songs like “Hole In My Heart” have fast paced drum rhythms and catchy guitar leads that are sure to have the audience tapping their feet. Matt Pond has a form of professionalism that makes the concert a very pleasing experience. You can tell that he is putting all his effort into creating a good show and he is quick to thoroughly thank his attentive audience for their support.
Matt Pond is a critically respected musician for a reason. He has been tenacious with his touring and has played with many notable musicians like Ted Leo, Neko Case, and Liz Phair. His music has also been featured in many soundtracks like the O.C., which was a television show that helped launch many respected indie artists’ careers. Matt Pond will be sure to have audiences swaying and singing along to his catchy songs like “Love to Get Used”.

The old term ‘troubadour’ is one that’s begun to lose all meaning in recent years, being thrown around to describe all kinds of insincere posers who, often, don’t even write their own songs, but it’s a word that, by its original definition, perfectly encapsulates everything good about Dan Mangan. For the past few years now, he’s been steadily building a fanbase across the globe - not just in his native Canada - with his gentle, witty brand of folk rock, with his record Nice, Nice, Very Nice nominated for the Polaris Prize in his homeland in 2009 - as, indeed, was the follow-up, Oh Fortune, at the Juno Awards in 2012, where it won best alternative album. Mangan has toured extensively in the UK, too, with his introduction to British audiences coming as the opening act for Canadian indie legends Broken Social Scene back in 2010, on what would prove their final outing. Even in front of unfamiliar crowds, he wasn’t afraid of pulling out his party piece - strolling through the crowd as he performed his superb ‘Robots’ and encouraging the audience to sing along the infectious refrain with him - and the sizes of the rooms he’s been playing to on his own jaunts since has been steadily increasing; check Mangan out now before he makes a real mainstream breakthrough.