Matthew Good & I Mother Earth Bring Their Fall Tour to Montreal [Photos]

Winter came early to Montreal this year. From Sunday through Tuesday, Mother Nature dropped over 20 centimetres of snow on our fine city. After that, those who needed an escape from the storm only needed to follow their ears down Ste. Catherine Street, where Matthew Good and I Mother Earth were ready to take the stage.

The MTelus in Montreal held what I described as a “Big Shiny Music” night. Undoubtedly, most of you are a bit younger than your friendly neighbourhood photographer. Meaning that you may not be aware of a series of CDs that MuchMusic used to release. They were called Big Shiny Tunes, and featured a mix of hits from the current year. It was through that series that I first learned of our featured performers.

I Mother Earth opened the evening and immediately with a nice mix of drums and percussion instruments with “Pisser.” The crowd roared along with the beat until singer Edwin hit the stage to get the proper party started. The majority of the set list came from their awesome 1996 album, Scenery and Fish. It was “One More Astronaut” that got the most significant rise out of the crowd. Track one of the famous Big Shiny Tunes album from all those years ago.

As their set came to a close, the band brought their portion of the evening to an end with a great cover of Rare Earth’s “Celebrate.” One by one, all the members left their spots on the stage for a big arm-in-arm farewell as everyone’s voices melded together. It was quite the moment.

Afterwards, shrouded in darkness, Matthew Good and his band hit the stage. One of Canada’s great rock voices, he opened the show with “Champions of Nothing.” He was very chatty on the night, mentioning his love of the Montreal Canadiens. Not surprisingly, this obviously went over very well with the crowd. This led to a haunting version of “Apparitions” that had the crowd swaying.

Another little chat led to the next song. The song that Matthew Good said had brought us all out to the show. “Hello Time Bomb” got the room rocking, allowing one and all to shake off all of that unwelcome snow. At least until the end of the night, when we left our nice warm room of big shiny music. Subsequently, we returned to the cold, snowy streets from whence we came.

Matthew Good and I Mother Earth continue their fall tour into the second half of the month.