The largest capacity indoor London show for The Tallest Man On Earth had the man himself lost for words when chatting between songs. On the road for most of the year, the band had over 70 shows under their belt by the time they returned to London last night.
The show was kicked off by Megafaun man, Phil Cook, who brought the blues with him all the way from North Carolina. A man who has been in the music business for over 20 years has only this year, released his first solo album.
You can tell the confidence of an artist when he stops mid song early on in the set, for the crowd to sing the next line and Phil is quite rightly brimming with confidence. An excellent album in ‘Southland Mission’ and an excellent 45 minutes set.
Kristian Matsson a.k.a. The Tallest Man On Earth literally bounced onto the stage at 9.15pm and left in triumph at 11pm. He actually had so much pent up energy inside him that Kristian looked like he had been watching Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands, for some of those moves! Early on it was clear that this was one of those gigs that was going to be something special.
The twenty plus song set performed for the most part by a four-piece band arranged on a platform behind the main man, flew by with hardly time to draw breath and pretty much all albums and EPs were covered.
There was a genuine kinship amongst the entire band. A prolific song writer with a unique voice and a class guitarist (and what an array of guitars The Tallest Man On Earth had to hand).
The showed ended with the title track from new album ‘Dark Bird is Home’ which highlighted all the aspects for the various parts of the unit. Sweet and gentle acoustic beginning and the thunder crack as the band came in midway through the song.
Still a young man, there is much more to come from this guy yet. A tremendous show.
Pete
