The Dark Side of Matthew Good Live.
A Canadian Musician's Personal Struggles with Depression Performing.
Nov 5, 2009
Last Monday night marked the first concert of yet another cross-Canada tour by one of Canada's finest musicians, Matthew Good. This tour is in support for his newly released album entitled Vancouver. After over a decade and a half of musical success with 13 recorded albums, Good's live performances have been developed into electrifying and awe-inspiring intimate events. However, his performing skills haven’t come without their own demons.
Matthew Good has toured as a solo acoustic act and with a full, plugged-in band, of which the latter of set ups will be implicated on his current tour. Few live performances encompass such a lengthy career, the set lists he creates never disappoint, often including the right mix of old and new songs. Even if the song choices weren’t the greatest, his off beat sense of humour and wit released between songs turns the event into something more similar to a bizarre stand-up comedy act certainly worth it.
Fine Tuning the Demons
It is a very fine line that Good is able to walk along when he is performing on stage. During many of Good's more emotional songs he’s talented enough to shift his fans in a variety of emotive manners, then shortly after the influence he'll swing everything around and have the audience in hysterics after cracking a clever joke or giving some humourous introspect into the previous song.
After witnessing a Matthew Good concert, it may be difficult to imagine the solitary feelings he experiences during his performances. Several song lyrics, particularly on Good’s solo debut release Avalanche, display these burdens of battles with anxiety and depression. There has also been the occasional blog on Good's website regarding his uncomfortable live performance troubles.
Good’s fears were brought to light in the lyrics to his song 'While We Were Hunting Rabbits' off his Avalanche release. The idea that he had become more of a commodity of sorts rather than a performer was a heavy thought. Given that context, it is not hard to believe several other musicians and performers have similar struggles.
These stresses caught up to Good in 2006 while he toured across Canada supporting several new acoustic remakes of most of his songs. On this brilliant solo acoustic tour, he began to develop increasingly strong anxieties over each performance and the emotions brought with his acts.
At the time, Good had been using prescribed Ativan pills to cope with his anxieties prior to walking onto the low lit stages to fulfill his duties. However, this soon developed into a dependency, and in turn they soon took their toll and he was hospitalized after a serious incident in which he nearly took his life. This dark chapter in Good's life was responsible for the writings of his ghostly Hospital Music album, which he then, ironically, went on a supportive tour for a year after his near demise.
Breaking it Down
Despite several of Good's personal issues he has become a major supporter for raising awareness on mental health after finally being diagnosed as a manic depressive. It is not uncommon for him to joke about his own mental health, shedding light on a particularly dark subject, during his shows.
Good’s music has continued to impress and his live performances never fail. The tour supporting his recent Vancouver release will certainly be a memorable one. If the old art adage holds true to the sense that the more the artist deconstructs themselves into their art, the more benefit the audience will take, then Matthew Good is one of the world's finest artists, and it's never more apparent than in the aura of his live shows.
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