31 August 2024
For a while there in the ’90s, it looked as if Nirvana changed music forever. And they did, at least for a few years.
But then a new generation of bar bands that got lucky brought back middle-of-the-road mainstream rock, called themselves alternative or post-grunge and sold millions of CDs in the process. Think Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows and the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand’s Friday night headliner Matchbox Twenty.
More than 12 million people bought the band’s 1996 debut “Yourself or Someone Like You” and chances are many of the 12,774 people at the show were among those who did. Its hits — “Push,” “3AM,” “Real World” and “Back 2 Good” — clogged the airwaves for a good two years and every one of them got a hero’s welcome Friday.
Then again, the crowd seemed to love it all, even “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” a single from 2023’s “Where the Light Goes,” the group’s first album in a decade that made it all the way to No. 53.
To be sure, the band gave the sort of energetic, engaging and showbizzy performance that works well at the Grandstand on a Friday night, particularly after a few beers. Lead singer Rob Thomas and company are almost all in their 50s and radiated Minnesota Dad vibes, the type who grew up on college rock and want to tell you how great the Replacements were. (Thomas gave a shoutout to them, as well as Prince, Semisonic and Tim Walz.)
That said, it sounded as if Thomas wasn’t kidding when he sang 2003’s triple platinum hit “Unwell.” The guy who started a solo career after his 1999 Santana collaboration “Smooth” attained supernova status often sounded hoarse and seemed to be struggling to hit the right notes. He didn’t come off like a guy who lost his voice, rather a guy who caught a bug of some sort.
Many of Matchbox Twenty’s catchy, midtempo songs do have darker lyrics than one might imagine, like their 1997 breakthrough hit “Push,” a jaunty little number about an emotionally abusive relationship. Thomas introduced “Back 2 Good” as “a song written by younger, angrier men,” and he wasn’t kidding.
Occasionally, the band hit it out of the park, as they did with 2003’s “Bright Lights,” a Stones-esque gospel rocker that gave guitarist Kyle Cook the opportunity to shine. For the final song of the 85-minute set, the guys covered Simple Minds’ 1985 hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” The rasp in Thomas’ voice worked well with the song, an anthem of sorts to the Gen Xers who loved it in “The Breakfast Club” and loved it again Friday night.
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