HOTTEST DAY EVER.

Memphis was 105 degrees outside today. A favorite pass time of Mat’s is playing golf, whenever he gets the chance he pulls his clubs out from the under the bus and gets some practice in. On days off even he’ll find the nearest golf course and work in a game somehow. So today, when he discovered that there was a huge open field directly across from the venue… he naturally pulled his clubs out. I was going to try and get some pictures for you but it was so hot and humid outside that my camera lens wouldn’t unfog! Crazy.

That’s mat way out in the distance there hitting golf balls…

Mat’s from nashville so he naturally had a lot of friends come visit him at the show, here’s some pictures of him hanging out backstage…

Right before heading on stage, Mat invited everybody to join in a circle and pray with him.

The show went great! See you in Columbia!

-Jonny

MAT KEARNEY FROM THE ROAD: FRAGMENTS VOL. 4

RHAPSODY+MILE HIGH FESTIVAL+FLIP VIDEO+MAT KEARNEY=GOOD STUFF

Check out this exclusive content that Mat recorded for Rhapsody at the Mile High Festival in Denver!

http://www.rhapsody.com/milehighfest

KANSAS, “DUST IN THE WIND”…

We spent two days in Kansas City, one day off, one day working. I’ll start with the day off. We all slept in really late. Some people until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. It was much needed sleep. Everybody on the tour has been working long nights and early mornings. Once everyone was rested and showered we all met up and decided to go see a movie together. There was mixed feelings throughout the crew about the movie. Post movie we ate at the “classic cup”, which everyone found to be pretty good food. Next, show day…

It was Dan’s birthday! The show went great, and we all decided to go out. There was also a huge block party happening right down the street from the venue…

We all had a great day off and Kansas City provided a great crowd. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon.

-Jonny

MAT KEARNEY FROM THE ROAD: FRAGMENTS VOL. 3

GATEWAY TO THE WEST…

We played The Pageant today in St. Louis, home of The Arch, gateway to the west. The Pageant seemed to have a rich history, or atleast the owner of the venue had a rich history in music. The walls were lined with pictures of one guy and every celebrity you can imagine. I’m not kidding. EVERY CELEBRITY. Here’s one of him, Burt Reynolds, and Chris Rock.

The show was really cool and the crowd amazingly enthusiastic. The crowd got treated to a special performance of “Runaway Car” in the audience. Mat actually climbed down off the stage and across the bar all while singing “Runaway Car” unfortunately I was running video at the time so I don’t have any photos. But I captured it all on video and I promise it will be coming soon!

-Jonny

MINI-EAPOLIS OR BIG-EAPOLIS?

We arrived in Minneapolis today at Saint Mary’s Basilica america’s first Basilica. We were playing the Basilica Block Party with the Black Crows a festival centered around the Basilica and designed to raise money for its restoration and for poor families in the area. A worthy cause. Tyler’s son Soren had been traveling on the bus for the past couple of days and decided to rock out with the band on stage…

The crowd was massive and equally as enthusiastic. Post show Mat and most of the band went across the festival to catch The Jayhawks playing a show, their first show in 15 years! Here’s some more photos from the day…

-Jonny

EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE OF “CITY OF BLACK AND WHITE”

UNO, DES, TRES MOINES…

The day started out rainy and awful. The show was planned to be played outdoors with no cover over the stage and so there was discussions of whether or not the show would even get to be played at all. Right around 3 pm the sun came out and the weather became perfect for an outdoor show, not too hot, not too cold.

It was amazing to see all the people lined up watching the show from the bridges.

The sunset on the water behind Mat provided the perfect backdrop to “All I Need”. Wish everyone could have been there to see it. It was beautiful. Cheers to you Des Moines!

-Jonny

MEET THE BURKUM’S

Tyler invited us to spend our day off at his house in Minneapolis. He seemed to have been planning this night for many days ahead of time. There was promises of home made pizzas, made with fresh pesto, lots of cold beer, and lots of good people. The day started with breakfast. Tyler insisted on taking us to Al’s Diner. Al’s has about 10 seats in the whole place and people line up against the wall waiting for their chance to sit down. With good reason too… the breakfast. Phenomenal. I had the best eggs benedict of my life.

Later that night right about the time the sun starts going down, Tyler and his brother in-law arrived at the bus to escort us to his house.

Tyler’s sons Soren and Osten treated us to an impromptu performance by their band “Golden Waters”. Soren was on the drums and Osten on the piano. Keafer filled in on bass.

Just as promised, Tyler followed through with lots of delicious of food, and lots of good company. It felt like family and home… pretty amazing when home in reality was over 600 miles away. It was a good day off.

-Jonny

MAT KEARNEY FROM THE ROAD: FRAGMENTS VOL. 2

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?

Today we woke up to find ourselves in Madison, Wisconsin at the Majestic Theatre. Tyler suggested we eat at the Marigold restaurant, and of course (as it is with all of Tyler’s restaurant recommendations) it was phenomenal. If you ever find yourself hungry in Madison, be sure and stop by. You won’t be disappointed.

The crowd at the Majestic was our third sold out show of the tour, and just like the rest of audiences on this tour you guys came out in full force and did not disappoint. The past few shows while I had been shooting on stage I had noticed a pleasant aroma in the air, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from or why it was the same aroma in every city. I finally solved the mystery. Apparently our favorite culinary wunderkind Tyler Burkham, also has quite the affinity for incense as well. I spotted this on stage…

Mystery solved!

-Jonny

MAT KEARNEY FROM THE ROAD: FRAGMENTS VOL. 1

DOES ANYONE IN GREEN BAY STILL LIKE BRETT FAVRE?

Green Bay didn’t provide much cell phone reception or bus internet… but it did provide a great crowd. The Meyer Theatre where we played was one of the most beautiful venues we’ve been to yet. Just look at how gorgeous this theatre is! You could feel the history seeping through the walls…

Green Bay was very hospitable towards us and offered to keep a bar open after hours across the street exclusively for us. Our new friend Gregg knew the owners of the Black and Tan and was generous enough to invite us out. We ordered a bunch of pizza and all hung out til’ the early hours of evening. It was a great bonding time for Mat’s band, the crew, and Mat’s opener Erin Mccarley.

That’s our friend K.S. that you see on the keys there. He serenaded us all night long with tunes from years gone by. He plays keys and does some beatboxing in Erin Mccarley’s band. She’s the wonderfully gifted artist who is opening for Mat on this tour. More to come on her and K.S. soon. We’ve got a fun idea in store to introduce you guys to her.
Here’s some more pictures from the end of evening… Thanks Green Bay! Hopefully we’ll see you again soon.

-Jonny

DETROIT ROCK CITY

Well, we played The Comerica Cityfest today, and it was a beautiful day with lots of delicious food smells in the air. The festival grounds were packed with food vendors… all using a ticket system. You pay X amount of money for X amount of tickets and then you buy everything with these tickets. It was pretty confusing.

But the food was delicious and seemed to be a sampling of Detroits best. The second cool feature besides the food, was the inclusion of a skate park, there was lots of rollerbladers and skateboarders doing cool things all day long.

The outdoor festival shows are always an interesting experience. It seems to be harder to grab peoples attention while there’s so many distractions around them but once again Mat had hundreds of hardcore fans standing up singing every word to every song.

One last thing this was spotted backstage…

can anyone identify this man?

-Jonny

GRAND RAPIDS OR RAPIDLY GRAND?

In 1836 a man named John Ball representing a group of New York land speculators, bypassed Detroit for a better deal in Grand Rapids. When asked why he chose Grand Rapids he referred to it as “the promised land, or at least the most promising one for my operations.”

I think this quote sums up our experience in Grand Rapids pretty well.

Grand Rapids you were totally awesome! The show was sold out and the crowd… AMAZING. Here’s a quote from Mat’s twitter.

“Grand rapids thanks for the sell out. We had a blast last night.”

-Jonny