date:	02.05.10
venue:	commodore ballroom
setlist:	house of smoke and mirrors new! load me up under the influence strange days tripoli the future is x-rated advertising on police cars life beyond the minimum safe distance everything is automatic hello time bomb apparitions weapon new! encore: giant symbolistic white walls
info:	pictures and lyrics coming soon! check back for more! matt's speech at the commodore matt left these notes on the apa: -Charles Du Bos once wrote The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we might become. I can think of no better characterization of what an artist’s purpose is than described by that quote. And I can also think of no better characterization of how distant the business of music is from those who strive to make it in the spirit of that quote. -There’s little point in running around trying to dramatically impress yourself upon the business. Given the fact that there is no industry without artists, the business should be running around trying to impress itself upon you. Before you start trying to think up some scheme to get noticed by whomever you consider to be more important than yourself in the scheme of what it is that you do, remember that without artists there simply is no business. Without artists the entire industry from executives to regional sales staff to radio DJ’s to radio stations to music journalists to music video stations, are all out of a job. The only thing that keeps them in business is some bizarre notion that without them we, as artists, are dependant upon them more than they are upon us. The wonderful thing about what we do is that we can take nothing and turn it into something. Whether it be to make others think, to evoke emotion, to calm, to excite, or simply to have fun, musicians have the ability to translate intangibles into tangibles. And, if everyone could do it, I suppose it wouldn’t matter much at all. If everyone could do it there wouldn’t be a billion dollar industry built upon those that can. -Good music isn’t about being the best and brightest of the what it considered the status quo. -An artist that separates their beliefs and themselves from their art aren’t artists, they’re entertainers. And, coincidentally enough, so are clowns. (Not sure I used this one). - Consider mortality. And in doing so realize that you’re already doomed to failure. So why is that when it comes to the projection of our inner selves, those images and sounds and thoughts that result in the remembered definition our species, we apply the need to have them governed by the principles of gain? As artists we have to redefine what success is and strive to achieve that new definition. Because it’s only then that it can serve to speak to people instead of inundate them to the point where they’re programmed to consume.