The venue, Hotel Cafe, is a good 50 miles from me. With LA traffic, that's no small feat. I have been a fan of Mayfield's music for a while now (check out a winter music post that included him), but I haven't gotten the chance to see him live. The last show I saw was The Foals concert in Austin back in April and the tickets were only $12.50. I jumped at the chance.
I invited Christine along and we fought through the tail end of rush hour to get to Hotel Cafe right at 8 pm. My GPS stopped me in front of a place that said "Peep Show"... hmm, interesting. Or was it a Peeps show? (edit - I later found out that this is a gallery) There was a small parking sign with "Hotel Cafe" at the corner so I pulled around back.
I didn't see a true venue sign but there was a small piece of paper posted on the door as I drove up that had the lineup listed. The doorman was standing there talking to who... Matthew Mayfield himself. Yep, we were in the right place.
The venue foyer really reminded me of my favorite Atlanta music hangouts - Variety Playhouse and The Roxy. You could feel the age of the place, but it wasn't run down. There were velvet curtains, wood paneling and the lighting was just dim enough to make you want to whisper as you walked through.
Two swinging glass doors brought you into the performance area that was about the same size as The EARL. A female trio called The Wild Reeds was opening and crowded the small stage. They traded instruments for each song and each was multi-talented on banjo, guitar (electric and acoustic), piano and some kind of tabletop accordion (I'm sure there's a real name for it). Their vocal harmonies reminded me of something out of O Brother, Where Art Thou? or a county fair. It was a good warmup.
After a short break Mayfield walked up to the stage and sat on a stool, only holding his guitar. As I had hoped, he had no backing band. He stopped a few times between songs to engage the audience and give song background/introductions. At one point he plugged his merch, but confessed that he hadn't set prices for anything with the merch girl. He told us to "Pay what you want," which I thought was pretty cool. It's truly about the music.
Here is the set list as I noted during the show.
- ???? (Stumped on this one. Going through the tracks that I have but don't have his full catalog...)
- Missed Me
- Element
- Grow Old With You
- Now You're Free
- Come Back Home
- Fact or Fable
- Cover medley*
- Fire Escape
- Cover of Coldplay - Fix You
*Played riffs of Metallica's Enter Sandman and Guns N Roses' Welcome to the Jungle, just goofing around
Check out the videos I recorded of my favorites.
Fire Escape
Fact or Fable
Most of the songs can be found on Matthew's latest album, Now You're Free. He uses a full band on the album, so the sound is a little different than this live show. Some work better with the band (Now You're Free) while others are much more powerful as a stripped down solo (Come Back Home, Fire Escape). My favorite songs of his are the minimalist acoustics that really focus on the lyrics and his voice.
Hotel Cafe was a perfect place to watch a singer-songwriter like Mayfield. It offers an intimate setting, where the songwriter revealed that a few of the songs (Fire Escape and Fact or Fable) are very hard for him to play. This is understandable when you listen to the power of the lyrics - it's why I like the songs so much. So if you like his music as much as I do, spread the word, see him live and buy a CD.
I waited around for a few minutes to see if he would be out meeting fans but I eventually left for the long drive back down south. I was going to ask if he ever had wanted or been asked to play Unplugged in the Park in Atlanta. I've seen bands like Civil Twilight, Joe Purdy and Band of Horses there and I think it would be a perfect spot to showcase his talent. I just found out on the Tour section of his website that he is already slated to be there on August 7th. So ATL friends, you have no excuse not to go. It's a free show!
And Kentucky friends, HEADS UP! He's coming to Lexington to Natasha's Bistro on August 4th!
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