Matchstickmen review
By Jerry
The Matthew Street festival is one of Liverpool's many summer highlights. One I look forward to every year. When I saw Matchstickmen take to the stage I was shocked beyond all reason. Their reputation proceeded them. I'd heard the name, the songs on the radio and had the many facebook requests to attend their gigs, but when I finally made it to such an event I was kicking myself for not seeing them sooner.
Never before have I seen a band that looked like they were enjoying themselves so much. Matchstickmen are a 5-piece rock band that deserves such a bigger stage than the one they had. Their bassist, Iain Forsyth provided great harmonies to the arena-worthy lead singer Lewis Wright, whilst buddying up with guitarist Peter Donnelly in a hysterical scene of showmanship (at one point seeing how low they could go during a song, leading to Iain playing the bass whilst lying on the floor and not even missing a note!)
The moment I got home I downloaded their album from iTunes, 'Through Hell... And Kept Going' - now most of the time when this happens I think back to the live performance and miss the energy which the album lacks. Not in this case. The album is big, the band is big, these guys NEED to be seen AND heard!