Sunday August 23, the Last Matches Show ever.
I started listening to The Matches when I was about 15. A boy in the grade under me lent me two of their CDs to upload onto my itunes. I didn't like them very much at first because I thought they were too pop/punk for me and I was really into bands like Minus the Bear, My Morning Jacket, Sufjan Stevens, etc. and I thought The Matches would be like Blink182, Good Charlottle, etc. At first I only really liked their song Salty Eyes, a waltz with really creative lyrics and a kick ass music video.
Then I got became obsessed with the whole Decomposer Album. I remember telling my friend Zach "I like all of the songs on that album, there isn't one song I don't like! This has never happened before!" I then I got into E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals, then A Band in Hope, then any demos I could find. Now whenever I don't know what do listen to, I listen to The Matches because I always enjoy their music regardless of the mood I'm in. They even make long Bart rides bearable, even fun!
At the beginning of the summer I made a calendar of the shows I was going to go to. The Matches were playing the same night as a Dizzy Balloon show in Santa Cruz. I wanted to see The Matches more (cause I could Dizzy Balloon easily another time), but I put the Dizzy Balloon Show on my calendar because my friend's family has a beach house near Santa Cruz and I figured we could party there after the show. Then I found out Dizzy Balloon would be opening for the Matches with Judgment Day- Sweet, but also that The Matches would be breaking up and that this was their farewell show- not so sweet. I knew I had to go, I bought my ticket about two months ahead of time.
The Show was AMAZING. They played all my favorite songs of theirs and I danced, I sang along to every word I knew, I screamed, and even moshed a little. I pretty much embarrassed my friends, and myself but I had to! I was determined to have the best Matches experience possible! I almost forgot they were breaking up, I was having so much fun. But then Shawn sang Clouds Crash to the rest of the band. That’s when it really sunk in.
They literally had four or five encores, but finally ended with Sick Little Suicide. Goodbye Matches. I will miss you. I promise I will not stop listening to your music.
