A Super Prelude: A Snowy, Icy Evening With Matt Pond PA

The Saturday before the Super Bowl, Philadelphia’s adopted son Matt Pond played a show at Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown.  It was a snowy, freezing rain night full of the anticipation of what could be the Philadelphia Eagles second championship. The city felt electric in spite of the horrible wintry mix falling from the sky. After securing an extremely small parking spot on Frankford Avenue, my wife and I made our way to the bar that would be the host for the evening.  Johnny Brenda’s is a quintessential neighborhood bar that also happens to be one of my favorite spots to see a show in the city. We made our way out of the cold and into the bar, cruised past the pool table and booths, found the stairs that lead to the little slice of musical heaven on the second floor. The dark space that made Matt Pond who he is today.

Once we made our way up the narrow stairs, we were  greeted by a smiling gentleman asking to see our tickets. To the left is a merch table filled with Matt Pond PA vinyl and CDs, Anya Marina vinyl and thumbdrives that hold her entire catalog for only $40 and some knitted things that seemed out of place.  These knitted pieces were made by the artist Hilary James who plays cello in Matt Pond PA. She is also the solo artist Bathtub Cig and had just started her set as we got our tickets scanned.  James is a quirky, fun songwriter who specializes in heavy themed songs that have a dark humor twist.  She played a six song set that was accompanied by a strange cross noise from the PA that sounded like a microwave had some how modulated sound waves for part of her performance.. Hilary laughed it off and finished up a perfect warm up set.

While we waited for Anya Marina, we grabbed a couple drinks from the bar that is situated between the foyer at the top of the stairs where the merch table is located and the stage and general admission standing area. This kinda creates a cattle shoot that forces you to get very close to your fellow concert goers. The main area is surrounded by transparent crystal beaded curtains that refract the overhead lights that give the venue its unique aura. The floor is broken up by pillars that hold up a balcony that allows the audience to stand above the performers and gives the room one of its most unique features. After securing our beverages we post up between the bar, stage and roped off area that leads to the backstage door when the second performer comes out.

Anya made her way to the stage with her acoustic guitar and smile.  She introduced herself , thanked the crowd and began her set.  Her songs were well structured with a good sense of self-deprecation.  One song she introduced by telling a story about how she was desperate to get a song on Grey’s Anatomy back in 2005.  “So when you watch season 2 Episode 2 and Meridith Grey gets on the elevator and Mcdreamy is there and they talk about their relationship this song starts.” Anya then begins to play “Miss Halfway,” the title song from her debut album. After a couple songs, she tells a similar story but this time she was approached by Chris Weitz, the director of Twilight: New Moon, for a song for the film which became “Satellite Heart”.  Then things get interesting, Anya tells a story about how she met Matt Pond back in 2016 and how she fell hard for him and joked that she, “gave him a powerpoint on why they should date.” Matt apparently told her the timing was bad and dismissed her. She then continued, “but I was patient and we have now been married for a year and a half.” The crowd loudly applauded this revelation.  Anya also talked about celebrating 15 years of sobriety and making her way through this crazy thing called life.  After about 9 songs she was cheered off stage and we waited for Matt to come out.

Matt played and recorded in Philadelphia from 1998-2003 before relocating to Brooklyn. During that time, Matt spent a lot of time at Johnny Brenda’s backstage room writing songs. He still considers Philly home, even after relocating again to Kingston, NY ,and that is shown by him usually starting or ending a tour in the City of Brotherly Love.  I’ve seen Matt about a dozen times through the years, but lately something special has been happening.  In late 2017 Matt decided that the time for Matt Pond PA had come to an end and played a series of final shows.  I was at the Philly show at Johnny Brenda’s, and it was not great.  Matt seemed tired and played an uninspired set. This was disappointing since he’s one of my favorite songwriters, but redemption was a few years away.  After putting out some EPs of what seemed half done songs, Matt seemed to disappear. In early 2023 Matt and long time collaborator Chris Hansen were back as The Natural Lines.  The self-titled album was a fresh and introspective Matt Pond and I immediately got my  tickets for you know where. That show was special.  Matt came back with a new band and played these great new songs and, most noticeably, there was no booze on the stage with Matt. He later returned to the same venue in 2024 with a new muse, Alexa Rose and new EP Call and Response under the Matt Pond PA moniker.  The show was fantastic and Matt even smiled. Still no booze. Now Matt was back with a new record The Ballad of The Natural Lines and surprisingly, he was married.

Matt Pond PA came out promptly at 9:30 pm to a full house of longtime fans that wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on a wet, cold Saturday night. The band was a full five piece, with Matt on guitar, John Courage on lead guitar, Ryan Walker on bass, Bob Young on drums and Hilary James on the cello. They started the show with “Starting” off The Dark Leaves. After the song ended the crowd erupted with cheers and salutations of “Welcome back!” and of course “Go Birds!” Sunday and the Super Bowl could not get here fast enough for the Philadelphia faithful. Matt replied, “Oh yeah you guys have a big game tomorrow” and that was followed by more Eagles cheers and chants, which was followed by a revered quiet as the audience waited for the next song.  The band began to crank through songs and after each one someone would yell “Go Birds!”  Matt, being a world famous curmudgeon, asked if the crowd was going to do this after each song. The audience laughed and Matt responded with “Go Birds,” and went into “So Much Trouble”. About half way through the set, Matt talked about how he now realizes what a privilege it is to be able to do these songs and play music for crowds. He mentioned somewhere along the way he lost sight of that and now is filled with gratitude.  The band sounded better than ever, John’s guitar was pitch perfect to what Chris Hansen had recorded, Hilary’s cello was inspired and the rhythm section was in the pocket.  Matt talked about how Hilary’s playing had renewed a spark in his writing that he hasn’t had since the early days of the band.  At this point, Anya joined Matt on stage for a few songs, one of which was unreleased from an up-coming project they are working on together. After Anya left the stage the band wrapped up the set with blistering versions of “Fairlee” and “KC”. Matt smiled and thanked the audience for a wonderful evening and made his exit stage left.

It’s a cool thing to see one of your favorite acts live but even better to see them evolve through their craft.  Matt is an inspired artist that has touched so many lives it’s wonderful to see him growing and joyful.  He tends to be private, so I can only connect the dots, but it seems to me that Anya has helped him with his sobriety and his connection to his art. I saw Matt back in 2015 and bourbon was his supporting act and it wasn’t there with his best interest in mind. We can all grow and change and even your musical heroes can too. The next day the Birds did indeed GO!  This was a perfect eve to the joy that Philly felt the next day.  Thank you Matt Pond.