I only caught three of the 12 amazing shows/ pre-Halloween parties happening on Saturday, Oct. 27. When a city is blessed with so much live entertainment, really something for everyone this weekend, a music lover really has to pick and choose their shows.
This time, my choice was Matt Mays, because I love a good loud, back to basics rock show. So on Oct. 27, Matt Mays and company were happy to oblige a packed Average Joes full of people dressed up as zombies, assorted monsters, astronauts and even a couple different folks dressed up as Jesus. I missed opening act the Meds, and waited around until 11 p.m. for Mays to take the stage. I’m glad I stayed, though I was tempted to go to Rock The Nation at the College, but didn’t want to lose my spot at the corner of the stage.
Everyone at the front of knew the words to the first song, though I didn’t recognize it, but the second song, the new single “Take it On Faith,” set the tone for the night. Nobody had to take anything on faith, not even the people dressed as Jesus.
Matt Mays and his band definitely came to rock, roll and raise the roof, and did so while bounding all over the stage and beaming ear to ear. My ears are still ringing from it.
I enjoy Matt Mays more every time and I’ve now seen him three times. The first time I saw him open for the Back Crowes and I wished he’d played longer, the second time was his own headlining show and was just right. His Lethbridge show ranked right up there.
I’d like to dub the current line-up the Martime guitar army in homage to classic southern rockers the Outlaws, because the three of them including Mays, Jay Smith, and a third guitarist whose name I missed in the cacophony, traded blazing solos and massive Neil Young and Crazy Horse style riffs throughout their incendiary set.
“I love playing Halloween, everyone’s here to have fun,” Mays grinned from the stage in one of few moments he addressed the 
audience, other than to say his favourite costume was the guy dressed up as Hamburger Helper.
All of the songs blended into each other and the light show felt like it was in the hands of a drunk monkey randomly pressing buttons without rhyme, reason or purpose, but Mays and the band were off the hook playing a set ranging from almost punkish rockers, alt-countryish ragers, a couple old school rockers, a few tender ballads, several hits and a lot of new material from his new CD “Coyote” including crowd favourite “Stoned,” which lead to someone lighting up a joint which wafted through the air.
“We‘re just calling it in the air tonight,” he said as he took a seat behind the drum kit as the drummer took over keyboards and sang “Werewolves of Lethbridge.”
He played a brief solo set including a few bars of ”Rocket Man,” which lead him to invite the two astronauts on stage to demonstrate their dance moves as Mays just stood back and smiled as he took centre stage again to lead the crowd through a rousing rendition of “On the Hood.”
They sang along with the chorus “I don’t care anymore.”
He wound down the show with an extended jam on “Travelling,” which he also began solo before the band rejoined him midway through the set.
Mays is a phenomenal guitarist and has an impressive vocal range as well. He thrashed away at a beautiful red Rickenbacker 12 string guitar for most of his set, though alternated between several other beautiful instruments including a big white Gretsch.
A lot of the set focused on material from his new CD Coyote as well as several rockers from Matt Mays and El Torpedo CD from 2005.
He was called back for an encore, discussed which cover to play with his band mates, then crashed into his signature hit “Cocaine Cowgirl.”
