The Geomatic Attic was more than sold out for Southern California songwriter The White Buffalo and Toronto songwriter / folk musician Matthew Barber, Tuesday, March 6.
Neither of them were used to an audience who listened as attentively as the Geomatic audience did, sitting in the dimly lit room.
Barber recalled playing the old Tongue n Groove years ago and began strumming acoustic guitar and plaintively singing original folk covering tracks from his last several albums, though he didn’t play his 2005 minor hit from a few years ago “The Soft One.”
He switched to piano for the second half of his set to introduce a few songs from his brand new upcoming album “Phase of the Moon” including the title track and new single “Back to You.”
His appealing tenor voice reminded me of a mix of John Lennon and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald with a touch of Paul simon by the end of the set.
“Got to make a Living ” was a highlight.
The White Buffalo aka Jake Smith and band mates bassist Chris Hoffee and new Drummer Zach St. John started off strong, loud and aggressive with “Hide and Seek” from the new CD “Darkest Darks, lightest Lights.”
He played a few crowd favourites from it including applause generating “ The Observatory, ” which was recently on the TV show “This Is Us, ” and ‘Border Town/Bury Me in Baja” and “Avalon,” but didn’t play my two favourites “Night Stalker Blues” and “Robbery.” He also didn’t play his plaintive cover of House of the Rising Sun,” which was part of the TV show Sons of Anarchy. But there were plenty of highlights.
His intense set showed he had completely mastery of his big, soulful, resonant baritone voice, which was a mix of Eddie Vedder and Darius Rucker, easily transitioning between heart-tugging ballads and raucous rockers.
The tight band easily kept step including the drummer, following along on an iPad.
The bassist leaped around and added harmonies.
“Come Join the Murder,“ from the last episode of Sons of Anarchy was a highlight midway through the set.
“Darling, Darling“ was another highlight. Smith melodically whistled solos into the microphone during some of the mid tempo and slower numbers.
“ Home is in your Arms,” was reminiscent of Chris Stapleton.
“Damned if you Do” was another highlight.
I also enjoyed the perky “Joe and Jolene,” after which he slowed down for a moment before picking up the tempo then drawing the show to an uptempo close. Of course he received a standing ovation and was called back for an encore, which he began solo, before asking his band to return.
