Earlier in the night they stopped in at 98.9 The Drive and played a couple of amazing songs live on the air. At that point if you were not intrigued by their performance at the Radio Station I’m not too sure what to say to you. No Engineer or Studio Engineering in the world could make a Britney Spears or a Brooke Hogan vocals sound as soothing and elegant as Jill Barbers sound.

Matt Barber started off the show. I was absolutely very surprised with the audience at this show. Right from the second that Matt took to the stage the Grad Club was perfectly quiet. There wasn’t a peep out of anybody. Matt was also aware of this and he thanked the audience for their upmost attention and silence. I don’t know what it is about the Grad Club but when you watch a show like this you feel like you are in a tranquil state. Matt played songs mostly from his new album entitled Ghost Notes, he also played songs from his past albums. Most notably to me was the song, “We’re Gonna Play”, this is the song that first brought Matt Barber to my attention. He played the song in a stripped down acoustic version which I found was a little interesting. The last song that he played in his set was “Where the River Bends”.

Jill Barber came on the stage with a loud applause from the crowd. Right away from the first string that she hit on her newer acquired acoustic guitar the place was silent. She didn’t even need a microphone and you would have been able to hear her at the back of the room which was now fully packed with patrons. I still cannot get over her vocal capabilities I am just in all astonishment, I don’t think I can ever praise enough. Her music was a little faster and a couple of songs were a little slower than Matts. Matt and Jill were joined on stage with Les Cooper, He played backing guitar and piano for the evening. His added touch for the most part was a nice additive to Jill’s performance, but in a couple of cases I could have done without. At the end of the night you could tell that the three of them were having fun onstage because they came back onto the stage to do a one song encore and they ended up playing about four more songs even after saying that this song was going to be their last one. The last song of the night they played was a traditional folk song that most people seemed to know, because their Grandparents used to sing it to them when they were young. At about halfway through the song they came out into the crowd and played which in turn added a nice ending to the night. 

Everybody ended up staying after they were done and most people were able to have a couple of words with Matt and Jill. All in All this night was one to that soon will not be forgotten.

Matt Hartwick
m.hartwick@partyinkingston.com