Matt Elsbury @ Rhino Room (Downstairs)
9:45pm, Tue 24 Feb 2004
Score: 6
Short Review: How could you not like Britney?
Matt Elsbury obviously loves his music. And, as with all appreciations of the divine, comes the disappointments of the somewhat less-than-divine. Hence, this show – a thorough venting of Matt’s music biz angst.
Preceding his arrival onstage, Matt played a wonderful animation (in the guise of a wrestling video game) portraying him beating the shit out of Britney & Justin – a nice, humorous start. His spiel covered dodgy (and inappropriate) lyrics, manufactured bands, and inexplicable utterances – the highlight being a snippet he caught of a radio phone-in competition entrant repeatedly failing to spell “AC/DC”.
The low point of the show was his own manufactured band’s song and video. Yes, it was supposed to be bad, but there’s no need to subject an audience to that much pain. Still, this was an enjoyable enough show – all the better if you’re up-to-date with current music trends.