Matt Jones/Twisted Illusion – Live From The Flat

Matt Jones/Twisted Illusion – Live From The Flat
Somewhere in Manchester
20/03/2020
Review By Beth Jones

So… Its been a week since ‘THE EVENT’ really took hold in the UK. We are listening to Mitchell & Webb’s advice of ‘REMAIN INDOORS’ (if you’re not up on British comedy, google it). The kids are now off school indefinitely, and the only way to stop cabin fever setting in is going to be alcohol and live streams! The first of our live streams was to be the heart, soul, and lifeblood of Twisted Illusion; main man, Matt Jones. As with any other muso at this time, shit is difficult. Gigs cancelled, festivals postponed, merch sales unlikely, the future uncertain, livelihoods in the balance, and the ability to do what musos live for – performing live to a room full of people – curtailed for god knows how long. Times are bleak, but our community is two things – caring and resourceful. And to that end, we’ll pull together and get involved, right? It was also Matt’s birthday, so all the more reason to tune in and show our support.

If anybody has experienced Matt Jones and Twisted Illusion before, you’ll know that he is one talented guy, but this is unchartered waters for all of us. This is up close and personal, with nowhere to hide, just Matt, in his flat, with a guitar, a mic, and the lovely Hannah reading out the comments and requests from the gathered ‘watchers’ on Facebook. To that end, I have to commend Matt on his absolute stalwart tenacity to bring music to the people, by whatever means. This was his soul, right here on our tablets, or smart phones or TV, and it was a great and, if I’m honest, an emotional thing to witness. Yes, it was rough around the edges, yes it wasn’t the same as watching it in a bar or venue, yes it’s all a bit weird for everyone, but adopt, adapt and improve, right? (thanks for the quote John Cleese).

Matt has produced some amazing covers recently, which have been posted on Youtube, and he was taking requests for this performance! My favourite of his covers so far has been Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’. He performed it at my birthday back in December, and obviously I requested it again for this gig. And again, he delivered the goods, and choked me up in the process. It’s been a fairly emotional couple of weeks for everyone to be fair, but this really hit me in the feels. He also covered Ace of Spades superbly and hit us with a bit of the Tenacious D classic, ‘Tribute’, too, which is always a crowd pleaser!

The covers were interspersed with some TI songs too, which really is what Matt does best. His song-writing imagination is huge, and he has come up with some masterpieces that deserve more recognition than they get. I would recommend everybody check them out. If you like proggy hard rock/classic metal sounds, or anything Devin Townsend has ever done, you’ll like Twisted Illusion.

This show was definitely an experiment and ‘dipping toes in the water’ for Matt, yes he’s done live noodling before, but not a live streamed show of any formality. There wasn’t a set list, there was a lot of half songs and banter, it wasn’t the professional production that we’d see from a ‘bigger band’, but that made it endearing and real.

Whilst it wasn’t perfect, it was a great start in this new field of bringing music to the people. He started to look more comfortable as it went along, and this was definitely the biggest crowd he has pulled and sustained in a live stream to date. Who knows how long this way of delivering live music will be for, but I sincerely hope that Matt and Twisted Illusion are a big part of that. You can catch the next live stream from him on Friday 27th March 2020 by clicking on this event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/614868202435132/ Be sure to tune in!

LINKS:
www.facebook.com/OfficialTIband/
www.twitter.com/officialtiband
www.twistedillusion.bigcartel.com/
www.twistedillusion.bandcamp.com/
www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0IxAnfXG7ibOx4HUyOHQQ
www.open.spotify.com/artist/2ieaLzCnFgOvKhImBVWp0P

Disclaimer: This review and photograph is solely the property of Beth Jones and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.