I have a tendency to greatly exaggerate in order to render a point (especially in early morning reviews of the previous evening such as this,) but I'm not doing so here: Matthew Dear's live show last night was one of my top 10 concert experiences ever.

After we picked our jaws up off the floor of the Magic Stick, we decided to ditch all of our plans for the weekend and drive to Chicago today to see the second of a very select number of live performances in support of the new album Asa Breed.

Not only are the songs brilliant, but Matt has developed a stage presence perfectly balanced between confidence and humility. He comes off enthusiastic but never cocky, tremendously fun to watch and extremely accessible. His live vocals reminded me a bit of Peter Murphy... as in he is as good a singer, if not better... Forget everything you know about Matt Dear or electronic pop music. Both have been completely redefined. As Jon O put it, "our boy has become a man."

I've spoken recently about 2007 being a great year for music and being the year of "the new." '06 had its share of embarrassingly flimsy trends, such as nu-rave and prog-techno, but '07 is shaping up to be an exciting period of creative output that will stand on it's own merits and original ideas. Matthew Dear is leading the way to make the second half of this decade one of the most significant periods of pop history.