Opening up the concert was Mute Math, a band hailing from New Orleans. The group was not without tricks, trying to impress the crowd with handstands while playing the keyboards, or conducting a drum solo on the microphone stand. Not much else can be said about the band, however, since most of the songs they performed were quite dull and slightly repetitive. Mute Math did have a good tune in their debut single “Typical,” and the solos weren’t bad. As it was, the rest of the performance was forgettable.

Canadian singer Alanis Morissette took the next hour of the show, and fans were delighted when she sang a mix of classics including “Uninvited,” “Thank U,” “You Oughta Know,” “Hand in My Pocket,” and “You Learn” as well as more recent tracks such as “Eight Easy Steps.” Morissette even entertained the crowd with her signature harmonica as well as her guitar playing in some of her songs. By the time Morissette reached her final song, the fans were singing the rest of the first verse for her hit song “Ironic” right after she uttered “An old man turned 98 …”

I must admit, Morissette sounded significantly better live than on the album; and with such a successful career, it’s no surprise that she was able to pull off a great act. There was also much hilarity when Morissette decided to humor the crowd with her ballad version of The Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps.” The combination of high energy and music allowed Morissette to deliver an outstanding performance.

A countdown was then put into place until the time Matchbox Twenty would be hitting the stage. The deafening screams became even louder as the band finally revealed itself after its explosive opening “How Far We’ve Come.” While Morissette played mostly old fan favorites, Matchbox Twenty was able to add some of their old pieces into the concert as well as perform songs from its new album Exile on Mainstream. The band’s repertoire for the night ranged from upbeat toe-tapping tunes such as “I’ll Believe You When” to mellow ballads like “3 am,” which showed a variety of ranges from the band members.

I was not much of a fan of the ballads; some of them were so mellow that it almost suggested “naptime” (their new single “These Hard Times” was such a ballad). However, I was definitely entertained with their familiar classics “Bent,” “Unwell” and “If You’re Gone.” Some of their more recent songs were also quite catchy; one that I distinctly remember was “All Your Reasons,” a song about the perfect people who the band hates. While I sometimes wondered what each of the song backgrounds had to do with the current piece that was playing, they didn’t really take away from the performance. As an encore, Matchbox Twenty decided to do a rendition of Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There to Remind Me” and closed with the popular classic song “Push.”