That was the question I posed to my Facebook friends the other night when when we went to see Matchbox Twenty Saturday night at Mohegan Sun and Mr. Nathanson’s band was the opener.

The answer, in addition to be being a fantastic performer, is he gave us the 2008 hit song Come On Get Higher

The next day, Kristine and I looked Matt up on the YouTube and were quite impressed with his work. In addition to Come On Get Higher, he had another song, Laid, which I knew very well but didn’t know was from him as well as a song called Faster, which I’m pretty sure I might of heard of but wasn’t incredibly familiar with.

The thing that really impressed me about Matt though is that he seems very intelligent and very self aware about the career that he’s had. We came across a PBS piece that he had done about looking back on who he thought he would be as a musician compared with who he actually became and he said something that really hit home with me. A little over 2 and half minutes into the following video Mr. Nathanson says, “The only real gift of age is the experience that goes along with it. That’s the lesson that you get from being young, is that you squandered so much of it. You thought it was going to be forever, so that, by the time you’re in your 40s, you’re like, I definitely know this is not forever. I better get on with enjoying myself as best I can.”

I can recall a time in my 30s that I once joked that I was, “just waiting around to die.” Now that I’ve just recently crossed over into my 50s however, I’m finally starting to realize that my days here on Earth may in fact be finite and, looking back, it wouldn’t have killed me to have made a better decision or 2 along the way. Hearing Matt say the squandered so much of it line just made me appreciate what he has to offer as a person and an artist and I’m very glad that Matchbox Twenty was nice enough to introduce me to the talent of Matt Nathanson. Here’s the PBS video.

And here is how Matt Nathanson’s band ended their set this past Saturday night with Come On Get Higher and a couple of songs added in for good measure.