by Michael McCarthy
I went to the Marvelous 3 show in Boston. It was quite marvelous indeed. To tell you the truth, I had slightly mixed feelings going into the show because I do much prefer Butch’s solo stuff over M3 but as soon as they hit the stage and started playing “Little Head” I just completely surrendered to the moment or something and found the whole show highly enjoyable. My only small complaint is that I would’ve liked to hear more of the new songs. They only did “Kill A MF,” “Jackie And Tina” and “Psalm of the Summer.” Now, if they did those songs and everyone left to go to the bar or restrooms, I could understand them not doing more new songs. However, I think the audience was made up mostly of die-hard Butch Walker fans. I mean, these people knew all the words to every song and many, many of them were singing along. I was kind of astounded by that because it’s not like Marvelous 3 were a huge 90s band like Goo Goo Dolls or Soul Asylum or something. I mean, by Butch’s own admission they were a one-hit wonder band. Of course, I love all of their songs so I’m not saying that dismissively. I’m just saying that when you go to see a one-hit wonder band, you definitely don’t anticipate that everyone in the audience will know the words to all of the songs. Hell, Lit opened the show and there weren’t nearly as many people singing along to their songs. That one hit, “My Own Worst Enemy” definitely got the biggest reaction but with M3, people went just as wild for songs that weren’t even singles as they did for “Freak of the Week.” So these have to be folks who are big fans of Butch that have followed his whole career or at least M3 and his solo stuff. If these folks had just been fans of M3 and didn’t keep up with Butch over the years I doubt they would still know all of those songs by heart. It takes a loyal fan to do that, especially given how old most of the M3 songs are at this point.
Anyway, it was a great show and I would definitely go see M3 again and again and again. However, I do hope that Butch still does a solo tour at some point during the next few years. The idea that I might never get hear him sing “Maybe It’s Just Me” live again is a bit heartbreaking. Does anyone know if he intends to do solo shows anymore? I know he did those Letters shows but that was just a small number of dates and special event kind of thing. I don’t know if he intends to ever do a multi-city solo tour again or not. I do know that he said something about not making anymore solo albums but even if he still feels that way and doesn’t change his mind, that doesn’t mean that he still can’t do solo tours from time to time.
One final thought. I really wish that M3 would’ve done a Southgang song. I know I’m probably the only person who thinks that but I really loved Southgang. I grew up on hair bands and even though Southgang kind of showed up late to the party when the scene was dying down, I thought both of their albums were fantastic. And I am sure that’s because of Butch’s songwriting. I mean, if you listen to Southgang’s ballads, they’re every bit as good as “Cigarette Lighter Love Song” or any of his solo ballads. I would’ve loved to hear M3 do “Love Ain’t Enough” or something. Even if he just did it with an acoustic guitar or something. The original three members of M3 started off with Southgang and they never would’ve ended up forming M3 if they hadn’t met and done that band so I think it’s a little sad that they don’t honor that part of their legacy by throwing just one Southgang song into the mix. I can understand them not wanting to play the hair metal anthem sort of songs but the ballads were pretty deep and mature and I think they’re some of the best songs Butch has ever written.
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