Emperor X, the project name for Chad Matheny’s guitar, music, and artwork, performed at the Smith’s Olde Bar Atlanta Room right before Thanksgiving. Matheny was very sociable and talked between each song, warming up the crowd by giving out two prizes of Miller High Life for trivia relating to his act. Time spent touring regularly surely developed fans because they won. At one point, he observed, “The candles on tables make me want to talk more and tell Mitch Hedberg jokes.” However, he and the audience couldn’t recall any.
Matheny’s Emperor X used a vocal echo effect through two microphones, set up across from one another, with one echoing more than the other. His alternately percussive and lilting vocals told interesting life, location and transportation stories while he played along on his Eko guitar, adjusted by capo so he could easily change keys for different songs. The duality of it all explains the project’s name, also a snare drumhead by Remo. Although there were no drums at this performance, there definitely was a percussive, repeating quality therein.
The set began with self-described “happy songs,” one about God, then one about deployment and a new influx of refugees (“Sig Alert”). Next came, “a song about having a shitty job.” So, although the singing tone may not have changed much, the lyrical content did. Then came “Hallelujah” and an impromptu duet with the opening act, Atlanta’s own Nerdkween. Matheny opened up to the crowd and announced, “My name is Chad,” then began “Erica Western Teleport,” a track that’s made waves among internet radio. He asked for requests, and received many: “Bill Cowers,” “Ainsley,” “Canada Day,” and “Defiance” among them. He performed every song requested.
Sometime during the set he announced, “There’s only two records and one CD left to sell. Please buy them so I can tell my family at Thanksgiving that I sold them all.” Within just a few minutes, the Western Teleport releases, all with art created personally by him, a college-trained graphic artist, were gone.
