Brooklyn indie dance-pop duo Matt & Kim released their fourth album, "Lightning," on Oct. 2, and on Thursday night brought their tour through their home city with a sold-out performance at Terminal 5. The duo's Matt Johnson took some time off from partying on stage to talk to the Eye about their shows, high school, and Beyoncé.
Your show last night was one of the most unique concert experiences I’ve ever had, largely because of the sheer energy from you and the audience. Is that sort of the standard for you guys?
To an extent. We surely don’t bring a show where people stand around and look at their feet. We always try to instigate as much as possible, and when an audience gets more active it makes us get more active. Last night was definitely exceptional. It felt so hungry and excited.
At the concert I was standing right next to Kim’s friend from high school. What were you guys like at that age?
When I was in high school I was heavily into punk rock, both music and in style. I was very close-minded about music then, because me and my friends only listened to punk stuff. It wouldn’t be okay for me to be like “this Destiny’s Child song is kind of dope.” But from punk we take the ethics that you feel like you’re part of the show when you go to the shows, so that in the audience you feel like you’re one step away from picking up an instrument. Kim was into athletics, she did every sport. She went to Penn State initially on a track scholarship. I think a lot of her drive comes from that.
