live: the tallest man on earth

Most fans of The Tallest Man On Earth know that said man, Kristian Mattson, is not very tall. He’s about 5-foot-9. Listening to the Swedish singer/songwriter’s latest record, The Wild Hunt, you’d believe it, too: It’s spare, with little more than than a finger-picked guitar and his Bob Dylan warble. So, naturally, I was concerned that New York’s Webster Hall — a thousand-plus-capacity venue, Mattson’s largest indoor headlining show to date — might eat him alive last night. Instead, I watched a small Swedish man wearing tight black jeans, cowboy boots, and a T-shirt bearing the name of his hometown, Leksand, captivate a crowd that had already packed the venue wall to wall long before he even got on stage.

Mattson sang about love and being homesick, and he usually played guitar with one knee bent inward or a foot lifted off the ground, and in most songs he also sat down during instrumental breaks and sometimes slid across the stage in his chair. He rotated through four guitars, two acoustic and two electric, and sometimes there were stars shining in the background, compliments of the venue — but that was about as glamorous as it got. Mattson’s voice reeked less of Dylan and was more powerful than on his recordings. He always either made the crowd fall silent, during songs like “Troubles Will Be Gone” or “Love Is All,” or inspired fans to sing or clap along to others like “King of Spain” and “The Gardener.” Sure, he might only reach about 5-foot-9, but when he’s the only person on stage, I guess height is all relative.