The NightWatchman – Live (May 16th, 2007)

The Horseshoe Tavern had a little extra security Wednesday night, as The NightWatchman AKA iconic guitar hero Tom Morello softly raged against the machine with songs from his new solo album One Man Revolution.

Toronto was the first official stop for Morello’s alias project, and it was very obvious that the kids in attendance were really, really, really excited to be that intimate with the legendary strummer.

And as the clock struck 11pm (they don’t call him The NightWatchman for nothing) dressed in black, and Irish Malt in his hand Tom Morello walked on stage introduced himself, and began to play California’s Dark to the capacity crowd at the Tavern.

One Man Revolution’s sound is heavily influenced by folk, protest, and country artists like Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, and Joe Strummer, and it translates live very well. Morello addressed the crowd by saying “ Even though I don’t see any mosh pits tonight, doesn’t mean that I don’t see the mosh pits going on in you minds.” This proved to be true as the crowd hung on every one of his words, as he chatted nonchalantly with the crowd between songs.

The NightWatchman played basically everything from his album plus Woody Guthrie’s this land is your land complete with the verses censored by the US government, and ended his set with the last song on his album Until the End.

All in all it was a great performance backed by true, soft, honest, and pissed off music. Morello is better known for playing aggressive music blaring out of Marshall Stacks, but his alter ego The NightWatchman makes noise in other ways that will probably bring him the same acclaim he has received with everything else the man gets involved with.