Matchbox Twenty performs at Concord Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on May 21, 2023. Photo by Jim Trocchio.

CONCORD, Calif. — Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas made an observation as he looked out over the large gathering at Concord Pavilion during the home stretch of his band’s set.

“It’s funny, you start out as friends traveling the world, trying to turn people on to something you’re turned on to,” he said. “Then you show up to Concord 27 years later and you’re all still here.”

Sunday show was both a celebration of where Matchbox Twenty has been as well as a recognition of where it is now. It was a gig first scheduled in 2020, prior to the pandemic. The original tour was set to visit Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, with fellow ’90s stalwarts the Wallflowers. It was postponed three times.

“The crazy thing about kicking this down the road so long is we just announced these dates a few weeks ago, and yet you’re all still here!” Thomas said.

The delays carried with them another unexpected surprise: a new album. The band mixed in a fair number of selections from Where the Lights Goes, which will be released this Friday. While most were unfamiliar the new songs, they worked well as the connective tissue around the well-known hits. Opener “Friends” was so tailor-made for the stage. The chorus is so simple and effective its not hard to sing along. The band brought out two additional percussionists, creating a drum-line.

Matchbox Twenty focused on the upbeat hits like acoustic stomper “How Far We’ve Come,” before launching into bluesy dance rocker “Disease” and one of its earlier anthems, “Long Day.” Songs like “How Far” took on a different meaning, given the context of the show, especially in the shouted chorus of “Let’s see how how far we’ve come.”

The band looked and sounded not strikingly different from the group that captured a place on alt-rock charts in the first place. Thomas, guitarist Kyle Cook, bassist Brian Yale, and multi-instrumentalist Paul Doucette locked in well on their bigger material. Thomas looked like he was frozen in carbonite all these years; he sounded as great as ever. The two-hour set pulled from throughout the band’s catalog.

The production was simple but effective, a series of semi-circles built into lighting rigs that offered flexibility in creating different environments for each song. Thomas and Cook took center stage for a bluesy, stripped-down version of “If You’re Gone,” which took the song to an entirely different place. Cook sang lead on “The Way” as Thomas sat behind the piano with a glass of wine and took on a supporting role.

Matchbox Twenty performs at Concord Pavilion in Concord, Calif., on May 21, 2023. Photo by Jim Trocchio.

Thomas checked in with the crowd throughout the night, but with two dozen songs on the set list, he generally opted to keep the pace moving.

“We’re gonna go back, but not all the way back,” he said before the upbeat “Bent.”

The rapid-fire string of songs to close out the night was a testament to the deep songbook of Matchbox Twenty, beginning with “Back 2 Good” and “Long Day.” The band closed the main set with new track “Rebels,” a tell that there was more to come, before returning for hits “3AM,” “Unwell” and “Push.”

Things came to a rousing finish as Thomas stepped behind the piano for “Bright Lights,” a bluesy power ballad with a magnificent crescendo, sending fans home happy.

Singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson delivered as good of a 45-minute opening set as you can ask from artist. Funny, effusive and dialed-in, Nathanson had the chops while welcoming early arrivers.

“I live just across the bridge,” Matt Nathanson announced early on. “I’m mostly going to play Wallflowers songs tonight because they don’t want to play them in Concord.”

Before nearly every song, Nathanson talked about the material. At one point, he led the crowd in an impromptu singalong of a James Taylor song, expressing his appreciation for the icon.

“This next song I wrote for James Taylor, but he never heard it,” Nathanson deadpanned.

“Room @ the End of the World” was bookended by snippets of covers of Modern English’s”Melt with You” and  Whitney Houston hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).” As he rallied the crowd to sing, Nathanson kept the personality flowing in his interactions.

“Sir, excuse me, are you on your phone?” he asked someone. “Unless you’re Wikipedia-ing me, I’m going to need your eyes up here.”

Nathanson ended with a pair of rousing tracks, “Run” and “Come On Get Higher.” He joked people were likely familiar with the latter from hearing them in grocery or home improvement stores.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.