BOSTON-Sitting backstage in the unmistakably sauna-like dressing room of the Paradise Rock Club Thursday night, I found myself wondering why Matt Nathanson had wrapped a thick and brightly-colored wool scarf tightly around his neck.As Nathanson joked with his band members and current touring partner Matt Wertz, it dawned on me that he was wearing the scarf to warm his vocal cords before performing. A skeptical Wertz remarked that Nathanson would probably pass out from heat exhaustion before the scarf could do him any good.

Those concerns proved unfounded when Nathanson took the stage, armed with the twelve-string acoustic guitar that has become his signature. The sold-out crowd of 500 screaming fans, who had been waiting in anticipation for hours, was delighted.

During the three nights he spent at the Paradise, Nathanson performed songs spanning the length of his career, including several from the new record, which will be released sometime this spring. New tunes such as "Car Crash," "Stay," "Winter Dress," "Detroit Waves" and "Bulletproof Weeks" were well received by the crowd, many of whom knew all the words, having heard earlier live recordings posted online by fans.

Nathanson has been on tour with fellow songwriters Wertz and Kate Earl since the beginning of October, traveling the country and gaining new fans every night. Asked how this tour came about, Nathanson replied in his usual sarcastic manner that the three "all do drugs together and we've been part of three or four different cults."

"Jehovah's Witnesses," Earl chimes in.

"It was like synergy," says Nathanson in a more sincere tone. "One week, Matt Wertz came up [in discussions] a thousand times and then three weeks [after that] Kate Earl came up a thousand times ... I heard both their records and I loved them." I would later learn from Wertz that he and Nathanson, who are represented by the same agency, met accidentally just this July in a Nashville airport.

Wertz, who has an ever-growing and devoted fanbase himself, had the crowd cheering, clapping and singing along during his set, with as much enthusiasm as if it were one of his own shows, a rare feat for an opener.

It is Nathanson's constant self-deprecating banter between songs, or "diarrhea of the mouth," as he calls it, that has endeared him and his music to his fans. It is clear at every moment of Nathanson's set that he is, whether singing or talking, entirely comfortable onstage. That comfort is not only visible, but is quickly transferred to and reciprocated by the audience, who laughs as much between songs as it applauds.

Often, Nathanson's personality and over-the-top sense of humor took center stage mid-song. Nathanson makes no secret of his love of '80s pop music.

During Thursday night's set, Nathanson mixed in tributes to Warrant, Prince, U2, Journey, Bruce Springsteen and The Cure (among others) during over 15 of his own tunes, with the Paradise crowd singing along to every word. During the fan favorite "Answering Machine," Nathanson instructed the audience to sing the chorus while he harmonized a different lyric on top. Seconds later, the entire room erupted in impromptu song, transforming into Nathanson's personal choir.

Performing solo or with his personal 'rock band,' Nathanson is as at home on stage as he is cracking dirty jokes on a couch backstage. Asked how he was enjoying this full-band tour after months of performing by himself, the usually boisterous Nathanson humbly replied, "It's been a joy. It's been a joy."

Sitting down with Matt and Matt

JustArts: How did this tour come about?

Matt Nathanson: It was just one of those things where I was going to go on tour and people recommended people.

Matt Wertz: I ran into Matt at the airport in Nashville in July and we started talking [about touring together].

MN: It's been great. To have Kate and Matt has been a total pleasure.

JA: You've been in the studio since the beginning of the summer working on a new record. How has that been going?

MN: Finishing the lyrics has been kind of a challenge for me, but that's always the case.

JA: What was it like opening for Tori Amos on her tour in April?

MN: Her fans are amazing, she is amazing, her crew is amazing; the venues we were playing were like a dream. It was the first time I ever came off tour and felt confident in myself.

JA: You released Beneath These Fireworks in 2003 on Universal Records, but then left the label and went back to being an independent artist. Why?

MN: I had thought a major label was going to open up a world to me that I didn't know and educate me on how to make records through ways that I had never [tried before]. But I just didn't want to be on that label-it wasn't right.

JA: Do you think the recent boom in successful solo singer/songwriters has hurt or helped your career?

MW: It's helped in an independent realm. People are always looking for the next thing. As one artist gets too big and grows out of their independent status, [someone else needs] to fill that space. From an industry standpoint and label interest ... it's probably hurt, because a lot of times the door gets shut before they even listen to your music-they assume that you're just a singer/songwriter and [they've] already got those. But the problem is that they don't have good ones.

JA: You seem to be comfortable talking about anything on stage.

MN: I'm not any different on stage than I am in real life. To get on stage and talk about shit or fake testicles ... that's how it is.

-Interview by Jonathan Lowe