Matthew Sweet

The second song was "Play for Keeps" from their Heavy Changes album.

Whole setlist:
Hold Me Up
Play for Keeps
Connection
Goin to my Head
Do What you want
Ash and Earth
Atmosphere

Thanks, bellenseb! i have Teenage Symphonies and Free Expression – hence, didn't know the song. It was by far my favorite, that and Ash and Earth……

I was at this show and grooving with Kosmette near the soundboard.. The Molly Hatchet of Power Pop was in full force, with three guitars wailing away for the entire set. Loved the raved up version of "Girlfriend" and VC opening with "Hold Me Up". A bit creeped out by the fact that Ric Menck looked he was been slumming in Grandaddy.

It would be safe to assume that the crowd was way more into this show than the Interpol show… Lots of heads bomping in enjoyment. It was nice to see the club appear full but still have room to breathe… And it would appear that there were many of the geezered fratboys and teenyboppers in attendence. Geezered fratboys have moved on to Jimmy Buffet.

Photos of the show in case anybody is interested (not all of them are up and these are 'un-corrected' proofs… aka not all are good shots).

http://webjedi.net/gallery/matthew_sweet/

There's also a light review on the Washington Post and SoundtrackNet

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50232-2004Nov14.html?nav=E8

http://www.soundtrack.net/

I love it when a rock star is fatter than me.

That soundtrack.net review was horrible – not well written or proofed.

Post review was good.

I'd forgotten about the pottery at the merch table! He mentioned it, and I thought it was a joke. But no, there it was – pretty expensive for stuff that looks just like some stuff I made in middle school art class.

PS, Kosmo & Kosmette – can't believe I never saw you! I was up a bit, pretty near the Food window (which was really busy, likely due to the early set time!).

I thought it was a pretty good show. He is in fine form, the band was really tight too. Combined with the Blues Explosion show later, that was a great musical day.

Originally posted by Bags:
Post review was good.

Bags, can you post it? thanks.

POP MUSIC
Monday, November 15, 2004; Page C05

Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet, making what he said was his first local performance in four years, ignored both the clock and Father Time while delivering a grungily great set Saturday at the 9:30 club.

The room was double-booked for the night, and Sweet drew the early straw, so he was onstage before 7 p.m. That's an hour when a performer of his vintage and volume would normally be rolling out of bed for a sound check and audiences aren't typically lubricated enough to let their inner rockers out. Also, it has been years since Sweet, who recently turned 40, has had a major-label deal or had been able to get pop radio to play anything but his old solo material.

As could be expected, Sweet's early-1990s tunes – "Divine Intervention," "Evangeline" and "Someone to Pull the Trigger" among them – garnered the most huzzahs from the crowd, which increased in size and intensity during the two-hour show. Pete Phillips, the latest in a line of artfully noisy guitarists Sweet has worked with, worked fuzzy wonders while soloing madly on "You Don't Love Me." Despite having more endings than "Shear Madness," the still-divine "Sick of Myself" had fans singing along to the last note.

Yet the tunes Sweet introduced from his two most recent, self-released CDs, "Living Things" and "Kimi Ga Suki," didn't wilt alongside their elders. Of the newbies, "In My Tree" and "Ocean in Between," both of which recall Tommy Keene at his most cacophonous, packed the biggest aural wallop.

Sweet left the stage after delivering his two best psychotic romance tunes: "Superdeformed" melded the themes of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Silence of the Lambs" over Stooges-esque power chords, while during the deceptively dark "Girlfriend" he screamed the climactic lyrics ("And I'm never gonna set you free!") with such melodic force that listeners were powerless but to scream the stalker-friendly line with him. Signs that he's preparing for his post-rock life were all over the concession stand, where "raku-fired" ceramic ashtrays and vases said to be made by Sweet were available for between $35 and $125.