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Review of live performance - Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush at Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC - November 15, 2004 - by Christopher J. Dott

Went and saw Matthew Sweet last night with my lady at a place in Chapel Hill, Cat's Cradle. It's kind of the area's CBGBs, if you will. I saw MS
there a bunch of years ago as well as Son Volt. Very cool, dark place with an awesome built in PA. Decent beer selection too, although that's
all they have.

This was easily the loudest club show I've ever been to. The ticket said the opening band was called Velvet Crush who I hadn't heard of. As it turned out, they and Matthew Sweet were really the same band. There were three blaring guitars, bass and drums. The mix was really good, a great wall of sound. Relentless. It started off loud and they kept edging the volume slider up throughout the evening. By the end it was borderline unbearable.

The band consisted of MS, Rick Menck on drums, Tony something on bass and a couple of guitarists from Velvet Crush. One, Peter Jefferies, played
great MS guitar solos. Any of you boys hear of him? Has he played on any MS records? At one point during one of his great, outrageous Neil Young-type solos, you can see MS just looking at the guy and laughing (in a good way).

So MS started the show and midway through said that Velvet Crush was coming on next. They did Sick of Myself and then everyone just stood there. Next thing you know Velvet Crush has started - same line up, including MS on guitar and backup vocals. Their songs were pretty nice, I could definitely see buying their records, although I forgot as I left last night. Pop rock, not to unlike MS stuff.

CD did some research this morning into Velvet Crush who have been around since the early 90's. Seems Rick Menck is with them and has been for some time, even back in the old days when we used to see him with Matthew Sweet. And MS produced their last record. Seems he and Velvet Crush have been sort of associated with each other for a while now. At one point in the show Rick comes out and asked someone to come up to join them on guitar for a tune (a kick ass version of The Ugly Truth). The guy (in his 50's?) turned out to be Mitch Easter who produced one of the Velvet Crush records. I knew I had heard his name before, he has worked with REM a lot in the past. And one of their records was produced by Scott Litt, REM's producer. It's all pretty interesting.

Anyway, MS eventually started his stuff after maybe 6-7 Velvet Crush tunes. Through the night he played a really nice mix of older and newer stuff. Most of the new tunes sounded pretty cool. He did the opener from Let's Go Mets as well as a bunch of others from that record and the other new one. Some of the other older ones were Devine Intervention, Time
Capsule, I've Been Waiting, Looking at the Sun, Not When I Need It and he closed the regular set with Evangeline. Nothing from The Thorns record. We didn't stick around for the encore (probably Girlfriend, maybe Come to California), our ears were done.

MP, sorry but he was in Phily last week. He'll be in Nashville tomorrow night (Wed), so Pauly D, think about going. Well worth it, just for the blaring guitar sounds alone. Hard to find tour info, for some reason his home page is outdated. Anyway, it was really a great show, he hasn't lost a step. Done and done.

Review of live performance - Matthew Sweet and Josh Joplin Group at the Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY - March 4, 2001 - SOLD OUT - by Thomas D. Havard

The biggest storm of the last 50 years was predicted to begin this Sunday afternoon, so I took the train down to NYC (the iron horse) to catch this show, hoping the trains would still be running at the end of the night. They were, and the storm was pretty much a letdown, even though I haven't gone to work since, and it's Tuesday now. I had never been to the Bowery Ballroom, and got a great feeling from the place. It was sort of a small version of the old ritz, and some other places in NY, with small balcony for the VIPs, and just a medium-sized chairless room with a wooden floor below. The 3 bars had brooklyn pilsner and sierra nevada ale on draft for $5 a pint. My bar tab was $24, including tip. I noticed the set lists for both bands on the mixing console, but decided to look away after a few songs down the Matthew Sweet list to avoid spoiling the surprise.

I had just found out that morning that the Josh Joplin Group was warming up, which was a bonus, since I had fallen asleep before their letterman performance 2 nights before. I was familiar with 1 of their songs from the radio, called I've changed. The vocals on the recording are VERY similar to Michael Stipe; not a bad person at all to sound like. They took the stage promptly at 9, looking like a high school chess club maybe 10 years after graduation. Josh on electric guitar, a female guitarist with tatooed sideburns, stand-up bassist, keyboardist and drummer. The performance was very spirited, and the crowd responded well. Josh comes off as likeable and very genuine. The songs were hook-laden, although it seemed the lyrics told a sad tale mostly. Hard to say. On the aforementioned I've changed, Josh played an acoustic guitar and the bassist switched to a viola. After their 9 song set, the band reappeared to pack up their own stuff. If you're seeing Matthew Sweet this tour, I suggest getting there on time to catch this band.

Matthew Sweet took the stage at around 10:30 and blasted into Beware my Love, followed by Time Capsule and Divine Intervention, accompanied by an army of guitarists. His band was made up of familiar faces, except for the lead guitarist, Pete Phillips, who I had never seen. Pete has a vaguely Townsendesque look on stage. He stuck closely to the solos on the recordings in most cases, which was a welcome change from Ivan Julian's flashy posing and mediocre, sloppy playing I had seen in the past. Rick Menck rocked in his weird way on the drums, Tony Marsico played bass and sang, and Peter Chastain was a 3rd guitarist, playing mostly acoustic and offering up beautiful background vocals. Matthew was right on, telling a few stories, joking about the "storm", and playing and singing as good as ever. As a matter of fact, I never heard the vocals as a unit (got to get that word in there) sounding nearly this good live. Songs came from every album, with a slight bias toward girlfriend. Highlights included we're the same, a slightly upbeat winona, divine intervention, someone to pull the trigger, etc. I could name the whole set, because it was all great. For the encores, a special guest was announced, but Ivan Julian couldn't wait for the introduction and was already on stage. I must admit he does have a fun, unique stage presence, but he took over as expected, taking center stage and never leaving. It made an awkward situation, in my opinion, leaving Pete Phillips, a more entertaining guitarist all around, in the background. Superdeformed closed the set, and I managed to catch the 12:17 express back to Stamford with 2 minutes to spare. Thanks for the heads up on this tour, CD.

Review of live perfomance - Matthew Sweet at the Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC - March 8, 2001 - by Christoper J. Dott (Dr. Huge?)

Units, I know Talmmy sent us all a grand review of the Matthew Sweet show he saw, but I wanted to confirm that it was an awesome friggin show. Me and Andrea went last night to The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, a cool bar with a great sound system, similar to the QE-2 in Albany but a bit bigger. The place was packed full of mostly college students and all of them were really into it and knew the tunes. It was quite reassuring and uplifting that in this age of Lou Bega and the Backside Boys there are a lot of young citizens who are still into real music. The good Mr. Sweet still cranks and doesn't seem to be letting the demise of mainstream music get him down. The only difference between the show I saw and Talm's is that instead of focusing on the record Girlfriend he did a lot from Altered Beast which was cool because I'm not quite as familiar with that record. Pauly D, he'll be in Nashville this coming Sunday at a place called 328 Performance Hall. Be there. - DH -

Review of live perfomance - Matthew Sweet & John Fay Power Trip at the Theatre for the the Living Arts, Phila. PA - October 29, 1999 - SOLD OUT - by Michael Portanova

 Matthew Sweet returned to Phila. (The Sunshine State) for a long overdue concert, this time at The Theater of the Living Arts in support of the new record "In Reverse", released a few weeks ago. The T.L.A. is a stark, purposeful cube of a venue carved out of the heart of South Street, one block from the former Dobbs (where you guys saw us play with the Silos). One main floor w/bar, no seats, and one small balcony w/bar. The event was sold out, I'd guess a capacity crowd of about 1000. The last time he toured was in support of "Blue Sky on Mars" - a club tour which most people didn't seem to know about. As such, anticipation was high with a good buzz in the air.

The John Fay Power Trip opened the show, a local band I knew nothing about. The lead guy was formerly of "The Caulfields", a defunct local act that rose to national popularity on the success of their single "Devils Diary" ("....I'm bigger than Jesus now") which received tons of airplay a few years ago. Four piece - electric and acoustic guitars, drums and bass, solidly handled by a chick which is always cool. Simple, catchy pop songs, clean solid sound, good harmonies. Very enjoyable, a fine opener (a rare treat) and well matched to Matthew Sweet. It's worth getting to the show in time to grab a beverage and check 'em out.

Matthew Sweet took the stage in a black suit accompanied by mostly the same band as the "100% Fun" tour except for the excellent lead guitarist who I couldn't identify (I think it was Greg Leisz, the guy on the new record) and the addition of full time key boards. I was happy to see the entertaining & rockin' Ric Menck on drums. They opened with three tunes from the new album, leading off with "Millennium Blues", complete with the quirky, entertaining horn intro. Gutsy but very cool. The crowd was characteristically unfamiliar with the new stuff so despite being solid and well played they were a bit of a buzz kill. The immediate solution was a completely rippin' version of "I've been waiting" that got everybody right back into it, followed by the hits and a few more new tunes. An awesome, enjoyable set which is no surprise considering his impressive catalog. Not a dull moment. Despite their unfamiliarity with the new stuff, the crowd was appreciative and enthusiastic. Great songs, melodies and sounds throughout, and as usual very entertaining - this guy is a blast to watch and listen to.

Musical highlight: Fahget about it. Every song is a delight. A beautiful "Winona", a blazing "Ugly Truth", "We're the same" - my favorite, "Behind the smile" - a treat from "Blue Sky...", and of course the crowd pleasing "100% fun" which was a blast. The second encore was "Evangeline" followed by the new 9:37 "Thunderstorm", again gutsy but excellent.

Lowlight: A sleepy sound guy who annoyingly missed the first few seconds of every guitar solo.

Comic highlight #1: A broken guitar strap during "Come to California" which forced Matthew to hold the guitar up against his chest like the Beatles. How appropriate!! He sensed this and went with it. Quite amusing!

Comic highlight #2: Watching the clueless boyfriends of the psyched and dancing chippies. The chicks were into it, dancing and singing, while the meat neck boyfriends, obviously there involuntarily and without a musical bone in their body, stood by like cows in the field.

Surprise treat: After 2 encores the lights were on, people were leaving, and he walks back out with acoustic guitar in hand - you should've seen the sound & light guys scramble! By request he did a solo acoustic version of "Nothing Lasts". Beautiful.

This was a terrific show, a really FUN show - we all needed it. A real treat given the musical wasteland we currently live in. The new stuff: It's not "Girlfriend" but it works, to me sounding better live than on record. He hasn't been around for a while so this was an important show and I thought they delivered. - MP

Preliminary review of CD - "In Reverse" - Matthew Sweet - by Michael Portanova

I picked up the new Matthew Sweet album last night - "In Reverse". Too early to judge - after one pass I'll just say it's interesting but not the strong, simple effort I was hoping for. A departure from previous stuff (no surprise) which is commendable but at first listen it's a bit weird (again no surprise) and missing the simple rock brilliance that he's capable of. 14 songs, 55 minutes. There's alot going on here - big, loud pop songs, shades of "Sgt. Pepper" and the Beach Boys, tons of studio production, odd instruments like Fluglehorns, Theremins and Harpsichords, backwards guitar solos, etc. All very creative and kind of cool in that Matthew Sweet way but if it doesn't work then who cares. Time will tell.

unit 14 note - I'm curious to hear what you think of in reverse after more listenings. I agree that the album is missing the simple rock brilliance that he is capable of and has proven on girlfriend, altered beast, and 100% fun. But there are some real nice songs on here, like hide, future shock and trade places. There are just so many layers of sound here, and it's hard to wade through them. Some of these songs have as many as 17 different musicians playing at once! Maybe we're not supposed to wade through the layers, we're just supposed to let them wash in. The album does sound nice, and never offensive. Some of the harmonies he sings with himself are beautiful, like on I should never have let you know. The guitar leads are often strange and sometimes recorded backwards (in reverse), but there is nothing quite as raw and perfectly sloppy as the leads Robert Quine and Richard Lloyd played on the 3 albums mentioned above. What is a theremin? If I get a stuffy head should I take one? These and more questions might be answered here in the future. This was a long note.