Matthew Sweet opened the afternoon show at the 30A Songwriters Festival with a set that drew heavily from his breakthrough 1991 album Girlfriend. Sweet joked that the girlfriend was now 21 and old enough to drink.
It was a tough setting for Sweet. Most of the crowd had come to see the Bangles, and though there’s some stylistic common ground, he wasn’t big on pop radio. Although Girlfriend is widely considered a classic, this was new material to much of the crowd and the response was somewhat subdued.
Sweet said he had been playing the album in its entirety on his current tour, but was going to skip some songs “because we can.”
Highlights included Girlfriend tracks ““I’ve Been Waiting” and “Evangeline” and the hard-driving closer ‘Sick of Myself,” from 100% Fun.
Follow Sun209: The Americana Music Journal on Twitter (sun209com) and Facebook.