October 2011, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.
There’s a series of recent shows where bands with classic albums are playing those classic albums front to back. I’ve been to a few of them, but the one with Matthew Sweet had a specialness, because he came to Athens to do it.
Sweet has a good memory/bad memory feeling about Athens — it helped launch his career then turned against him when it took off. I talked to him about this a few years back for a magazine article, and he still sounded a bit hurt by the whole series of events.
But if it persisted, it didn’t show this night.
After his band completed a sterling rendition of “Girlfriend,” the third song on the legendary album of the same name, Sweet looked out into the 40 Watt crowd with a small smile as the 300 or so in attendance cheered furiously.
“Well that’s the three-song load at the start of the album,” he said. “Now for the deep tracks.”
Funny, but wholly untrue. The 1991 album Sweet came to play from beginning to end proved to be one fantastic song after another, as the former Athenian and his band steered through the 15-song album (yes, bonus tracks) with purpose and enthusiasm, occasionally asking the crowd what was the next song on the list. To its credit, several in the audience knew, as for this night not a single yahoo screamed requests from the floor, allowing Sweet and his band to deliver what they came to hear.
I’ve remember listening to the album in preparation for the show, and forgot how much I used to listen to it oh so many years ago. It still holds a timeless feel, and in the songs you hear echoes of music made by today’s bands. Standing at the foot of the stage was Patterson Hood, cheering on each song, and as band played “Thought I Knew You” and “You Don’t Love Me,” pieces of Truckers songs drifted into my head. There’s no doubt Girlfriend is one of those albums Patterson enveloped into his musical brain, which in turn became inspiration for the songs he writes. Girlfriend is a sneaky album in this way, it has influenced way more people than people know.
For as much as Sweet worried about playing the album correctly, or not capturing the joy we feel when hearing it, he had nothing to worry about. Athens got a treat with a full slate of one of the best pop albums created in the last 20 years.
And Sweet had some joy playing it.
