Old Friend

Matthew Sweet / The Bridges at The Fox Theatre. I’ve been a Matthew Sweet fan since the early 90’s, and it’s been nine years since I last saw him (NINE YEARS!?!). During that period he’s put out a couple good albums (Kimi Ga Suki, Under the Covers Vol. 1) and some that are best forgotten (Living Things), but his recently released Sunshine Lies seems to be a return to the sound that made his earlier albums so successful. My brother got me tickets for my birthday, so he and I made the trek to Boulder to check out the show.

First up were The Bridges, an Alabama band made up of 3 sisters, their brother, and a cousin. Since Matthew produced their debut album, they were a natural fit for the opening slot. With 4 females contributing vocals, they have a very lush sound (imagine the Dixie Chicks if they played power pop instead of country), and you could definitely hear the Sweet influence in the song structures and harmonies. I was impressed enough that I’ll track down their album. I might have been persuaded to buy it at the merch table on the way out tonight, but I didn’t feel like fighting my way through the line of dorks awaiting their chance to hit on the hottie guitarist (not that she wasn’t worth standing in line for).

Matthew and band came on around 9:15. Without making too many excuses, there were a lot of factors working against the show (cold, rainy, Monday, the Broncos on Monday Night Football, playing in a college town when his audience has gotten quite a bit older than that), and it was reflected in the size of the crowd. I’d be surprised if there were much more than 100 people in the room. I think the band noticed, and it probably took some wind out of their sails and kept the show from being as good as it could have been. I don’t think it helped that they started to lose some of the crowd during the first half of the set, which contained mostly new songs, but they recovered in the second half, which drew pretty heavily from Girlfriend. Actually, I was surprised at the fact that the setlist ignored so many albums. Other than “Sick of Myself” and one song from Living Things, the entire setlist came from Girlfriend, Altered Beast and Sunshine Lies. I was bummed not hear anything from In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki. Then again, the set was short — only about an hour and then a two-song encore (both Girlfriend tracks) — so there weren’t many opportunities to delve into the back catalog.

I don’t want to say the show was disappointing, because it definitely wasn’t. It was more like when you catch up with an old friend that you haven’t seen in years, and after a few minutes, you realize things have changed so much that you can’t just pick up right where you left off any more. For starters, Matthew’s gained a pretty shocking amount of weight since I last saw him 9 years ago (to the point that I’m actually worried about his health), which did take some getting used to. Plus, I was bummed to see so few people at the show, because I think after 11 albums, he deserves better, but I blame that partly on putting the show in Boulder instead of Denver. I’d be surprised if he has many college-aged fans these days, and I bet he could have easily drawn three times that crowd if the show had been in Denver, closer to an older fan base. Finally, I think he’s at that tipping point in his career where the audience wants his greatest hits, but he still wants to play the new songs, so the energy level just felt a bit off all night — huge drops when he played new stuff, big spikes when he trotted out the oldies.

That said, the band sounded tight once they got going. Yes, I wish the show had been longer, but despite some things not being perfect, getting to hear “Girlfriend,” “I’ve Been Waiting,” “Divine Intervention,” “Ugly Truth Rock,” “Sick of Myself,” and “Someone To Pull the Trigger” played live again made the night worthwhile.

UPDATE: Just for old times’ sake...

A Minor Incident

Badly Drawn Boy at the Fox Theater, Boulder. I’ve always liked BDB’s studio stuff, but never felt compelled one way or the other towards seeing him live. So when some co-workers invited me to join them last night, I figured, why not? Unfortunately, due to some rather tragic circumstances, what we saw was disappointing. Before he even played a single note, Damon Gough (that’s his real name) came onstage and announced that he was out of sorts because his grandfather had just died, but he decided to go on with the show anyway and dedicate it to his grandfather’s memory. Unfortunately, Gough’s mind was obviously not on his music, which led to a rather disjointed show, since he skipped over songs in the setlist several times, then had several conferences with his band between numbers to figure out when to go back and play what they had missed. I was also disappointed in the songs from his new album, a heavily Springsteen-influenced set entitled Born in the U.K. It became obvious very quickly into the show that Gough’s voice is much better suited to quieter numbers, and when the set switched to a bigger rock sound (i.e. most of the new songs), he was overpowered by his band. Things got much better when he played an acoustic mini-set of 4 or 5 songs, accompanied only by another band member on xylophone, and also when he put down his guitar and played piano backed by the band. Based on the bright spots, I’d be willing to give BDB another shot, especially since it was pretty clear that last night wasn’t his best performance. But it’s not like the night was a complete waste. If nothing else, I got to wander around Boulder and check out all the hot women out enjoying the warm weather. As Gough said at one point, “Usually when I introduce this song, I say ‘This one’s for all the pretty girls’ and I’m just talking out my ass. But not in Boulder. Plenty of beautiful ladies here.”