I was driving by The Echo music venue on the way home from work (it's a couple blocks from my house) and I saw Matthew Sweet on the marquee. He had played there a few years ago and I wasn't in the mood at the time, but on a whim I contacted my friend who works there and got on the list for tonight's show.
I hadn't seen him since the Altered Beast tour back in the early 90s, and while the guy appears to have put on 100 lbs in the interim, his voice doesn't seem to have changed a bit. He sounded great. A mixture of old and new stuff; a handful of tracks from Girlfriend, Beast, and 100% Fun as well as some from his new album Tomorrow Forever. He really has a knack for writing catchy hooks and his retro pop style with harmonized vocals never gets old for me.
His backing band included Ric Menck and Paul Chastain, who have been playing with him for a while and were also in the short-lived band Velvet Crush, who put out the amazing Teenage Symphonies To God. His guitarist, Jason something, did a lot of impressive shredding.
Anyway the big surprise was that late in the set when they performed I've Been Waiting from Girlfriend, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles fame came up to sing backing vocals. That was quite the treat. In retrospect, not exactly a shocker as the two of them have put out three albums of covers (Under The Covers) and are longtime friends.