WXPN Welcomes Matthew Sweet w/ Abe Partridge at World Cafe Live Philly 4.16

Event: fb://event/716209114020096
Doors: 7pm | Show: 8pm
Music Hall at World Cafe Live
Public Onsale Begins: Friday, March 1, 2024 10:00 AM
Tickets: $25 – $42 + fees
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Matthew Sweet moved to Athens, GA at the urging of his pen pal, R.E.M.ʼs Michael Stipe in the early 1980s. Sweet honed his craft in the flourishing alternative rock scene playing with Oh-OK, Lloyd Cole, the Golden Palominos, Buzz of Delight, and recording two critically-acclaimed solo records before emerging in 1991 as the leading figure of the American power pop revival with the release of his watershed album, Girlfriend.
Like his British counterparts Teenage Fanclub, Sweet adhered to traditional songcraft, yet subverted the form by adding noisy post-punk guitar and flourishes of country-rock, resulting in an amalgam of the Beatles, Big Star, R.E.M., and Neil Young. Recorded with guitarists Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine, Girlfriend became a word-of-mouth critical and commercial hit over the course of 1992, with its title track reaching the Top Five on the Modern Rock charts. For the next five years, as alternative rock was the dominant commercial force in rock & roll, Sweet became a very popular
concert attraction and solidified his reputation as the premiere alternative pop singer/songwriter. His next two records, Altered Beast (1993) and 100% Fun (1995) were both critically acclaimed and successful albums, with the latter reaching platinum status and making many year-end best-of lists.
Sweet continued to evolve over a string of well-received albums in the early 2000s. In 2006, he joined forces with Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs to record a series of covers from the ʼ60s, ʼ70s, and ʼ80s, Under the Covers, Vol. 1–3. Sweetʼs music has appeared in numerous films, television shows, and games, including Austin Powers, Guitar Hero II, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons, and Scooby-Doo, among many others. Sweet was a lead consultant on Tim Burtonʼs Margaret Keane biopic Big Eyes in 2014. His 15th studio album, 2021ʼs Catspaw (Omnivore Recordings) is guitar-driven: 12 songs, lean and consistent, direct, and notably darker than Sweetʼs recent song-cycles. Apparent in tracks like “Best of Me” and album-opener “Blown Away,” the inner-turmoil harkens back to the angst of 1993ʼs Altered Beast. But where Beast was the self-interrogation of an artist in his mid-20s, Catspaw is the confessions of a career artist, mature and assured in his craft and achingly transparent in his confrontations of aging and the search for meaning. “Iʼm trying to get my head around getting older, I want to let go, I want to tell the ugly truth … I want to do all kinds of different things in my head and they really popped out in these songs.”
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Join us before the show for dinner & drinks in The Lounge, our full-service restaurant & bar which opens at 6pm. View menu & make reservations here: https://worldcafelive.com/visit/eat-drink/
Mezzanine ticket holders will be able to order from The Lounge menu right from their seat.
World Cafe Live is a nonprofit independent venue where artistry meets social impact. Every purchase helps support our free music education & community programs.
WCL Fan Club members get skip the line priority entry, food & merch discounts, exclusive offers, and more. Mega & Ultimate Fan levels include early access to ticket sales and no ticket fees. Learn more & join the club: https://worldcafelive.com/fanclub
If you require accessible seating and none is available online, please contact us at boxoffice-phl@worldcafelive.com or 215-222-1400 prior to the show so we can best accommodate your needs.