Written by DCist contributor Dave Weigel

Who are these people? Who in the year 2008 hikes to Falls Church in order to watch Matthew Sweet play a 16-song set? With a couple of skinny-jeaned exceptions, they don’t look like the same indie rock kids who went to see Sweet the last time he played in the District. The State Theatre was a rolling sea of comfy fleeces, ties, and college shirts, of people unwrapping earplugs (“I can’t stay here if it’s this loud!” whimpered a 30-something about two yards from the stage), and of point-and-shoot cameras capturing this all for posterity.

Matthew Sweet was cool once, but it was brief, and it was a long time ago. In 1991 he released Girlfriend, 15 tracks of bitter power pop and snaky, loud guitars provided by Television vet Richard Lloyd and former Voidoid Robert Quine. Within four years he put out the sloppier Altered Beast and the poppier 100% Fun with the same sidemen. When he stopped working with them, his music got softer and more obviously reverential of 1960s rock. The music was good, but Sweet’s audience grew, as Ian Faith might say, “more selective.” This year he reunited with Lloyd (Quine passed away in 2004) and recorded Sunshine Lies. The first track on the album is called “Time Machine”. The first song Sweet played in Falls Church: “Time Machine”. You can see what he’s trying to do.