Matt Sharp
(with Josh Hager and Greg Brown)
June 23, 2003 at Small's in Hamtramck, MI
So, Matt Sharp was back on the road again this summer and he FINALLY hit Michigan!!! (Side note: the last time Matt Sharp played a show in Michigan, he was still with Weezer, opening for No Doubt - that's right, Pinkerton era.) After the awesome performance we saw in Chicago the previous fall, there was no question that we would do all in our power to go, now that he was playing so much closer to home.
After a long wait outside and an even longer wait in the bar (thank god we're both over 21) we finally waited, sitted on our pillows, in the low lit room of ambient sounds for the show to begin. Unfortunately, the show started so late that the set was only about an hour long - much, much shorter than the last show we saw (damn those Detroit curfews).
Let me start out by saying this, although this review might sound like I felt the show sucked or that he wasn't any good, that's not true. Actually quite the contrary. Matt was great and the show was great. It's just that the show at Schuba's was so good that it's hard not to compare the two shows. The situation for this show was quite different, resulting in a different show. Had we not seen him in Chicago, I feel that we would have left the show in as much awe as we were in the first time. As they say, you'll never forget your first time.
Matt seemed to be kind of tired that night. He wasn't as chatty as he was last time. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was because his set time was so short and he was scrambling to get as much in as he could. Maybe he was just tired from being out on the road. Who knows?, but I guess it's just better to focus on the positives, rather than the negatives...
Notable moments:
That guy who looked creepily like Brian Bell. Matt even made a comment. "You look so much like Brian Bell it's creepy." This was after another notable moment, when the Brian-clone yelled out "My Head is in the Sun" another from across the room yelled out "Rivers" and Matt whacked his head and went "Stupid Rivers! Stupid Rivers!"
Meeting Matt's manager. What was his name? Mike? He was an awesome guy. He gave me a hard time about having to wait for him to get change so I could buy the EP (Pucketts Versus the Country Boy - if you haven't got it, get it online. It's a great little thing.). "Sorry all you get is a hug and a story." There was also a deal with the t-shirts. You see, I'm a womanly woman and my generously proportioned chest makes it difficult for me to wear smaller clothing. There were no X-Larges. NONE! And there were only two shirts that even came in Large (Why does Matt neglect his larger sized fans? Does he think all his fans are aneorexic?). To top it off, I already had the one shirt given to me for FREE when I went to Schuba's. (When I told Mike or whoever that we went to Schuba's he said I should get that shirt for free and then when I told him I did get it for free, he said "Well at least say hi to Matt. If you can't let me know and I'll make sure you get to talk to him.") So I bought the other one, one of the "FREE MATT SHARP" shirts, I thought I got a Large. Apparently I didn't because when I got back to Jenny's I saw it was a Medium. No good. Let that be a lesson to all of you. Do not leave until you make sure the shirt you get is the right size. Now I am left without a t-shirt *sniffle sniffle* and they don't even sell them online *cry*.
My favorite moment of the evening was meeing Josh. Since we left in such a hurry at Schuba's because of the long drive, we never got a chance to talk to him the first time. He was so great. He's hilarious too. Yeah, it's great and all to meet Matt, but if you go to one of his shows, take the time to meet Josh. You seriously won't regret it. Josh is now my hero.
Anyway, yeah he was good but he wasn't as good as he was seven months before. (That's something never to say after sex, heehee.) You have to understand, however, that the show in Chicago was really, really, really good.
