Power-pop icon Matthew Sweet bringing acoustic concert to Des Moines

It had been more than four years since Matthew Sweet played a show before he took the stage at the 30A Songwriters Festival in late January.

So, understandably, the power pop icon was a little unsure about what would happen when he went to Santa Rosa, Fla., to play a semi-acoustic set at the festival organized by his manager, Russell Carter, that also featured the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, Roseanne Cash and Steve Earle.

“The idea was just to do something minor, to kind of test my legs because I really haven't played since the end of 2019,” Sweet said in a recent interview. “Now, I've been through the fire already, because I was so, so freaked out to be playing and singing down there. I could go through songs and kind of refresh myself on that.

“But it's not the same to sit at home, and I just didn't know if I could sing and I could play pretty well and not mess up a whole lot of chords or words on at least the things we did down there. It was like a gigantic relief for me. It came back easily. Now I have very little apprehension about these few dates. Because at least I've dipped my toe in the water.”

Those “few dates” were a run of six February shows that served as a warm up for both a longer April full-band tour and an acoustic trio tour that starts in October and is coming to the Temple Theater in Des Moines on Oct. 1 and 2, 2024.

These tours support, in a way, “Live at Grant Park Chicago July 1983,” the concert album Sweet released in February.

Originally recorded for Chicago radio station WXRT at a July 4 show just before the release of “Altered Beast,” the 1993 follow-up album to his career-making “Girlfriend,” it’s packed with favorite songs from those albums, including “Girlfriend,” “The Ugly Truth,” “Divine Intervention,” “Devil with the Green Eyes” and “Someone to Pull the Trigger.”

The set, played by one of Sweet’s best bands — Richard Lloyd of Television on guitar, Will Rigby of the dBs on drums and Tony Marsico of the Cruzados on bass — is snarling and biting on the rockers, and gorgeous on the ballads.

“It was a big outdoor live show, it was very big,” Sweet said. “I don’t remember a lot of it. But I do remember being at the show and how big it was, and I know the Jayhawks played there. But what I really remember is the next day, the Chicago Tribune had a giant headline: ‘The Pope, the Bulls and now Matthew Sweet.’ That was gigantic for my mom, who was a lifelong devout Catholic. To have the Pope be in line with my name was like the greatest moment of her life.”

None of those players will be with Sweet on his acoustic trio tour, but the tour’s set list will share some of the songs.

“There will be some newer things, but the bulk is always kind of the greatest hits, between (1995’s) ‘100% Fun,’ ‘Altered Beast’ and ‘Girlfriend,’ ” Sweet said. “There’s a lot of stuff where it's ‘that’s hard to skip, people miss that one or this one.’ I can’t do it just to please people, but I like anything I play.

“I don’t sweat it over having to play something that I’ve played a lot,” he added. “I know a lot of musicians have a thing about that, like they can’t stand the thing they’ve played for so long. I don’t have that. I don’t feel that way. But that means I don’t ever learn half of my new album and launch it live. I add a thing or two each time. That sort of represents what’s newer, just like the old songs represent those albums.”

Musical journey

Sweet, who grew up in Lincoln, Neb., moved to Athens, Ga., after high school, then to Princeton, N.J., and Los Angeles, where he had a decades-long, critically acclaimed run of success. About a decade ago, he returned to his home state and now lives in Omaha, where of late, he’s been making pen and ink drawings of cats that he sells on Etsy.

“I’ve sold a lot of them,” he said. “They've kind of been my hobby thing in the last few months. Because I was getting into writing, starting to write a record and I thought I need some other low-pressure thing to kind of get me in the mindset. ... It’s been kind of a cool hobby.”

Sweet, who got a tattoo on his arm based on one of the drawings, also sells some stickers of the drawings at his shows.

He’s already got a title for the next album, “Midsommar,” which he “swiped” from one of his favorite recent movies. The songs, however, aren’t yet finished.

Nor has he determined whether he’ll make the record as he did “Catspaw,” his 14th album released three years ago, on which he played every instrument save for drums, and did the background vocals, while recording and mixing it at his home studio.

Making the new record is on hold as Sweet heads back out on tour, confidently delivering the music that has carried him for nearly 40 years.

“It’s as much fun as it's ever been playing live, as weird as that sounds,” he said, “because I'm just able to participate in it more than I ever used to be.”