SAN FRANCISCO — Singer/songwriter Matthew Sweet treated a

near-capacity Slim's crowd Wednesday to the dichotomy of Matthew Sweet:

feel-good guitar pop with melancholy lyrics about rejection and love gone

sour.

On the next-to-last date of a brief U.S. trek behind the October release

of his seventh album, In Reverse, Sweet and his band plowed through

24 songs in 90 minutes.

Without a word, Sweet and company — keyboardist Buck Johnson, bassist

Tony Marsico, acoustic guitarist Paul Chastain, lead guitarist Peter

Phillips and drummer Rick Menck — kicked off the energetic set with

the first three songs from In Reverse: "Millennium Blues"

(RealAudio

excerpt), "If Time Permits" and "Beware My Love."

Then they acknowledged the crowd's craving for some older work with

"Divine Intervention," from Girlfriend (1991), and "Time Capsule"

(RealAudio

excerpt), from Altered Beast (1993). The latter illustrated

Sweet's penchant for spinning musical tales of heartbreak: "Then —

we were young and strong/ Now — everything is wrong."

Thus began the evening's emotional roller coaster. Whether lighthearted

power-pop ditties or somber ballads, most of the songs in Sweet's repertoire

examine doomed relationships, such as the one recounted in the doleful

ballad "Hide": "Before I knew I had you, you were gone," Sweet sang.

The melodies on In Reverse are less aggressive, poppier and, well,

sweeter, than those on his previous albums. But in performance, the new

tracks had just as much punch as the three-minute rockers he's known for.

Wearing a brown, long-sleeved, button-down shirt and brown pants, the

35-year-old singer leaned so close to the mic that he often rested his

nose on top of it.

As Sweet sat down at the piano for "Hide," a fan shouted for "Ultrasuede,"

an outtake from 1994's Son of Altered Beast. Sweet laughed and

said, " 'Ultrasuede'? Not quite the right instrument for that. We'll learn

to play it one of these days."

Regarding the boisterous romp "Come to California," from Blue Sky on

Mars (1997), Sweet said, "We've played this song the last six nights

in a row. I don't know if they hate us for this or not."

During the band's rendition of the song, which was faster and more energetic

than the recorded version, Johnson hammered away on the piano and Sweet

grinned fiendishly through his sweaty mop of shaggy, chin-length hair as

he, Marsico, Chastain and Phillips bounced in unison.

Then, to the crowd's delight, Sweet and friends blasted through his 1991

breakthrough hit, "Girlfriend" (RealAudio

excerpt), which was faster and punkier than the original.

Though two women kept screaming, "We love you, Matthew!" and fans whooped

and applauded loudly throughout, the audience's reception of the newer

material was lukewarm compared to the more enthusiastic response to older

songs.

The mood quieted with "Someone to Pull the Trigger," anchored by the

line "Everything I'll ever be, I've been." But "Sick of Myself," from

100% Fun (1995), with its four false endings, got the crowd bouncing

and dancing again.

The sounds of thunder and rain filled the room as the lead-in to the epic,

9 1/2-minute In Reverse closer, "Thunderstorm" (RealAudio

excerpt), which seemed to be three songs in one. It was an

uncharacteristically optimistic take on the end of a relationship, with

Sweet crooning, "Nothing is wrong when it rains, even from my eyes."

The upbeat tempo of the second encore, "Faith in You," kept the mood

light, until Sweet stopped at the end to scold some unruly fans. "Peace

and love, OK? Or just go," he said, exasperated. "Why do we have to have

violence every night during this encore? It's that f---ing song."

The punchy "Evangeline" ended the set on a high note.

"The band was so tight," San Francisco concert-goer Andi Von Sternberg,

27, raved. "Everything just kicked ass."