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theashtraysays

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    Jeff Tweedy — 4 June 2021, Bridgeview, IL (SeatGeek Stadium [Parking Lot S1])

    in After The Show

    Posted

    Always a pleasure to see that bbop hasn't decided to hang up his keyboard and lead a quiet life of vinyl collection after the dearth of live music that we've all had these past months.  And also good to know that this may have been the last drive-in concert I'll ever have to see, though it was a delightful evening. 
    I can't say enough about how Macie's violin really filled out some of the songs in the set.  She added some really great textures to a few of the songs, never overplaying anything but definitely making them more "full".  For those of us who have only heard Jeff mostly solo via the Tweedy Show, having that plus the whole band was a very welcome bump for his newer material.  And as was also noted above, the mix and sound was really outstanding.  Stan hasn't missed a beat either; could be the ponytail. 

    The setup was just alright.  Toasty stadium parking lot with each car area designated with about a car-sized area next to it for watching the show mask-free.  The whole thing being wedged between a plenty active railroad track and Midway Airport's departure runways made for some poorly placed "cameos" during the show, but the show did go on.  A serviceable taco truck was a good add.  The slightly-cooled mini-cans of Heineken 0.0 provided at the entrance, not so much.  Oh, and the backdrop behind the stage was not exactly the cutting edge we're used to seeing, but rather a generic scrolling star scene that I'm calling "the cheese nebula".  Please come back Jeremy!!

    Banter-wise, things were, well, a bit rusty. At one point he sorta went down a banter hole on something random, ran out of what to say, and told us that the showbiz trick to getting out of that hole was to just keep talking.  I don't think he really embraced that advice.  He quoted someone up front who said "just play", and that seemed to get things back on track.  The intro to "Guaranteed" (the often-told one about the original "work of art" line) was apologetically delivered, but the ensuing "no walk in the park" lyric did get its usual chuckle.  But if the banter was sparse and a little wobbly, the smiles-per-hour were at an all time high.  The man certainly seemed to enjoy himself and seeing actual faces along with the cars instead of last time ("it was like playing to a used car lot") with folks all huddled / masked up, mostly behind windshields in their cars on that chilly fall evening.

    But for me the highlight of the evening was the encore, which was when a few of the less-shy patrons (myself included, but the real props go to Patty B who instigated things in her won't-take-no-for-an-answer style) made it up to the rail for the encore.  Yes, the RAIL.  A real, honest to goodness concert rail in front of the first row along the width of the stage.  Oh man did it feel good to hang on to that steel bar and sing and smile and clap.  Fortunately, or perhaps facilitated by the band and crew, the security folks who had been quite prevalent throughout the evening had sorta faded out by then, and we were able to enjoy that last segment without interference.  By the end of the encore, I think we may have had 50? people up there, and by the time they closed with Cali Stars (which was not on the printed setlist btw), we were all in full sway and full voice.  It really was a great moment, and Jeff did get a little choked up there, saying how much he missed it all and adding something like "This is my life; I was born for this". 

     

    You could tell that we all were more than happy to put this second bookend on the musical void we've all been though.  Jeff's closing comment was "see you sooner rather than later", and I think we'll all hoping to take him up on that offer real soon.


    Cheers and see y'all soon,

    Vince

    Matt Gaetz...?

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    1 hour ago, sonicshoulder said:

    As a proud Kentuckian I have to say I feel your pain. If we make the news it usually not flattering and we are popular punchlines for most jokes relating to illiteracy, obesity and incest. Being said I absolutely love my state and all of its unique areas. We have some of the best scenery in the world, its cheap and people for the most part really look out for each other. I've actually been asked numerous times by visitors or transplants "why is everyone so nice?"...like its offending them that everyone is so nice!!! 

    I heartily concur.  It helps that you and I live in the more populated / university-influenced / (dare I say) progressive areas of the state.  There's definitely a lot of great folks all over, but the newsmakers you mentioned out in KY's rural maga-land are very much real.  But we're getting there. 

    The Bottle Rockets

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    They were pretty high up on my "bands I wanna see when the lockdown is all over", 'cause they're so damn much fun. 

    But I'm smiling 'cause making a timely, on-your-own-terms exit to do what you wanna do is really what we all want more than anything.  Really happy for Brian. 

    The Tweedy show

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    11 hours ago, chisoxjtrain said:

     

     it was one of those things where someone said something along the lines of, "You know that one band you like? There's someone else here who actually likes them too."

     

    This has literally never happened to me regarding Wilco.

    Pandemic blues

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    On 2/16/2021 at 1:52 AM, kidsmoke said:

    Have your listening habits changed in this last year?

    A little. 

    I'm WFH a lot now, so I don't have the commute where I could always get through about 1 album round trip off of the CarPod (iPod in my car... cute, right??).  But now in my home office, I can put on music pretty much all day so I've had to do things like build long playlists (entire catalogs, etc) or rely on Spotify daily mixes or other collections.  So that's been kinda nice, but I don't do as much intentional listening as I used to.  It's more background.

    It's the most wonderful time of the year...

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    1 hour ago, kidsmoke said:

    You can thank/blame Neuroglue for the snow effect. It's peaceful and lovely but he finds it mildly annoying that the snow blows in the direction of your cursor.:lol

     

    Me, I played with it for a couple minutes. I'm pretty easily amused. :spider2

     

    Let me just say that this IS THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO VC since :banana!!!!!!!

     

     

     

     

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