eckythump

6 hours ago, BeShakey said:

The set itself was largely a hybrid of Melbourne nights two and three. Meaning no real surprises, although it looked like there was a long conversation between Jeff and Pat around when Impossible Germany got played and the instruments being bought out were waved away, suggesting a song got dropped from the set at that point (would be great to confirm from anyone that has the setlist).

I saw a photo of a setlist posted on the Wilco FB group and the song in question has black marker over it, but it looks like it said 'Lifetime' which was the song that was scrapped, and I'm Always In Love was added in its place.

Welcome to Australia Paul, hope to say hello to you when I join the tour in Canberra. If you're in Canberra tonight and looking for something to do in our nation's capital, Peter Garrett of Midnight OIl fame is playing the same venue as Wilco tomorrow night. Plenty of tickets still available. I'll be there!

6 hours ago, Firecracker Kid said:

The banter highlight, however, was in response to someone yelling "tell us another story, Jeff" later in the show. I have vague recollection of hearing the tale before, but he recounted when he was living in an apartment with the guys from Uncle Tupelo when they were a three-piece and the rent was $80 a month. Since they couldn't figure out how to do the math to divide the rent three ways, they got a fourth roommate, whom he referred to as "Mike" then quickly clarified it wasn't Mike Heidorn, so he changed the name to "Matt" then further clarified he was trying to use an alias. Anyway, he said he and "Matt" basically spent all day "playing Sega hockey and doing bongs". Late one night during one of the hockey/bong sessions, a woman knocked on the door and he cautiously opened it to find a woman who was "real pregnant. like 10 months pregnant" and she asked if "Matt" was there. Jeff went and told "Matt" there was a pregnant woman at the door for him and his response was to slowly get up and say "I enjoyed knowing you" after which he strolled out of the apartment...never to be seen again!!  Definitely a memorable tale!

 

Great recap! He may have told it other times, but he told this story at his solo show in Sydney in 2019, that's maybe where you heard it before, except he used the name Mark! See my recap of that show

I remastered the recording of this show that was put up on Dimeadozen and etree a few days ago, here it is for anyone interested. It sounds really good to me.

Link good for 7 days from time of posting

https://we.tl/t-RsS5PIcTCQ

I saw the incident with the gentleman falling and hitting his head hard on the concrete, it happened during A Shot In The Arm not after the encore, it just took Jeff a while to notice the commotion. He handled it very well when he did notice. I am happy to say the person's partner posted on the Sky Blue Sky Facebook group that he is doing ok and is going home today. I was really worried it was far more serious as it did not look good. But good news.

The official title of the new song is 'Untitled (Play It On Repeat)' - it's been released on her recent MTV Unplugged release under that title.

I thought she was great, but a full band show would have been awesome.

For anyone who cares, here was Courtney Barnett's setlist for her solo SBS performance preceding Wilco's set:

 

Avant Gardener

Need A Little Time

Nameless, Faceless

Dead Fox

Walkin' On Eggshells

Elevator Operator

Not Only I [seeker Lover Keeper]

Sunday Roast

Everybody Here Hates You

Let It Go

Depreston

new song-Every Day I Wake

Being Around [The Lemonheads]

Dawned On Me [Wilco] ("country version")

History Eraser

So to address the demand for Warmer on vinyl, they're releasing it only bundled with Warm, with a bonus track exclusive to the vinyl so those who already got Warmer on RSD will want to buy it again. But it's only available online in limited quantities (already sold out), or at Solid Sound. Yeah, that helps address the demand issue.

Good luck those attending SS, I'd be lining up at the merch stand as soon as gates open Friday night!

Both shows are now up on the Wilco store as Roadcases!

That was a fun thing to write up after every show, hope people enjoyed reading them. If nothing else, it'll serve as a great reminder for me of what was a really special tour. I never imagined we'd ever get to see Jeff on a solo tour in Australia in small venues. It was a rare treat.

The final show of Jeff’s first ever fully solo tour of Australia, and his first time in Adelaide since Wilco played the Big Day Out festival here way back in 2003.

The choice of venue is The Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, or simply ‘The Gov’ as it is commonly known, one of Adelaide’s best venues for gigs, a large rectangular room that holds around 750 people when in all standing mode, but tonight the show isn’t sold out, so the left half of the venue has tables for people who would prefer to sit. My estimate is around 400-500 people were there. Being a cold wintry Tuesday night probably didn’t help ticket sales.

Jen Cloher again kicked off the night to a very warm reception. Looking forward to hearing her new album she just recorded at the Loft with Mia Dyson and Liz Stringer.

As with all other shows bar Meeniyan, Jeff took to stage right on 9pm and proceeded to wow the crowd with Via Chicago. Remember The Mountain Bed, and the quick succession of Bombs Above and Some Birds were all met with enthusiastic claps and cheers. No one has yet yelled out anything stupid like the Melbourne shows. We’re off to a good start!

Jeff then asks us how we are, and when we respond good, he says he’ll see what he can do about that. “I’m not going to get into conversations with people tonight, it’s been happening a lot at these shows. I had a woman tell me I looked uneducated! We’ll talk about it later”. Clearly this is a story that Jeff is going to use for some time to come (and who can blame him).

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart received some laughter during the piano part, which led Jeff to say he can’t remember that ever getting laughter before. He compared it to the ‘woo’. He then said harmonica playing also gets a lot of ‘woos’ which is stupid because anyone can then play the harmonica. He then handed his harmonica to someone in the front, they blew one note and Jeff demanded it back! “You’re now infected with my seed! I don’t just spread sadness, I spread germs”.

The recurring sports team comments then made a return. “I was told not to criticise your sports teams (audience member yells feel free) I’m not going to. I love the Crows, the Crows are my favourite team. (a section of the audience begins to boo) Is that not the right team to be a fan of? I obviously had poor intel (audience member does a ‘woo’) you guys are quick!” I guess what no one had told Jeff is that Adelaide has two football teams, the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power, so there must have been more Power supporters down the front! I’m not surprised Crows fans weren’t there, they were probably down the road at the Proclaimers gig!

I’m Always In Love made a very welcome return to the setlist, followed by a surprise tour debut of Reservations, presumably because he gave into a woman near the front who had been calling out for it. Such a beautiful version and very welcome addition to the set. Someone yelled out ‘Shake it up’ which Jeff said did they mean the Cars song? He could look it up on his phone. Presumably the guy means Shake It Off, which Jeff said he definitely wasn’t going to play. Evergreen followed, which is quickly becoming my favourite off Warmer, a gorgeous song.

Jesus, etc featured a great audience singalong, which Jeff complimented as the best of the tour (I’d put it on par with Sydney). He then told us in Melbourne they couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle. Ouch! Some more lovely audience singalongs on Let’s Go Rain and Passenger Side followed, before being treated to the wonderful Theologians and Late Greats to finish the set off.

The first 3 song encore of the tour followed, with Jeff saying he had to leave to go catch his flight back to America. Someone then pointed out Adelaide airport has a curfew, so Jeff told us he had a chartered jet waiting. All those songs 1 person wants to hear pays well! A wonderful Acuff-Rose closed the set, and Jeff said thank you and he hopes to see us again soon. Let’s hope so.

So a wonderful show to close out this tour, with a really nice respectful crowd. It’s a sad situation though where a crowd only has to not yell out stupid stuff to be considered one of the best of the tour (Melbourne I’m looking at you).

So with that, Jeff closes the chapter on his solo tour for now, and heads back to the US to resume Wilco activities again. I’m so thankful I could get to travel to all the shows on the tour. Seeing Jeff in small venues in Australia is something I never thought would ever happen, so this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you Jeff. Let’s do it again with an Australian / New Zealand Wilco tour soon!

Via Chicago

Remember The Mountain Bed

Bombs Above

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

Impossible Germany

Family Ghost

Having Been Is No Way To Be

I'm Always In Love

Reservations

Evergreen

Jesus, etc.

I Know What It's Like

Hummingbird

Let's Go Rain

Passenger Side

Theologians

Late Greats

Encore:

Don't Forget

I'm The Man Who Loves You 

Acuff-Rose

Really enjoying these reviews - thanks! A nice taste (perhaps) for what's to come in Adelaide tomorrow! 

I'll fill in the back story later, but Jeff's last words to us last night were 'Wish me luck in Adelaide!' 

Jeff’s final show of his 3 Victorian shows, and the first all standing GA show of the tour didn’t disappoint one bit.

Howler is a small 400 capacity venue in the northern Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, essentially a large rectangular room out the back of a bar. I’ve seen a few shows here before and I really like it, it’s nice and intimate. Having Jeff play in a Melbourne pub is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, so I was really looking forward to this one.

No Jen Cloher opening tonight, she was otherwise occupied, so instead a singer by the name of Leah Senior opened proceedings. Think Joni Mitchell and you’ve pretty much nailed it. While personally I prefer Jen’s music, Leah was a nice relaxed way to kick the night off.

On to the main event, Jeff came on stage at 9pm sharp, and the same 4 songs that opened Meeniyan were played. Rather than begin any banter, Jeff kept playing, clearly still burned by how banter corner went at the previous nights show! A lovely You And I was quickly followed by a very powerful Bull Black Nova which made its Australian tour debut which was a real treat to hear.

Jeff finally went to banter corner at this point. “Love it Jeff!” someone exclaimed. Jeff – ‘Alright, I don’t want to develop a relationship too soon with the audience, I got burned by that last night. Were any of you at the show last night? (about 75% of the crowd yell out yes) Oh my god how many? (most of the room put their hand in the air). Oh well I’m going to play most of the same songs but that’s because I’m uneducated! (referring to the bizarre AAM comment from last night’s show). That’s the weirdest thing anyone’s ever said to me (laughter ensues). It’s not nice to say. I went to college for 3 years and I don’t have a single credit. I think that’s hard to do. Take your degrees and shove them up your… a true scholar could go to college forever and never gain a credit.’

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart follows, then the very welcome tour debut of One Wing quickly followed, a really great song. Jeff seemed unwilling to return to banter corner at this point, with I Know What It’s Like, Hummingbird and Having Been Is No Way To Be all quickly following each other.

Guaranteed followed, prefaced by the usual introduction about how he changed the words, and was met with the usual huge laughter. It’s a crowd winner every time.

Up to this point Jeff had been very good at keeping the crowd in check, but that was all about to change. Jeff – “Let me consult my notes, might be more songs that I didn’t play last night”. This led to the inevitable  audience shout out for songs. Jeff then said rather forcefully ‘I have my notes! We have protocols. There’s a requisition form on our website for requests, I think I can think of other songs to play (someone yells out Laminated Cat). What’s that? Laminated Cat… Huh. This is gonna take a minute I’ll just stand here until my guitar is tuned (Jeff hands his guitar to Matrix)’. Jeff then tells the story he told in Sydney and Brisbane about the NZ Writers Festival and his friend Mark, which again received huge laughs. By this stage, the guitar was tuned and Jeff launched into a great Laminated Cat, with some questionable audience shouting some of the words (it wasn’t graceful singing, it was trying to shout words at the loudest possible volume for some inexplicable reason, and even then they got the words wrong).

Following that, more banter. Jeff –“is everything ok out there? (audience yells yes) I sense some danger. Were there some people singing along and some people not wanting people to sing along? That happens sometimes. I’ve played enough songs where people have been quiet so if you want to sing along with some of these other songs that’s fine with me I’m not gonna tell anyone what to do.  You’ll have to form some sort of committee and see if we can reach a consensus before the end of the show.”

The big singalong to the first line of Passenger Side led Jeff to say ‘ok I think we’re reached a consensus!’. It was a great singalong – I think the issue during Laminated Cat was more the shouting out lyrics louder than Jeff was singing, that’s just plain rude to me.

The next bit was probably the funniest thing of the night. Jeff “I just noticed there’s a mirror over there   that’s the worst!  That’s just like when there’s a mirror across from you when you’re on the toilet – nobody needs to see that! Are there people on the other side of the mirror (audience yells yes)  oh there are! Is that a penalty box?  (laughter followed by Jeff making waving gestures towards them) it’s like the boy in the bubble. “

A great singalong to Let’s Go Rain is quickly followed by Gun (my request yay!) – Jeff stops it after 1 line and says he doesn’t know how to play this song anymore. Someone then yelled out ‘Good gardener’ for some strange reason, and repeated it when Jeff said what was that. “Good gardener? No I’m gonna play this one. I didn’t know everyone was waiting to hear good gardener tonight!”. By this point weird audience yelling out was becoming par for the course.  He starts Gun again and it sounded fantastic, so happy to hear it.

At this point a woman down the front pleads with Jeff to play New Madrid. Jeff then said he played that last night, but the woman wasn’t there and she really wanted to hear it. I can sense at this point the audience is ready to have her ejected, so Jeff shuts it down by saying ‘well it is all about you’ which receives a loud cheer. Jeff then tells us he’s had the weirdest audiences on this trip, he doesn’t know what it is but people don’t talk to other performers the way they talk to him, and brings up the uneducated comment again (that one clearly stung!) and then tells us about the Brisbane audience that lied to him about signs that said no singing (totally agree, it was a bizarre thing to say). Jeff then looked towards Eric at side of stage and asked if had the car idling and that he’s losing control at this point. A shout out for Heavy Metal Drummer finally gets the show back on the track, and the audience responded with some nice singing (though some shouters persisted).

Jeff then told us he wanted to play Don’t Forget and stop the momentum of the fun because it’s a song that means a lot to him. The Late Greats then closes out the set and Jeff waves to us goodnight. By this stage 90 minutes has already elapsed, but we coax Jeff back for 1 more song. “Thanks for coming out. Wish me luck in Adelaide! I hear the Crows are doing well!” Jeff says to much laughter, before we get a great audience singalong on A Shot In The Arm to close the show.

So one more show to go in Adelaide. I can’t wait to see how this one goes!

Setlist as follows:

Via Chicago

Remember The Mountain Bed

Bombs Above

Some Birds

You And I

Bull Black Nova

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

One Wing

I Know What It's Like

Hummingbird

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Guaranteed

Laminated Cat

Passenger Side

Let's Go Rain

Gun

Heavy Metal Drummer

Don't Forget

Late Greats

Encore:

A Shot In The Arm

A great show in Melbourne on a miserable wintry wet evening (let's go rain anyone?). The first venue of the tour to be an properly all seated theatre (nice to not have to sit on plastic chairs but proper cushioned ones!), the Athenaeum (correct spelling, despite what's listed on Wilco's website and my subject line) is one of Melbourne's oldest buildings, dating back to 1839, and the 1,000 seat theatre itself going back to the 1920's in its current form. It's a great choice of venue for Jeff's show. Melbourne's musicians are out in force tonight, with me spotting Henry Wagons and Batts in attendance that I saw (Batts just having released her debut album, she's really good).

After missing Meeniyan, Jen Cloher was back to open proceedings to a welcoming enthusiastic home town crowd. If you haven't heard any of her music yet, do yourself a favour, she's terrific. Her last song Strong Woman is especially powerful. I can't recommend her enough.

Onto the main act. Jeff was greeted with a huge cheer and applause as he walked out and the familiar harmonica notes of Via Chicago started proceedings. A nice surprise to see One Sunday Morning up next. Ashes of American Flags was terrific and got a huge roar, before we got our first trip to banter corner for the evening.

'Thank you, hi, how are you?' Audience member 'We love you' Jeff 'oh it's early'. This is when a woman in the crowd then started to think she was having her own conversation with Jeff, and things got awkward. I'll preface all this by saying I've since learned she smuggled in a flask and was drinking from it, and she also did the same thing at a Tex Perkins show the night before. Drunk narcissists are not a great combination at a solo acoustic show. Henceforth said woman will be known as AAM (Annoying Audience Member) It went as follows:

Jeff - everyone loves me? What is wrong with you all (laughter) 

AAM -  otherwise we wouldn't have bought a ticket (audience starts to groan already)

Jeff - oh I get that (laughter), but I don't understand why you need to tell me (laughter). I appreciate you coming. Do I look like I need encouragement, I think that's probably the case, it happens a lot

AAM - you seem a little uneducated (audience at this points starts gasping at what she just said). No i'm kidding!

Jeff - I seem a little uneducated? You've read my book! (laughter)

AAM - you're the smartest person I know! (at this point the audience gets more restless and starts telling the woman to shut up)

Jeff - what is happening? I can't even hear what you're saying

Jeff - Ok i'm gonna get this back on track (laughter and cheers). This reminds me of talking to a therapist, because in Freudian psycho analytic environment you're not supposed to see the therapists face, and I can't see any of your faces, there’s no counter transference. So i'm just saying and pouring out how I feel and you’re going ‘mmhmm’. And where that analogy falls apart is if I went to a therapist and every once in a while he went ‘Wooo!’ I’d freak out! (laughter and clapping and woo’s follow’) Exactly right! Were the first songs just too heavy for everybody? The rest of the show will be just jokes I don’t care! Where was I? I was in Meeniyan last night, I don’t think they loved me. There were people there who didn’t know who I was .. alright, I’ll play Marquee Moon later. Here’s an older song. Thank you Dr Melbourne.

Finally order was restored with New Madrid. Following the song Jeff then exclaimed ’uneducated?! What was that all about!’. AAM then yells back that she didn’t mean it, leading to more groans and ssshhhs.

Family Ghost was preceded as being introduced as a song from Warmer, which he promised that’s where it ends, there won’t be a Hot! It was supposed to be a double record but he didn’t want to be known as the double record guy. We then got the full Open Kimono title explanation, including the Spencer story.

Like Meeniyan, after Impossible Germany we got the Marquee Moon riff again, which was greeted with many cheers and clapping. This was then followed by the story about how every song of his only gets 1 vote. At this point AAM tries to say something again, and Jeff sshhs her which led to much applause. I think at this point AAM went quiet for the rest of the show (I heard reports she fell asleep).

I’m Always In Love then made its very welcome tour debut, a great song I was very happy to hear. Evergreen was next, preceded by another hilarious comment.

Audience member – good song!

Jeff – ah thank you, that’s just the kind of encouragement I want… this is another song from Warmer that’s what I call a smattering of applause! This then led to a hilarious moment when Jeff put on a golf commentary voice ‘Jeff’s on the 13^th song, he’s going to go for one of the new songs, it was going to be called Open Kimono’

Jesus, etc followed, then after a few more call outs from the audience Jeff exclaimed ‘this is a strange audience, I’m not gonna lie to you!’

Jeff – want to hear a song about Noah’s Ark? This song’s about wishing for the sweet relief of global destruction… I was asked to make a pie chart by some magazine of what I think American’s are, and so I made about a third of the people dead people, I figured a third of all Americans that existed are now dead, and I labelled the rest of it ‘Jealous’, that’s what this song it about!

The singing during this portion of the show wasn’t particularly strong, I think people were too intimidated by the theatre setting. California Stars singing was mostly the harmony – I think Jeff needs to provide clearer instructions if he doesn’t want us singing it! Don’t Forget and I’m The Man Who Loves You closed out the main set, before a lot of clapping and cheering got Jeff back for a fantastic Misunderstood and Acuff-Rose, before a wave and a smile and the show was over.

It was a great show overall, just could have done with the strange conversation that AAM felt like she needed to have with Jeff. If you’re reading this AAM, maybe you should consider sobriety…

So that concluded the seated portion of the tour, with the final 2 shows at Howler and The Gov being GA standing venues. It will be interesting to see how that changes the audience dynamics. Aussies tend to be louder and more enthusiastic once you force us to stand. I can’t wait to see how they unfold!

Via Chicago
One Sunday Morning
Bombs Above
Some Birds
Ashes Of American Flags
New Madrid
I Know What It's Like
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Family Ghost
Impossible Germany
Marquee Moon (snippet)
Having Been Is No Way To Be
I'm Always In Love
Evergreen
Jesus, etc
Let's Go Rain
California Stars
Don't Forget
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore:

Misunderstood
Acuff-Rose

Footnote: this was version 2 of my review, somehow I lost half of it when trying to fix a typo. I’m now writing in Word first. Lesson learned!

I will try and put aside the difficulties I, my partner, my friends, and some others nearby experienced with some very rude inconsiderate talkers, who went out of their way to make our lives a misery for this show, despite our pleas for them to be quiet (in fact that seemed to spur them on to behave worse). I'll instead concentrate on what a special place Meeniyan is and what a special show this was. If I do refer back to these people forgive me, it is still somewhat traumatic for me writing this just under 24 hours later from the show.

Meeniyan is a very small town approximately 2 hours east of Melbourne (population around 650), with a town hall that holds 260 people in a format where people sit around assigned tables, and BYO food and drink (including alcohol) is encouraged. There is no bar here! Why Meeniyan? Good question, all I can proffer is that they have a passionate and dedicated arts and music team at the local council, who have formed relationships with tour promoters to bring local and international artists to this town. Shows always sell out, and until this show tonight, every other show I have seen here is met with a quiet hush of a crowd respectful and passionate for music. Artists and audience alike love this town and venue. It really is a special place.

Tonight is Jeff's second time at this venue, last visiting in 2016 with the Tweedy band, which I also wrote a lengthy show of at the time on here. With me following this tour and flying back from Brisbane to Melbourne, I happened to see Jeff and his entourage (Eric, Stan and Matrix) at the airport lounge in Brisbane as we ended up on the same flight (there's only 2 airlines and not a lot of flights, so my odds of getting the same flight were strong). I had a brief chat to Jeff in the lounge, where he mentioned that because Meeniyan would have no support, the show would be an evening with format and a longer show. This made me extra excited for this show, knowing we'd be getting a longer than 90 minute show and who knows what rarities would be in there as well. The show did not disappoint one bit.

Opening with the by now familiar Via Chicago, Jeff threw a curveball from Sydney and Brisbane by going straight to Remember The Mountain Bed, then the usual Bombs Above and Some Birds.

After this, Jeff asked us how we were, and asked if we were drinking champagne because he could hear corks popping. Someone offered him a beer, to which Jeff said it's been 25 years sure why not, then someone yelled out to read his book!

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart up next. After that, he asked us how we were again (good!), that he can't see us and it feels like with the candle lights he can see it's like he's landing a plane in the 1800's. "Did you guys bring food as well, am I hearing chomping? I didn't add that into the equation about how this evening was going to go". 

After New Madrid, Jeff commented that he could see 2 people arguing outside the door which was a little distracting. We then got the story about the original title of Warm/er being Open Kimono, but unlike Brisbane and Sydney shows, Jeff explained the reason - Spencer saw his frail blind grandfather coming down the stairs wearing an open kimono. "Spencer started doing drugs that night, that I bought for him!" (much laugher ensues).  

A fantastic Family Ghost followed, then straight into Impossible Germany. Then after that, he mentioned someone requested Marquee Moon. So Jeff then played the guitar riff from the song for a minute or so with Jeff in rock pose mode, to much laughter and applause. It was a great moment in the show. The audience member then yelled out 'request fulfilled!".

Jeff then asked the audience for Q&A. First question is, where was the guitar and strings from. Jeff started to answer, then pretended to fall asleep mid sentence. "Well that went well, Q&A was a smashing success!". Audience member "where do you live!" Jeff - "where do I live, where do you live! I'm from Chicago, although i'm not originally from there. Do you actually know who am I? I think I've come to an actual town hall meeting" 

After You and I we got the now familiar story about his wife hating that song, and also the next song, which if you're reading this you'll know very well by now. During that though you could hear a baby. 'Is that a baby? Is someone eating a baby?!'

After Guaranteed, we got the 'woo' story again he shared in Sydney (see Sydney show review for story). Jeff then asked if any of us had been to the Brisbane show? (yes!). He went on to tell how the audience made up a story about signs not to sing along, which was not true at all, they went and looked for the signs. It was a strange lie to tell to a performer, why would they lie to me! Audience member - fck those guys. Jeff - I'm not going to say that one of my crew is from there. Audience member - love those guys! Jeff - then when they started to sing he wished they had put signs up! They weren't eating babies  More sounds of bottles being opened then distracted Jeff - are you guys gassy? It sounds like you're all farting 

Hummingbird eventually followed. "You like the whistling huh? I'll whistle for the rest of the show". Not quite true, but after I Know What It's Like we did The Ruling Class, presumably as a result of the cheers for the whistling. Before that though, someone yelled out what did the think of the Cubs this year? "you're confusing me, someone is talking about baseball with an Australian accent. I don't really care for the Cubs, I grew up closer to St Louis so I'm a Cardinals fan, but I have to keep that to myself becausr they hate the Cardinals in Chicago. Anyway.. good talk everyone   I'm more of a... what's their name again? (BT the tour promoter yells out Tigers from side of stage) I'm more of a Tigers fan! ( cheers and boos). I love the Tigers, they're really good! I think the Tigers are going to do really well this year, because the Crows are terrible! That was just a guess, how can they be any good. Crows? Lions! No, Lions are no good. (someone yells out to play a song). Did someone just yell out play a song? You play a song! I've already played 20 songs i can do what I want. You guys have already eaten all your babies! I've been complimenting your sportsball team... Then finally The Ruling Class is played   Side note for those who don't know - Jeff was referring to Australian Rules Football teams. The promoter BT is a passionate Richmond supporter. Also pro tip for Jeff - don't say the Crows are terrible in Adelaide you may not make it out alive 

Let's Go Rain was followed by a touching story I hadn't heard Jeff tell before. Someone yelled out that they'd met Scott McCaughey. Jeff asked him where he met Scott. "Scott is named in that song because he's one of my oldest dearest friends, he's a true believer, and I wrote this song for him when he had a stroke last year and I sent it him, and the original lyrics were let's go play let's go play rock'n'roll again, but I kept that line in there because I wanted to remind myself where that song came from. Anyway, Scott played in R.E.M. Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows... anyway I think that song fixed him! He's a great guy."  It was a touching moment. 

After California Stars someone mentioned Billy Bragg has played here. "Billy Bragg played here a few months ago? I don't care (laughter). Whatever. Did he play California Stars?" (side note, no he didn't). Jeff then tried a bad Billy Bragg accent to much laughter. He did go to lengths to say he didn't say have any bad feelings to him. A touching version of Evergreen then followed, a fantastic little tune. 

Unfortunately by this point of the show, our table neighbours to the left of us and behind us were being rowdy. The man in front of them to the left of us then yelled out to them to please stop just as Theologians started, which Jeff could hear and started to slow down his playing, and led to a tense time. I won't go into the lack of manners from our table neighbours, except I'll leave this one quote for you to digest, which this woman actually said to my friend “If you want to hear the artist play without people talking you should stay at home and listen to the record.” Yes, you can't make that up.

Jeff then said thanks for coming, this is a special place and he hopes to come back many more times. At this point, a woman then interjected that she wanted to say something. Basically it was along the lines of thanking him for support the women of Australian music like Jen Cloher, Courtney Barnett and others. Jeff said thank you and he wasn't sure where it was going that she might have been angry for not bringing Jen here. Jeff then said that men aren't making much good music these days. Men! 

A rousing ITMWLY closed out the set, with Jeff sliding off stage right. Yelling, clapping and whistling ensued to bring him back. I thought i heard the opening chords of Misunderstood, but someone yelled out for Don't Forget, and we got that, then a brilliant A Shot In The Arm, then that was it. 2 hours of wonderful entertainment, 25 songs and brilliant banter from one of the finest songwriters of our generation. Thank you Jeff. 

So 3 down, 3 to go. On to Melbourne next!

Setlist:

Via Chicago
Remember The Mountain Bed
Bombs Above
Some Birds
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
New Madrid
Family Ghost
Impossible Germany

Marquee Moon (snippet)
You And I
Guaranteed
Hummingbird
I Know What It's Like
The Ruling Class
Having Been Is No Way To Be
Let's Go Rain
Jesus, etc
Laminated Cat
Passenger Side
California Stars

Evergreen

Heavy Metal Drummer
Theolgians
I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore:
Don't Forget
A Shot In The Arm

Jeff's second show on his Australian tour took him to the Queensland capital of Brisbane. A lovely, fairly intimate all seated venue (700 or so capacity), set on the river in a fairly quiet inner city suburb, i'm pretty sure the venue took its name from the fact it used to a power station once upon a time (guessing, but it definitely had that structure).

The show kicked off with the same 3 songs as Sydney, before we got a lovely version of One Sunday Morning, which I was not expecting, and was met with cheers from the crowd (and possibly a 'woo'). 

We got our first lengthy Jeff chat after I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. "How is everyone tonight? I was in Sydney the other night and people were freaked out there were chairs, that place doesn't normally have chairs, anyway... fuck that place man. They'd never seen chairs before, it was weird... but I can't see any of you so you could be all the same people, how would I know?" At this point I stayed quiet - Jeff or his people if you're reading this, yes there's at least 2 of us following you around! Regarding the Sydney comment, apparently the Metro theatre is not normally a seated venue (it was my first time being there) - the front section had temporary seats put in and the back half was GA standing. It did seem to ruffle a few feathers that there were seats, which clearly got back to Jeff. Me, I was happy for the seat! 

Jeff then said people usually yell how is he doing but no one did, so apparently no one cares how he's doing, which of course led to people yelling out how he's doing. In the end we got his response that he was ok. Someone then yelled out would he like a chair which got a big laugh. Jeff then said no, they're stupid 

You and I was prefaced by this is a sweet love song for my wife, she hates it. He then went onto tell the same story he told in Sydney about his New Zealand writers conference, and the crossroads story about when he was in Uncle Tupelo (see Sydney for the whole story). It didn't get quite the same loud laughter it got in Sydney but still got a good laugh.

Before Don't Forget someone yelled out 'Happy goth day', which Jeff interpreted first as golf (damn Queensland accents!) before saying he didn't believe that was a thing. Then he said, anyway here's a song about my father's funeral which got a big laugh.

After that, Jeff encouraged audience singing, to which someone yelled out there's a sign outside saying no singing (there wasn't). And Jeff said '' and i thought you were just dicks"   He then said he wanted us to sing, and started California Stars and after some cheering said "i feel like i just sunk a putt!"

Truth be told it wasn't great singing, the guy next to me singing the harmony along with Jeff (sorry dude you were a bad singer, but you were enthusiastic!). 

After Passenger Side there were a lot of audience requests being yelled out, particularly for Gun, but Jeff said it was too hard to sing and made a face. He then said this is the part of the show where audiences realised the song they came to hear probably wasn't getting played and they need to get counselling.

HMD, Impossible Germany and ITMWLY then closed out the set, and the inevitable yelling and cheering got Jeff back for a fun singalong on Late Greats, before once again closing with Acuff-Rose.

Another really enjoyable show, though I felt the Sydney show was stronger only because the audience wasn't yelling out weird random things like they did here (well, it is Queensland after all I guess!) which Jeff seemed quite bemused by at times. Sydney seemed to flow better, with wonderful audience singalongs - here everyone was, well, let's say off key. Case in point, the guy next to me tried to do the high parts in HMD quite loudly, which Jeff could hear and had to stop himself from laughing. But still no complaints, I thought it was still a great show.

Back to my home state now for 3 shows in 3 days, with the wonderful Meeniyan Town Hall next. Bring it on!

On stage 9pm, off stage 10:35pm.

Via Chicago

Bombs Above

Some Birds

One Sunday Morning

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

Having Been Is No Way To Be

You And I

I Know What It's Like

Hummingbird

Ashes Of American Flags

Don't Forget

California Stars

Jesus, etc

Let's Go Rain

Passenger Side

Heavy Metal Drummer

Impossible Germany

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Encore:

Late Greats

Acuff-Rose

Thanks for the detailed report! Of course I messed up the timing in my own head, so I was thinking the first show wasn’t until tonight...forgot you all are way ahead of us (timewise, and probably otherwise). Sounds like a fun way to kick off the tour.

 

Glad to hear that Jen Cloher was well received (well, she is on home turf). I assume she just played solo? I regret missing her on this run, just as much as missing Jeff!

Yes Jen played solo for about 30 minutes. She was on at 8:10pm, Jeff on at 9pm, over by just after 10:30pm.

Phew that was a long write up, trying to live up to bbop's reviews isn't easy but I gave it a go!

When Jeff announced his first ever solo Australian tour (he toured with Tweedy band in 2016 though), I knew this was a rare opportunity to see him in this part of the world, so made the decision to take the week off work and get tickets to all 6 shows. The first show in Sydney didn't make me regret that decision (like I knew it ever would!).

Kicking off with the solemn Via Chicago, the roar of approval from the crowd afterwards signalled this was going to be a good show. After a terrific  I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Jeff addressed the crowd for the first time. 'How is everyone? People always ask me that. I call it the reverse David Lee Roth, everyone wants to know if I'm ok'. Audience member: 'Are you?' Jeff: 'No'. . He then went on to tell a story about how he has just come from New Zealand where he was at a writer's conference where he was asked to participate in a piece with other authors where they had to ad lib a story in 7 minutes about a time they were at the crossroads. He then said they all pulled out manuscripts where they had all prepared things, so he went out on stage and talked about where they were all cheaters. They tried to make him wear a headset microphone, to which he said no he wouldn't do that, he didn't want pictures of that circulating on the web 

After New Madrid he then went on to share his crossroads story. It was about the time during Uncle Tupelo when his friend Mark moved in with them and how he loved to play Sega video hockey, so him and Jeff used to smoke weed and stay up all night playing Sega hockey. One night there was a knock on the door around midnight where there was a woman heavily pregnant. He went and told Mark there's a pregnant woman at the door, he went 'oh it's been nice knowing you', he went to the door, the door closed and he never saw Mark again   

Before Guaranteed we got the well known story about how his wife loved the song, then he re-wrote it because it was too much, which of course got a huge laugh out the crowd. It got so much laughter Jeff had to then say that the next 2 verses weren't funny!

After that, Jeff went into request mode, saying he wanted to play something we all knew. He asked us what we wanted to hear, which of course elicited a hundred different responses. A call out for Mountain Bed though hit at the right time (after Jeff saying he hoped everyone had been to the bathroom), and so we got that.

Before Jesus etc he talked about his recent show in Pittsburgh where it was so bright he could see everyone in the room, and how one guy right in front of him was a 'woo guy', he'd always heard them but never seen them. It was seriously hilarious. 

Jesus, etc had a nice audience singalong (after a false start, which Jeff blamed on the 'woo'), so much so that Jeff complimented the audience on our singing, and the rest of the set had some nice audience singing, except for one guy Jeff pointed out near the front who although he can't see him, should probably stop    

It Must Be Love also had a really nice audience singalong, most of us being familiar with the Madness version, not Labbi Siffre's original version. 

Jeff gave us a choice of 2 songs, first Passenger Side (huge cheers) or Impossible Germany (louder cheers again) - I felt like I was at a Billy Joel concert for a minute! So we got both songs. California Stars featured a lovely audience singalong, with the audience mostly avoiding singing the harmonies. It was a tremendous way to end the set.

After a likely longer than planned main set, Jeff came back for 2 songs, a great singalong on Misunderstood, then Acuff Rose to close out the show.

It really was a fantastic show. It was the right mix of old and new songs (would have liked maybe 1 or 2 more Warm/er songs), hilarious stories and audience interaction and singalongs. I could sense Jeff was really enjoying himself up on stage.

Special mention to Jen Cloher who supported as well, she's brilliant, and clearly a huge fan. She's just recorded an album at the Loft with Mia Dyson and Liz Stringer (with Glenn Kotche on drums!) which I can't wait to hear. Jeff thanked her at the end and said she's part of the extended Wilco family.

I can't wait for the next 5 shows - off to Brisbane next!

Setlist as follows - didn't see the written setlist but pretty sure it deviated from the 'serial killer scrawl' (his words) he had up there.

Via Chicago

Bombs Above

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

I Know What It's Like

Hummingbird

Lost Love

You And I

Guaranteed

Remember The Mountain Bed

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Jesus, Etc

It Must Be Love (Labbi Siffre cover)

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Let's Go Rain

Impossible Germany

Passenger Side

California Stars

Encore

Misunderstood

Acuff Rose

I also want to echo all the thanks Paul for your wonderful recaps, I love reading them. I'll be attending all the upcoming solo Australian shows and I'll do my best to provide as good and detailed recounts as I can!

Second Melbourne show now on sale for Sunday 26 May at Howler. Howler is a pretty small standing GA venue with a few elevated couches at the back (capacity ~400, half of what the Athenaeum holds) so this should sell out pretty quickly.

Meeniyan and Melbourne night 1 have already sold out.  A lot of small venues (some really small) and a mixture of seated/GA standing shows should make this a special tour.

there better one. i was bang on 10am and got row H... what did you get?

I got row B, which is 5th row I think? It's a small venue so row H will still be fine, but yeah a second show and being closer will be good.

I bought tickets for all 5 Australian shows today. Can't make it to Solid Sound this year so this will be my Tweedy fix. 

There's also space for a second Melbourne show to be added. Judging by how quickly tickets in the presale went today I'd be surprised if a 2nd show didn't go ahead.

Well they missed the boat with this Aussie fan, I already found a way to purchase the book from the American store. Fair dinkum.

Just heard Sammy Tweedy absolutely nailing Military Madness from SS17! 

 

 

Great request Paul! When was that from?

 

Anyone know why Courtney Barnett got thanked? I'm assuming she's interviewed somewhere in the 10 hours?

Courtney does one of the announcements 'hi this is Courtney Barnett and you're listening to Wilcoworld radio' or something like that. I think it was either before or after the covers segment from memory.