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Once again, don't really have time right now to get into the nitty gritty (or lack thereof) in tonight's show, but suffice it to say Jeff seemed to be enjoying himself and in pretty casual mode overall as he performed to a decent-sized, but not sold-out crowd at the quaint Stiefel Theatre in downtown Salina. For one night, Jeff didn't even mention his hip trouble, laughed at himself on more than one occasion when he struggled through the chords on Kamera and generally had a good time bantering with the receptive audience. More when I get a chance, but I should note that this will p

When I saw that this show sold out so quickly (within a day or two, if I'm not mistaken), I was a little surprised since Jeff's solo acoustic shows haven't usually moved quite so fast — even one in his quasi-hometown. But when I stepped into The Sheldon's intimate Concert Hall, which struck me as sort of a cross between a collegiate lecture hall and a chapel, I understood why. I don't have time right now to get into the relative intimacy of the venue and how that may and may not have contributed to the overall vibe of the show, but fortunately, the crowd was respectful in general but not overl

It’s just through the regular event page on Ticketmaster. You basically have to just obsessively refresh and get lucky. If something comes open, then you just buy it like any other ticket. It seems like most of the Tweedy tix I heard popping up were within a day or two of the show (or even a few hours before), which I assume happens when people’s plus-ones or whatever can’t make it or they release a few holds. Good luck!

I got shut out of the lottery as well, but got lucky through other avenues like a few other folks. There was a fan exchange platform that I know a couple people got in through day of show. Guess you just had to be determined and willing/able to take it down to the last minute…

OK everybody, straighten up. Don't slouch. Tatlock, tuck in your shirt and come here and let me do something about that cowlick! We might have a guest at any time in the form of a slightly grizzled singer-songwriter who has stopped by briefly to take the pulse of his audience. After all if there was a Web site where people discussed you and your work, where you could go anonymously and check out what people are saying, wouldn't you at least visit from time to time? All of which is to say, welcome Jeff. (Or welcome back; maybe you never left.) Every now and then a comment made in pa

Wow, thanks for calling my one-paragraph lede "great." Haha, I will write some more that hopefully passes as at least fair to middling... As for questions about the setlist, I always chuckle a bit to myself when people request "the setlist" at Jeff's solo shows because he usually just has a list of songs up there that presumably he feels comfortable playing on any given night. But it's not like he's following a set script. I think he's genuinely trying to feel out the room and the audience and then what he wants to play. That's my understanding of it, anyway. Sometimes he just gets

Whaaaaaaat, Jeff Tweedy played four different solo acoustic shows in a tertiary outpost — Brooklyn, I think it was called — just to warm up for this single set in our nation's capital (that everyone could freely purchase tickets to attend without going through a lottery)? Oh, Brooklyn is more of a "quartiary" (quaternary?) market? Hey, Jeff said it...I didn't. During that same bit of bantering about his run-up of shows leading to tonight's 9:30 gig, Jeff joked that what he was playing "are the songs that went over really well in Brooklyn." He had also joked on the final night in B

Hold on now, Nigel Tufnel entered the match?!? https://youtu.be/TJL942hg0uM

Ah, Tatlock...that's for you to decide.

Four 90-minute shows in five days, no repeated songs! Standing up the whole time, despite a defective hip socket (or two?) causing a painful, uh, bone on bone situation! Playing not one, but two different 12-string guitars! While juggling a ball in one hand! OK, just kidding about the juggling! But really, what can that Jeff Tweedy not do? At one point during tonight's fourth and final solo outing in Brooklyn, whilst musing on how the run of shows had gone and why he had ended up doing four completely unique sets, even Jeff had to concede that it was "pretty crazy" that he hadn't p

If this really was "an epic show," as Jeff paused to observe late in his third of four solo acoustic performances at Brooklyn Made this week, then it'll be pretty interesting to see what happens tonight when the run reaches its denouement. It was easy to see why Jeff said what he did when he did after an alarmed voice toward the back of the room shouted, "Jeff!" as he was nearing the end of Even I Can See. Apparently someone had passed out and the person was trying to get some help — they were quickly deemed to be fine — and Jeff didn't really stop playing for long, explaining that

OK, finally getting off my lazy ass and getting this one started. In a way, I'm glad I didn't get around to chiming in on either of Jeff's Brooklyn Made shows until now, because while there were some similarities between the two nights, the vibe of the crowd was quite different and that made for a pair of unique evenings. I've been known to remark that when it comes down to assessing a Jeff Tweedy solo acoustic show, it usually comes down to whether he's in more of a mood to play or a mood to talk — and, of course, what your preferred amount of each happens to be. But of course the

I'll get back to this in a little while, but suffice it to say that Jeff seemed to feel a bit more confident in exploring some of the dustier corners of his catalog on the second and final night of his annual charity benefit shows at the Vic Theatre (not to mention venturing into a few cracks that aren't even old enough to have picked up any cobwebs at all). The result was a performance that might have been a little lighter on the chat than Night 1, but certainly felt more like the kind of overall effort that causes people to travel in from various corners of the country and wait on the sidewa

Yeah, save your (ta) tas for those doing the heavy lifting...

Corrected, thanks. I really did the original post in a rush this morning, just to get the setlist on the record. Will add to it later.

Four years (and a couple of months) since he last strode onto the Vic Theatre stage in Chicago to perform his annual benefit solo acoustic shows for various charities, Jeff once again found himself before a sold-out crowd that was eager to see him do his thing after missing out for so long due to the pandemic. Of course that begs the question: What is that thing, exactly? Is it playing his own compositions in a stripped-down setting? Is it a de facto comedy act in which Jeff balances songs with amusing anecdotes and crowd work? Is it a chance to have a public moment with a singer-songwriter th

Just doing a little housekeeping, so this one didn't slip through the cracks. I wasn't able to attend this tour-closing performance that was an abridged set as part of a taping for the venerable Mountain Stage public radio program, with Wilco headlining and being joined on the bill by Peter Case, Guy Davis and Garrison Starr, so I'm just lifting and cross-posting the setlist from the good folks at Wilcoworld as a matter of record keeping (but it would of course be nice to hear any details from anyone who was able to attend in person). For now, here was the complete setlist accordin

I'm a little alarmed that anyone other than Uncle Albert would be on pins and needles waiting to read any of my cockamamie blatherings, but thanks for being interested, I guess?

I was all prepared to lead with something about the Mother Church of country music and how Wilco was finally, at long last, playing the one venue it had to play when it finally embraced the genre by putting out an album called Cruel Country. And furthermore, how the band then typically subverted that potential pigeon hole by opening with two of the loudest, skronkiest and probably least country songs in its catalog before finally mixing in some of its "country" material from the most recent record and going on to acknowledge the venue and how special it was to be playing some of this material

You haven't picked up on the fact that's always what I aim for? (You'll get nine grafs out of me, and you'll like it!)

Byrne kind of butchered it, didn't he? If we're being honest...

Yes and no. There’s a lot of tricky wordplay in that one, and maybe the allergies make it a little tougher to focus or something?

Seven songs into tonight's set, Jeff finally broke the silence by acknowledging Wilco's return to the state of Alabama. Ordinarily such a proclamation might have been more dramatic since the band doesn't necessarily get to this part of the world to perform every year — or even every few years — but in this case, you could say that the return wasn't especially long awaited. "We were just (here) a couple of days ago," the frontman observed genially. "We can't stay away." Despite the fact that it hadn't been very long since a show in the area, local fans didn't seem to mind having ano

I think there has been some level of either indifference or bemusement, unfortunately — indifference in the sense that it seems like a lot of people haven't even arrived yet by the time they go on, and bemusement because a lot of the people who are there don't seem to know what to make of them. The latter could be because they kind of have adopted this stage presence that is like a combination of, like, 1950s-era "sister" groups with their matching pink dresses and songs featuring yodeling and harmonies and a comedic duo act with their kooky banter and minimal instrumentation. And

As I was gathering my stuff after tonight's show and trying to let the people who were further down the row exit past me, the woman who had been in the seat next to me turned to me on her way out and said, "Best show ever?" And I looked back at her and replied, "Was it?" I swear I wasn't necessarily trying to be snarky in the moment, and I don't think she took it that way since she sort of muttered, "Yeah," and continued on her way. This is the kind of interaction I find somewhat fascinating since this was a lady who, from our seats just off center in the second row, remained seated for nearly