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Radio City?! Wow..seems large...thanks for the dates! I am looking forward ot the tour!

Yeah, Radio City is kind of a bummer but what are you gonna do? They've become one of those bands that's transcended the age groups (i.e. they're popular with both teens/college kids and with older NPR-type folks). They sold out Hammerstein when they last played there, didn't they? And that was like two years ago. Not many other places to go in NYC after you start selling out Hammerstein.

If I can find a decent ticket, I'll try to go to Radio City. But all I was pulling up in presale was Row A and B, which isn't bad (remember at Radio City, it goes AAA-DDD, then AA-ZZ, then A-Z) but one would hope to be able to do a little better.

Fwiw, I certainly don't have many great things to say about Terminal 5, but their show there the day after Election Day was pretty awesome.

Ben opened some shows for Jeff on his solo tour in 2001 (he did at Irving Plaza in New York, at least), and I believe they had a dandy old time.

Extra kudos to Ben for giving props to "Pick Up The Change."

Not to be nitpicky, but it's Zankel Hall fwiw.

Good news about the back catalogue. Boo about Bunkhouse.

Just curious. Only found out today about the Vic shows and grabbed some tix for Friday.

Pretty sure it's doors at 7 and show at 8.

Not sure if this is the same place as the show but here's a link to photos of the Beacon auditorium.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb...ctionCat=NEWS02

Thanks for posting that link. I'm sure that's the place. It looks like somewhere Jeff could play, and not nearly as ramshackle as I was picturing (although ramshackle would have been cool with me).

Since we're talking about one of the Cline brothers, I figured I'd mention that the magazine Downbeat is apparently working on a piece on both Nels and Alex for an upcoming issue so keep your eyes peeled. (In the current issue, I believe they gave Alex's new record Continuation five stars and Nels' four. Both are really great, and worth picking up.)

I would expect both Clines to be involved with the Cryptogramophone "nights" in the Bay Area and LA in late March. And FYI, I just saw it finally confirmed that Nels will be playing five nights at the Blue Note in New York from April 7-11 as part of Jenny Scheinman's trio (also featuring Steve Cardenas on guitar).

You can buy them yourself during the regular sale on Saturday.

PRICEY though

Well, it is a benefit.

Thanks for the update...hmph wonder how many the Auditorium holds?!

Not sure about that. I would have to guess that it's not tremendously big, being a high school auditorium and all, but beyond that I couldn't even guess at numbers. I also presume there are a certain number of tickets held back for people involved with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater organization.

It would have been nice to be able to see a seating chart, though.

Good luck to all getting tickets on Saturday. I guess you can never underestimate Wilco's/Jeff's popularity in the Northeast.

Tried for $75 couldn't even pull them up! on at 10am on the button. Did anyone get tickets? Is this a GA show...did they give you a row and seat number?!

 

It's weird. Under the "More info" tab on MusicToday, it says it's GA. But I pulled up a couple of seats with row and seat numbers, so I'm assuming it has to be reserved seating. Also under that tab it said something about 15 people from the $150 section will be selected at random for a "pre-show meet-and-greet with Jeff Tweedy."

I pulled up one ticket right away at 10 and stupidly threw it back. Then I got locked out for a while. Still managed to snag one, though for what I presume is a worse seat than what I initially had.

Jeff also said he changes clothes seven times -- exactly seven -- before he comes out each night. And he always ends up wearing the exact same thing.

Not sure where that fits in with the pear, but there you go.

Thanks, Paul. Too bad Kristen Schaal isn't opening in Vancouver.

I know, she is totally awesome. Her standup, which I've gotten to see a couple times in various different incarnations, is really zany and hilarious. (Not to brag too much about a fellow Northwestern alum. )

:/

Sorry, Kyle. I know you're a bit miffed at this whole phenomenon.

Didn't see these posted here yet. Not surprised at the venues based on how quickly stuff sold out last year in much smaller venues, but damn, they've gotten big fast. Guess that's what a show on HBO will do for you. (I'm happy for them that they're doing so well, though.)

On a New York note, I'm sure they'll add another night at Radio City when the first one sells out.

4/06/09

Say this for the folks who run the Ann Arbor Folk Festival: They run a tight ship. Jeff got pretty much exactly his allotted hour, and not much more. Obviously, it was a huge treat to hear "I Wanna Be Your Dog," which Wilcobase informs us he's only done once before (though I thought he had also played it at Lounge Ax at some point). Jeff called it a little bit of "Ann Arbor folk." I also thought it took some guts to play two songs off the PA in a fairly big room like that.

There was a little bit of a weird vibe in the crowd, which you maybe would expect at a show with eight -- actually nine, if you count MC Jim Lauderdale -- different performers. I'm sure there were people there specifically to see Old Crow Medicine Show and people who just come to the festival every year regardless of who's playing and people who are just supporters of the Ark. It seemed like a wide spectrum across the audience, definitely not just people there to see Jeff. I saw a lady in the front row actually crack open a book midway through Jeff's set, and someone told me that he saw some people near him respond not positively when Jeff talked about Christ smoking crack.

Perhaps because of that odd dynamic, Jeff had some -- shall we say -- interesting banter, including confessing that he eats one bite of a pear every night before he comes out on stage. That was pretty random.

Anyway, here was the setlist:

Someone Else's Song (played at edge of stage w/o PA)

One By One

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

new song-Everlasting Everything

new song-Solitaire

IATTBYH

Wait Up

I Wanna Be Your Dog [The Stooges]

The Ruling Class

Jesus, etc.

Airline to Heaven

A Shot in the Arm

I'm The Man Who Loves You

-------------------------------

Acuff-Rose (played at edge of stage w/o PA)

Jeff also made a comment about some of his guitars "coming home." I assume he was talking about Gibson, though I'm not 100 percent sure.

If he was, I had no idea that Gibson was originally based in Kalamazoo and that, at least according to Wikipedia, the production of Gibson guitars didn't move from Kalamazoo to Tennessee until sometime between 1974 and 1984. The history in that Wiki entry is pretty interesting. Anybody have more insight?

How did the two new songs sound? Can you remember any lyrics from them?

Obviously judging from just one listen, they're both kind of quieter, more pensive numbers -- more suited to an acoustic performance, it seemed like. Jeff even jokingly said something like, "Don't worry, they won't be on the record."

I jotted down this opening (?) line from Everlasting Everything: "Everything alive must die/Everlasting love is alive." And from Solitaire, "I doubt I had it all figured out," as well as something about "It took too long to believe I was only" [something inaudible]. There was also something about "all I played was solitaire," hence the title. Those were the titles that Jeff gave, by the way, when someone asked what the new songs were called.

Word is that Jeff's set will be just an hour tomorrow in Ann Arbor, FYI. There are eight acts on the bill, after all.

The State Theatre wasn't sold out, but the people that did make this show on a snowy evening were pretty boisterous. There was a lot of yelling out from the crowd, both in the form of requests and comments. Not sure whether that made for a better or worse show or if it affected Jeff much at all. He seemed in good spirits, for the most part, and bantered with the crowd throughout the show. Seemed like a slightly short set to me, but who knows whether there was a curfew or whatever.

It was definitely great to hear three new songs, two of which I don't believe have been played live previously. Wilco played "I Will, I Will" [my title] at one of the Bridge School benefit shows back in October. Jeff said those are the songs he knows right now.

In the first encore, Jeff had his 12-string in hand and was clearly going to play Heavy Metal Drummer. But after an exchange with the audience, he opted out of it -- said he didn't feel like playing it anymore -- and decided to play an acoustic version of Kingpin instead, which was kind of funny.

Anyway, setlist as follows:

One By One

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Jesus, etc.

new song-Everlasting Everything

new song-Solitaire

Summerteeth

The Ruling Class

Hummingbird

new song-I Will, I Will

Passenger Side

Impossible Germany

IATTBYH

A Shot in the Arm

------------------------------

Fake Plastic Trees [Radiohead]

Wilco The Song

Kingpin

I'm The Man Who Loves You

------------------------------

The Thanks I Get

Acuff-Rose (played at edge of stage w/o PA)

Need 1 ticket for Calvin show.

Mike 7174875507

Dude, you still have plenty of time to get one in the regular onsale.

I figure there's enough Bird interest here that it's worth posting the setlist from tonight's show (which maybe was the formal kickoff for the Noble Beast tour?):

Hot Math [Andrew solo]

Fitz and the Dizzyspells

Masterswarm

Effigy

Nomenclature

Not a Robot, But a Ghost

Lull

Tenuousness

Natural Disaster

Oh No

Fake Palindromes

Anonanimal

Souverian

Tables and Chairs

-------------------

Glass Figurine [Andrew solo]

The Privateers

As is obvious from the setlist, Andrew played a ton of new stuff including almost all of Noble Beast. He was joined by his regular touring band of Martin Dosh on drums, Jeremy Ylvisaker on guitar and Mike Lewis on bass, clarinet and saxophone. (I can't remember which song it was just now, but Andrew said it was "a big moment because I said I'd never have saxophone in my band.") It's always nice to see Andrew in a more intimate setting, but certainly I think the band was using this as a warmup gig for Wednesday's big show at Carnegie Hall.

I think some people might have been expecting him to play more of a mix of older favorites and new material and that might have taken the energy of the crowd down a little bit. Plus, it was a Monday night. Andrew even asked at one point, "Are we playing too many new songs?" But despite many shouted-out requests, the band pretty much stuck to its setlist. For me it was interesting to hear the new stuff with a full band behind it. I had heard a couple of the songs on Noble Beast at a fairly recent solo performance, but it was interesting to hear the full band play them. Since I hadn't had a chance to listen to the record before the show, I'll be curious to hear how it sounds compared with the live versions.

Anyway, that's about all my brain can muster at this hour, so I'll leave it at that...

I bet the acoustics are awesome.

Well, I meant I covered a game at Beacon High. I guess they must have a separate auditorium. But yeah, I'm sure it will sound amazing...

Beacon High Auditorium.

 

 

that is just awesome.

Seriously, that could not be more weird. I covered a basketball game there once, I think.

For Valentine's Day, can we request a "set within a set" of all Jeff's love songs (like he did in LA a few years ago)?