Jeff Tweedy Champaign

[mike squires]

This is a lot of pressure. I'm not much into reviewing concerts and I can't give you a set list. I feel like if I kept track of every song I would lose my focus on the show. Anyway...

 

What a show. My wife and I walked in what must have been about 1/4 into the Autumn Defense set. They truly showed that they are great musicians and songwriters. Their quiet strumming and beautiful harmonies took me back to the 70's when I was about 7 listening to Simon and Garfunkle through the old transister radio. What an intimate set these guys put on. I truly felt I was watching Austin City Limits or something. MY only complaint, let's just say I'm glad Mr. Tweedy is the lead songwriter of the group! Stiratt and Pat seemed very appreciative of being able to open for Jeff and the reception they got.

 

After about 20+ minutes, Jeff walked out and immediatly started his amazing set. I would say this had to exceed my expectations. Jeff had the audience from the beginning. I can't even tell you what he opened with but was soon playing, I am Trying To Break Your Heart, Sunken Treasure, Cars Can't Escape. After about 3 or 4 songs Jeff began his usual crowd comedy banter. He talked about his recent scuffle with the "fan" and how he can't use the same jokes anymore because of his DVD release.

 

I would say the crowd was pretty respectful. There were a few knuckle heads and 2 guys sitting a few rows apart starting talking back and forth a bit. Tweedy said, "are you guys fighting amongst yourselves?" He messed up the beginning of a song by forgetting the words and took him a minute to get back on track. After the song the crowd started to make a few requests. I yelled slightly just above everyone else..."RADIO KING." Now, I stated in the champaign thread how he would make my night if he played this song. About 4 seconds after yeling it out, he did the little intro to it. Now I'm a 33 year old male, 6'3 about 200 pounds but I will be the first to admit, I'm in touch with my feminine side. I could have cried at this moment. I honestly believe Jeff either saw my post earlier in the day or he heard my request. My wife thinks I"m a moron and naieve for thinking he played this for me but considering his huge catalog of songs I think it would have been too ironic for him to have played it at this point. A friend of mine asked me after the song, how did you do that?!" Jeff, in fact you played it for me and you are reading this I appreciate it. I do believe he took some requests. Another guy called out for GUN and he played it right after...Another obscure song. Of course during all these requests, someone yelled out Freebird. He got booed and Jeff shook his head sadly as if to say, there is one in every group.

 

Jeff played a nice variety of songs....In a Future Age, Summer Teeth, was i in your dreams, Theologians, Shine a Light, Bob Dylans Beard and finished with We can make it better. The final song and radio King were my highlites.

 

Please add folks and I'm sure someone will have a setlist in a matter of time.

 

Mike

[skip]

Great show!! My first JT solo gig. Third row seats were great. A lot of banter from JT - noticeably more than Wilco shows. Wish I had a set list - sorry.

 

Cars Can't Escape was a suprize. Nice mix of songs from BT, ST, YHF, AGIB, & new unreleased stuff (i.e., what a light, walken, & thanks I get). Don't recall any Mermaid Ave. songs. As mentioned, Radio King was played.

 

Also heard two songs which I didn't recognize - maybe new songs? One mentioned "have patience w/ me" and the other had... a theme of.... looking back on where one comes from and being lucky to have made it out (if that makes any sense). Don't recall much more than that. Perhaps someone knows more about these songs?

[chicagobones]

First song was Spiders. Great, great show.

[mike squires]

Yes, Spiders...I prefer the acoustic version Jeff played.

 

In all seriousness, this guy could no doubt be the next (our generations) Johnny Cash. Even wore all black tonight.

 

Wilco gets quite a bit exposre (especially since YHF) but if this guy doesn't get a Rollingstone cover or a spot on SNL, then what we already know is true...the current stae of music sucks.

 

This had to be one of the best shows I have ever seen. There were a few times I had to swallow hard, particulary,,,when he intensely says..I AM SO OUT OF TUNE WITH YOU. I found myself taking pictures in my mind so I would never forget this experience.

 

I have to also say, being from Indiana and not letting me bias speak, Illinois crowds are typically lame. Not this one. Aside from the usual one or two idiots, the crowd was a good one!

 

Time for bed.

[blindgonzo]

I envy you all right now! Glad you had a fantastic time though!!

[MKHstudios]

Foellinger Auditorium

U of I

10/27/06

 

Spiders

IATTBYH

Cars Can't Escape

Instrumental

Sunken Treasure

Was I in your dreams

Lullaby for Rafters and Dreams (I think)

The Ruling Class

Radio King

*new song ?? (Be Patient with Me?)

Summerteeth

Gun

Theologians

I am the Man who Loves You

 

Bob Dylan's Beard

What light

In a Future Age

Wishful Thinking

Walken

Is that the Thanks I get

[oceanman]

Just got home,what a great show!

 

Finally got my What Light,Walken solo is beyond this world.

 

Got to help out Jeff during the Rulling Class,stoped and started twice so I felt ok in giving him the next line.

[thisyearsgirl]

Just got home,what a great show!

 

Finally got my What Light,Walken solo is beyond this world.

 

Got to help out Jeff during the Rulling Class,stoped and started twice so I felt ok in giving him the next line.

 

i think that the "fighting" jeff was referring to was between members of the audience feeding him different lyrics for "the ruling class"...oceanman, i guess you were one of them; i was another.

 

for the record, i thought the crowd was excellent...maybe a bit too polite. people were even hesitant to participate in singalongs, though erin, morgs, wendy, and i sure had fun playing our part.

 

off to bed...eight hours in a car is serious business, but jeff shows definitely are worth every mile. also, i wanted to chime in that pat and john sounded lovely. some of the new songs are sounding especially sweet!

 

g'nite.

[oceanman]

I could hear a pin drop when I spoke up,I thought the aud fighting was for calling out Black Eye,"I'll give you a black eye".I usally don't make a sound at solo shows but I felt Jeff really needed us,he looked rather emarassed,we did our job.

 

Where were you sitting?

[NoOneKnowsMe]

That was me for the "I'll give you a black eye" comment. I was getting pissed off. The people behind me on the first level were just rude, loud, obnoxious college students (and I am in college myself, but I think I can set myself apart from them). If the crowd was respectful in the front, towards the back it just got stupid, and I had had enough. It was just overall disrespectful, and Jeff didn't deserve it. He was very patient with putting up with people at times.

 

Good show though. I really did enjoy it.

[thisyearsgirl]

I could hear a pin drop when I spoke up,I thought the aud fighting was for calling out Black Eye,"I'll give you a black eye".I usally don't make a sound at solo shows but I felt Jeff really needed us,he looked rather emarassed,we did our job.

 

Where were you sitting?

 

row C section 2

 

i didn't hear that other comment. i guess jeff could hear us all, huh?

[Wendy]

...eight hours in a car is serious business ...

yeah, with pouring-down rain and just horrendous traffic on 465 around Indy, we were worried we'd be too late, but we walked in 10 minutes before Autumn Defense came on. Whew! Nice mellow set by John and Pat.

 

Thanks to Jen for taking such a good setlist, and to MKH for identifying the Zamboni Man song and posting the list. I didn't recognize the song, even though I watched the movie short when it first came out, but according to WilcoBase (and MKH said this as well), Jeff has only played it live once before, at Raleigh. So that was cool.

 

Does anyone know if this movie short is viewable online anywhere right now? I tried YouTube, not there under Zamboni Man or Seth Henrikson the director. It's a sweet story and I'm sure others would like to see it.

 

And the other new song is beautiful as well. There were 2 tapers that we saw, and I'm sure in due time the show (and new song) will be available.

 

It was fun seeing old friends and making new!

 

There is so much anticipation before a solo show, and then it's all over so fast. Someone in the audience said, after Jeff came back onstage for the encore, "Don't leave us again!"

[Wendy]

i didn't hear that other comment. i guess jeff could hear us all, huh?

well, because we are facing each other (our ears are pointing toward the stage, and his pointing out at the audience) ... I guess that makes sense. But he really doesn't miss much.

 

Yeah, from where we were sitting, the audience around us seemed completely attentive, quiet, respectful, and almost boring (especially compared to the recent rambunctious audience in Missouri! )

 

Oh yeah - Borat was in the audience tonight!

[M. (hristine]

Just got home,what a great show!

 

Finally got my What Light,Walken solo is beyond this world.

 

Got to help out Jeff during the Rulling Class,stoped and started twice so I felt ok in giving him the next line.

Yay Ryan, you got to hear What Light! Accoustic. Nice.

 

Sounds like a lovely setlist and a great show.

[Edie]

Foellinger Auditorium

U of I

10/27/06

 

Spiders

IATTBYH

Cars Can't Escape

Instrumental

Sunken Treasure

Was I in your dreams

Lullaby for Rafters and Dreams (I think)

The Ruling Class

Radio King

*new song ?? (Be Patient with Me?)

Summerteeth

Gun

Theologians

I am the Man who Loves You

 

Bob Dylan's Beard

What light

In a Future Age

Wishful Thinking

Walken

Is that the Thanks I get

 

Thanks Warner. Did you tape it?

 

Couldn't make it due to my recent trip; wouldn't be a good idea politically here at home. Same with the Mil show coming up. Oh well; can't do it all.

[oceanman]

That was me for the "I'll give you a black eye" comment. I was getting pissed off. The people behind me on the first level were just rude, loud, obnoxious college students (and I am in college myself, but I think I can set myself apart from them). If the crowd was respectful in the front, towards the back it just got stupid, and I had had enough. It was just overall disrespectful, and Jeff didn't deserve it. He was very patient with putting up with people at times.

 

Good show though. I really did enjoy it.

You weren't out of line at all,good job Wilco Army in full effect!

 

Miss Chis,I thought of you and the girls during What Light.

 

And hello to a man named Jason I got to meet and share the show with and standing in line to get our posters signed,if your around these parts,please say hello.

 

Oh yeah,in What Light I heard..............What Light,One Light,and White Light........the mystery continues!

 

GWilly,sorry for not meeting up after the show,I decided to hang around and say hi to Jeff,and the fact that I just found out the my Cards took the world series kind of upset me,for Iwas not there.Turns out that when I got back to my car that my stereo crapped out,4 hours of alot of heavy thinking made me .

[chicagobones]

So Jeff came out to sign? I stuck around for a bit, but obviously left too soon. Nice poster, would have been even better signed.

[skip]

What Light,One Light,and White Light

 

I remember catching that too. The chorus describes the lighting - very minimalistic - one, white spotlight on JT and that was it.

[lost highway]

Can anyone tell us more about this mysterious new song?

[mike squires]

So Jeff came out to sign? I stuck around for a bit, but obviously left too soon. Nice poster, would have been even better signed.

 

Yeah, I should have stuck around a bit too. I have an old poster from 97 that would have looked nice signed. Maybe next time.

 

No bus for this show. I saw a yellow Ryder type truck and maybe a white van. It reminded me of when I played a show back home in 97. We only had the usual stuff for bass, guitar and drum but had to rent out a small uhaul to get the equipment there. I felt silly backing up to unload to find only a few guitars, drums, a few amps and a bass.

 

Good job calling the guy out for the black eye. You must have been 4 rows or so behind me. I was in M. Jeff did a nice job getting back on track saying just cuase he messed up doesn't mean he lost control of the show and that he does this all the time and he's a professional. For as nervous has I've heard he gets before a show, you would never know it the way he interacts with the crowd.

[thisyearsgirl]

Oh yeah,in What Light I heard..............What Light,One Light,and White Light........the mystery continues!

 

i heard that too. i love that it's a mystery.

 

skip, good call on the spotlight thing, though.

[thisyearsgirl]

Can anyone tell us more about this mysterious new song?

 

i wrote down some lyrics, but i gave my setlist away. all i remember is it was relatively slow and had the repeated line "you are going to have to be patient with me". i got a little teary listening to it...as-is usual with jeff, it was sung very obviously straight from the heart. the lyrics, i also remember, were, as are many of the other new songs, pretty straight forward.

[lisa]

Foellinger Auditorium

U of I

10/27/06

 

Spiders

IATTBYH

Cars Can't Escape

Instrumental

Sunken Treasure

Was I in your dreams

Lullaby for Rafters and Dreams (I think)

The Ruling Class

Radio King

*new song ?? (Be Patient with Me?)

Summerteeth

Gun

Theologians

I am the Man who Loves You

 

Bob Dylan's Beard

What light

In a Future Age

Wishful Thinking

Walken

Is that the Thanks I get

 

THE ZAMBONI MAN SONG!!!! - (Lullaby ...) one of the most memorable moment of my limited JT solo experience was hearing this heartbreaker lovingly strummed in Raleigh last july. poor nearly teenage guy next to me died when i gestured ( close with me"). Another one of the reasons not to wear mascara, GIRLS, to JT or Wilco gigs. (GUYS - the tear streaked think is a turn on!) Lucky guys all of you who got the Zamboni Man song.

[lisa]

Lullaby for Rafters and Beams -- snagged a recording from Raleigh -- if somebody call tell me how to get it up for others, it'll be there -- be forewarned -- I am totally disabled with the computer, so you'll have to call me and hold my hand, but it is a gorgeous 6 minutes!

[lisa]

One last thang -- I really wanted to join you in Champaign -- the last time I was there was in 1973 or 1974 (were you born yet?), when I hitchhiked from NYC to Champaign for a Grateful Dead concert. Best remember drawing snow pictures with the tires of the semi-truck that gave me a lift. Seems like magic comes to Champaign. Please folks, tell me, it's close to being there hearing your memories. (No, I am not a sad old lady, just passionate about my passions ... )