Jeff Tweedy - 6 jan 14 at the Up Comedy Club Chicago

[Spoodledude]

Living Room Show in aid of Letters to Santa.

 

A short but enjoyable set with much banter and laughter on a stupidly cold night!

 

Via Chicago

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

Long Time Ago

So Much Wine

Passenger Side

Art of Almost

Shakin' Sugar

Dawned on Me

Radio Cure

Kamera

Bull Black Nova

Pecan Pie

Jesus, etc.

 

I'm the Man Who Loves You

[bböp]

Well, I guess my work here is done...    

[Magnetized]

More, please!    All you folks who were lucky enough to be there, we'd love to hear details. You're entitled to sleep in today and get your typing fingers warmed up this morning, but I hope we get to hear some more color commentary once you've had your morning coffee!

[Albert Tatlock]

Well, I guess my work here is done...

 

Say it ain't so ...

[Jcamp]

One interesting part of the banter was about bands breaking up. And how ridiculous it is when they get back together. When pressed about Uncle Tupelo, I've never heard a reply before that sounded more like a maybe.  Mister Bbop, please chime in. What was your take on that bit?

[Jcamp]

My recollection is that I heard something like, "You never know".  

[Guest Jules]

He said something like "sounds like fun".  I think he meant "no way in hell."

[Jcamp]

I suppose that's more accurate. It is interesting though that he initiated the talk of bands breaking up and reuniting. 

[nalafej]

It was a fun evening. I thought the comedy was great - especially the headliners Mike and Aidy. 

 

Jeff came out around 8:30 and played to about 10:00PM. He mentioned early in the set that he hadn't picked up a guitar in 3 weeks and I have to say that it showed. A fair amount of bum notes throughout the evening. Jeff also mentioned not feeling like playing music.

 

He had his cell phone on the table with the setlist and harmonicas and was looking at it between songs and in some cases during songs. Lots of jokes about texts coming in and how popular he was including texts from Beck, Weir and, seemingly, Sue requesting comedy bits (cheezits vs cheetos). 

 

The crowd was small and edgy. Mostly appreciative and attentive during the songs with the typical shout outs between songs.

 

I really enjoyed Long Time Ago, New Madrid and I'm the Man Who Loves You. 

[bböp]

One interesting part of the banter was about bands breaking up. And how ridiculous it is when they get back together. When pressed about Uncle Tupelo, I've never heard a reply before that sounded more like a maybe. Mister Bbop, please chime in. What was your take on that bit?

I don't pretend to even be able to guess at what goes on inside Jeff's head, but I would say don't put too much stock into what he said (or sort of said) about Uncle Tupelo reuniting. From what I jotted down, that little discussion of why do bands even break up when they just reunite like two years later came toward the end of the show, during one of several extended, rambling digressions. There was some mention of the Replacements by the "drunk" lady in the front row, and my recollection was that when Jeff was asked about Uncle Tupelo, he said something like, "Sure, that'd be fun. ... Let's start a rumor." Which I read as, the suggestion is so far from the realm of reality at this point that you might as well just say anything.

 

He sort of brought up the bands reuniting thing out of nowhere, actually. Maybe it was brought on by the recent news of OutKast getting back together for Coachella, or the Kinks possibly reuniting. Or something else entirely.

 

I thought it was pretty funny how distracted he kept getting by the "smattering" of applause that would break out when he started various songs. He even got us to do a loud burst of applause before Jesus, etc., so he could do what he called a Jose Feliciano-style "Thank you very much" response. And he continues to get mileage out of the recent clapping incident in Santa Barbara; he told the story and then a couple of times later in the show, there were clapping interludes, including a slow clapping outro to I'm The Man Who Loves You in the encore.

 

There were a couple of weird moments of "tension" during the show. One came with a story about how Jeff's wife had been eating Cheetos at 2 a.m. recently while on vacation and a friend of hers (I think it was former Lounge Ax co-owner Julia Adams, but I'm not sure) chimed in from the back that she hadn't been eating Cheetos and that led to a funny back-and-forth between her and Jeff for a while. I think Jeff even joked at one point that "this is getting kind of tense...I like it." And when Jeff told the story about the ordeal of his recent conversion to Judaism, there was some interesting interaction between Jeff and a Jewish woman — and her husband.

 

Another funny bit of banter was when Jeff said, at one point, "This is the worst show you've ever been to, like when Lenny Bruce read his court transcript." It wasn't totally surprising that Jeff would be a little bit rusty (and self-conscious) if he really hadn't picked up a guitar for three weeks. He did seem to be in one of those moods where he felt more like talking than playing music, and the vibe of the audience certainly made it easy for him to do so. Perhaps that's what "Our Living Room Show" was intended to be. Jeff did apologize repeatedly, even as he was walking off stage and then at least once more from the wings; he acknowledged that he knew that these had been expensive tickets and thanked the crowd for contributing to a good cause.

 

Personally, I wondered how the setlist had been created. My understanding was that the people who paid $1,000 for front row seats were also supposed to get a song request. (And one girl in the back — who presumably didn't shell out a grand — certainly provided Jeff some banter fodder when she made a request for the Beatles' "Rocky Raccoon," saying that it had been played at every acoustic show she had been to lately even though she admitted the musicians had all been her friends.) Anyway I'm not sure if the high rollers were contacted in advance or what, but Jeff didn't say anything about it. In any case, he was working from a setlist with 25 songs on it. But a number of songs in the second half of the list got cut/weren't played, including At Least That's What You Said, Candyfloss, The Thanks I Get and Dreamer In My Dreams. I guess sometimes, as they say, them's the breaks.

[Guest Jules]

As far as the setlist goes, I believe the $1000 tickets were not the front row but another "VIP" section they call "the rail".  The idea was these people would get the requests (in advance I assume). Not sure how it really shook out but it was not the front row people doing the requests to my knowledge.

[Sandoz]

Dang, I'd brave a polar vortex to hear Shakin' Sugar. Can't remember the last time I heard it. Sounds like a great night - Im sad to have missed it.

[Gewee]

We were seated right up front by the hostess, but we paid the $300 price. Jeff usually (playfully) blames the audience for the set list when they pick it, so I bet he put that together. By the end, he was soliciting for tunes, hence Pecan Pie and Jesus Etc.

 

I though the best part of the back-and-forth was his story about the moile and guy trying to interact who was just not up to the task. I believe Jeff referred to him as Himmler at one point. Pretty funny

[radiatortunes]

We had $300 tickets, as well, and the hostess seated us very close to the front, just off to the right. We shared the back half of a tiny round table with another couple who were directly in front of the stage. 

 

I think the improv folks set the mood because Jeff was having a great time joking around, starting and stopping songs for hilarious extended banter.

 

The cuff on his left sleeve got caught on his guitar at the beginning of "Kamera" which lead to some funny stuff, mostly Jeff imitating himself and singing in that goof-off voice like when he forgot the words to "Far, Far Away" at one of the Largo shows last month.

 

Bonus: the lineup was on the third floor of the building just outside the comedy club and not out on the street in polar vortex territory.

[Guest Jules]

So I'm the only asshole who actually paid $500 to be up front. I'm cool with that.

[Jcamp]

It was such a shame that the weather affected travel plans. And even a few of the SNL headliners flights were canceled and were unable to attend. ( i.e. Cecily Strong and maybe a couple others ).

 

Seemingly, because of the limited SNL billing?; the promoters raffled off a trip for two to NYC and a behind-the-scenes Day to the SNL set near the end of the show.

 

 When we arrived; there was just one guy waiting in line on the 3rd floor. While we figured it was okay to bail on the line for a quick bite to eat. This first guy in line endured the wait. Maybe it was coincidence but, He won the trip to NYC!  So, that was cool to witness at the end of the night. Good for him!

[bböp]

It was such a shame that the weather affected travel plans. And even a few of the SNL headliners flights were canceled and were unable to attend. ( i.e. Cecily Strong and maybe a couple others ).

 

Seemingly, because of the limited SNL billing?; the promoters raffled off a trip for two to NYC and a behind-the-scenes Day to the SNL set near the end of the show.

 

 When we arrived; there was just one guy waiting in line on the 3rd floor. While we figured it was okay to bail on the line for a quick bite to eat. This first guy in line endured the wait. Maybe it was coincidence but, He won the trip to NYC!  So, that was cool to witness at the end of the night. Good for him!

 

I think the SNL tickets/backstage tour were donated by Cecily, in part because she couldn't make it to the show (Tim Robinson and Tami Sagher also couldn't make it because of travel snafus). The winner does have to cover his own transportation costs to/from NYC, though. But very cool that the winner was the first guy in line; he was sitting literally right next to my friend and I!

[hinko]

So I'm the only asshole who actually paid $500 to be up front. I'm cool with that.

Nope, I'm the other asshole. I was seated center, right by the steps, back of first table right next to Gewee who paid $300.  Might not have gotten the front of the table because I was a single.  I suspect I would have had the same seat for $300, I was there early and only a handful of folks in front of me.  Oh well, it was a good cause.  I know there were $500 seats right up to pretty close to the show then only showed $300.  I don't remember but I think they had 23 $500 tickets and thats probably about the number at the front tables.  I'm thinking they may not have sold all the $500 tx?  Before tickets went on sale, the word was there would only be $300, the others would be sold at the charity event in person.  When they went on sale I saw the $500 which I wasn't expecting and made the quick decision to buy one.  I'm cool with it too! 

[Chez]

I thought the show was light on songs and too heavy on banter. I usually find Jeff to be very funny, but it seemed like he was consciously avoiding playing music. BTW, the guy who won the SNL tour (I was second in line and spent over an hour talking to him) was a great guy and recently retired from the military. It was his first Tweedy/Wilco show. Very happy for him.