TWEEDY — 6/18/14, Tulsa, OK (Cain's Ballroom)

[bböp]

Although I've been fortunate to see Wilco play in this legendary venue a couple of times, I always wondered how a quieter gig like a solo show would go over. As I was informed by some pals, the previous time Jeff had played solo here, it was a reserved seating setup. On this night, however, it was "full-on rock club" — general admission standing and without even a barricade at the front.

 

Jeff acknowledged as much, noting at one point that this was TWEEDY's first show in such a setting and that they had mostly been playing venues with nice, cushy seats thus far. So in that sense, Jeff probably knew what to expect; this is a venue where I always marvel that you can buy six-packs of beer, for example.

 

That might not seem like an ideal setting for a band playing just its ninth-ever show and performing a set of new material, but Jeff has always seemed to enjoy playing this old dance hall in the shadows of so many legends. He reiterated that again this time around, and mentioned a couple of times the band's visit to the sparkling new Woody Guthrie Center museum (which is located just a couple of blocks from Cain's and is well worth checking out, btw) earlier that day.

 

At any rate, this was a show in which the crowd was certainly boisterous — for better and worse. It meant some enthusiastic singalongs, but also the omission of a couple of the quieter numbers from the TWEEDY oeuvre as well as the lack of a show-closing off-PA system performance that we've come to expect at most of Jeff's acoustic shows. And it meant a sometimes-distracting amount of chatter from the back of the room, which at times affected both The Handsome Family and TWEEDY band sets.

 

So there was definitely a new sort of atmosphere for the show tonight, and that made for another interesting evening. I guess that's all I've got time to write now, but hopefully there will be a few more comments to come.

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played:

 

Down From Above*

Diamond Light*

Wait For Love*

Flowering*

Summer Noon*

Honey Combed#

Desert Bell*

World Away*

New Moon*

High As Hello*

Low Key*

Slow Love*

Nobody Dies Anymore*

Via Chicago^

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart^

New Madrid^

Theologians^

Whole Love^

Passenger Side^

Laminated Cat^ (aka Not For The Season)

Hesitating Beauty^

Born Alone^

Jesus, etc.^

I'm The Man Who Loves You^

A Shot in the Arm^

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

Give Back The Key To My Heart* [Doug Sahm]

California Stars*

 

* — with full TWEEDY band

# — with guitarists Jim Elkington and Liam Cunningham only

^ — Jeff solo acoustic

[Albert Tatlock]

Some pics:-

 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/photo-gallery-jeff-tweedy-performs-at-cain-s/collection_c345c1a8-f773-11e3-ba23-001a4bcf6878.html

[bböp]

One funny bit from Banter Corner: When Jeff was introducing the band before Slow Love, as he usually does, he said Spencer was his son and then looked back at Liam and said "he's also my son, but from a different mother." (Jeff had joked at some previous shows that he and his wife had unofficially adopted Liam as their third son.)

 

Obviously Jeff was kind of going for a "brother from a different mother" sort of thing, but he quickly realized how his comment sounded and corrected himself. He joked that he'd have to call his wife (to clarify) before the show could continue. Lol.

[Magnetized]

About banter, I'm curious whether Jeff has made any mention of having signed up on Twitter. So far, it looks like his Twitter account is going to be mostly business/promotional in nature, but I'm still really bemused by the profile pic they've chosen--at least for now. I'm interested in hearing what, if anything, he says about it at shows.

[choo-choo-charlie]

Rockin' the Strat! Haven't seen Jeff play one of those since the videos from the Being There tour. The Loft's Facebook page said there was a "Strat reawakening" happening...

[M. (hristine]

One funny bit from Banter Corner: When Jeff was introducing the band before Slow Love, as he usually does, he said Spencer was his son and then looked back at Liam and said "he's also my son, but from a different mother." (Jeff had joked at some previous shows that he and his wife had unofficially adopted Liam as their third son.)

 

Obviously Jeff was kind of going for a "brother from a different mother" sort of thing, but he quickly realized how his comment sounded and corrected himself. He joked that he'd have to call his wife (to clarify) before the show could continue. Lol.

Jeff seems to be trying to piece that whole bit together. At the Columbia show he introduced Liam the same way, adding that Liam had just shown up one day with a suitcase and stand up bass, and that was pretty much how one got to be a part of the Tweedy family. Spencer quipped something I couldn't hear, and Jeff said yeah Spencer came out of his mother's vagina with a suitcase and stand up bass also, but then retracted and said it was in fact a Caesarean, so we shouldn't be concerned.

 

Poor Spencer. 

[Magnetized]

Jeff seems to be trying to piece that whole bit together. At the Columbia show he introduced Liam the same way, adding that Liam had just shown up one day with a suitcase and stand up bass, and that was pretty much how one got to be a part of the Tweedy family. Spencer quipped something I couldn't hear, and Jeff said yeah Spencer came out of his mother's vagina with a suitcase and stand up bass also, but then retracted and said it was in fact a Caesarean, so we shouldn't be concerned.

 

Poor Spencer. 

 

 

And poor Sue!

[kidsmoke]

hahahahahaha

[Bdubs]

This is my second show to see in Cain's and each one have been the best Wilco/Tweedy shows I've had the pleasure to see.  One thing I was disappointed by was not having the concert posters available that night.  I've noticed they have slowly been trickling in on the website a few weeks after every show.  It by no means ruined the night for me, but i wanted to see if anyone had heard if there is just a delay in the posters or is it hit or miss? 

 

Also, the Handsome Family was pretty cool in person.  I liked their banter and crowd interaction.  Felt bad that all the chatter ruined the start of their last song.  It was pretty loud all night.  I was surprised Jeff didn't say anything.