Jeff Tweedy — 1/5/15, Chicago, IL (Up Comedy Club) [Our Living Room Show]

[bböp]

Wow, first After The Show post of 2015! On another frigid, snowy night in Chicago, albeit thankfully not to polar vortex proportions, Jeff played a short, intimate solo set for a great cause...

 

No encore, which was a little weird given that the applause was definitely there until the house lights went up and he still had quite a few songs left on his "setlist" that he didn't play. Actually he ended up playing one less song than he played at last year's show, which is a little hard to believe given how much he talked last year. This year, though, he definitely played a lot better in terms of not flubbing lyrics or chords. I was hoping for more Sukierae songs, and there were a bunch on Jeff's list of song ideas, but he said they wouldn't sound as good without Spencer (who was in the audience but obviously didn't have a drum kit with him).

 

In general, it just seems to me that Jeff isn't totally at ease playing in this venue and/or setting for some reason. Last year, the crowd was a little weird (and I think there were some doofuses right up front) and Jeff said he hadn't picked up a guitar for like three weeks prior to the show so it was sort of understandable that he'd be a little rusty. This year I thought the crowd was pretty polite, maybe a little too polite — except for the guy who requested Anodyne. But again, and this is total speculation on my part, he just didn't seem totally comfortable. Maybe part of it had something to do with what he referred to a couple of times as feeling like Jerry Lewis and bringing everyone down with "sad songs" after an opening set of sketch and improv comedy from folks like T.J. Jagodowski, Aidy Bryant, Horatio Sanz, Mike O'Brien and Kevin Dorff.

 

At any rate, there were some choice nuggets from Banter Corner as usual (though I'm not recalling a ton right at the moment). He had some fun with a gentleman in the front row who got his check during the set, though he later played his request (I'm Always In Love) and gave the guy his pick. Jeff talked about how he recognizes "everyone" who goes to Wilco shows and how he has to look past "the buffer" of people he knows to try and figure out "where the trouble's going to come from" at any given show; he subsequently told an abridged version of the story about the infamous "Mayor's Daughter" show of a few years ago, which I wrote about here.

 

Jeff also told a story about Spencer mispronouncing Suge Knight or something that I forget how it came about, but anyway. I'm sure others will chime in on more banter that I'm blanking on right now. There was also a good line about getting "a cold chill down my back" when he thought he was going to have to play 30 songs like at an actual living room show and how that was responsible for a slight hiccup during IATTBYH. And he commented on how a couple of women — that some around these parts will likely know — that had been in the front row at all six of the recent Winterlude shows had done a nice job singing along throughout; of course, he also poked a little fun at them by saying they sang along so well that he could actually hear them from the stage and quipped, jokingly, "Nice performance."

 

No matter the weather, though, it's always worth venturing out to catch these Letters To Santa shows. (I don't think tonight was totally sold out, but the room was pretty full). They support a great cause, first of all. And considering the slashed prices and the talent in the room — in addition to Jeff and the improvisers, Steve Albini did a nice turn as the guest monologist/monologuist in a modified Asssscat sort of format — you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a better way to spend a chilly Monday night.

 

Here was Jeff's complete setlist, as played:

 

Fake Fur Coat

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

You And I

Remember The Mountain Bed

At My Window Sad And Lonely (w/harmonica)

Misunderstood

I Might

Shakin' Sugar (aka Alone)

Hummingbird

Born Alone

Please Tell My Brother

I'm Always In Love

Passenger Side

I'm The Man Who Loves You

[Preferred B]

Thorough reporting as always, P. The snow, below-zero temps, and weeknight timing just after the holidays all conspired to make this very tough to attend for a non-local like me (and maybe that was for the best!), but it sounds like a good time for a good cause. Any other details on the comedians' opening set?

[Madcap]

I'll agree 100% with everything in the OP. My first time attending this event and Jeff just did not seem that interested in singing. Of my 40+ Wilco/Tweedy solo shows this was easily the most disappointing. I thought the setlist was fairly generic as far as Tweedy setlists go too.

 

The improv on the other hand was somewhat unexpectedly hilarious. Horatio Sanz and TJ (from the sonic commercials) killed it and everyone else was great too.

[H.Stone]

Thanks for the report, P. I always have crazy make-the-weeknight-drive thoughts about these shows, but given the weather, I clearly made the right choice. Jeff and Susan have both given a lot of time and resources to this Second City event for a long time--it has to be a weird gig given its transformation over the years.

 

Generic or not, I would have loved to have heard a lot of those songs solo/acoustic on a cold, melancholy January night. Thanks for the details.

[aricandover]

The last time I saw Kevin Dorff, he stripped to his underwear and ate a pizza on stage. 

[bböp]

Lol re: Dorff. Where was that? I thought Tim Robinson had a good night up there. Never really remembered him that much from SNL, but I thought he was pretty hilarious last night...

Re: the comedy portion, it started with a few sketch bits from Aidy and Mike. Aidy did a sort of monologue about giving her cell number to her 9-year-old niece and the series of subsequent texts she got. Then Mike did a solo piece about school announcements and the "Creature in the Boiler Room" that I think I've seen before. And then he and Tim did a sort of fake commercial for Chimp Dongs or some such. Finally, the whole cast of eight did their version of Asssscat with Albini giving three different monologues. One was about the origins of his name (which he had legally amended to Steven Frank Albini), another was purportedly about childhood vacations and the last was a story about touring in the late 80s and one night spent sleeping on couch cushions in a frigid room above a venue in Detroit with one of his idols, the Naked Raygun guitarist Santiago Durango.

I have to say that it was a pleasure watching such a pro cast of improvisers work. I mean, I love the 24-hour event but there's so much improv there that you can easily get overwhelmed. Here it was in (mostly excellent) spurts and it was fun watching the comedians work with one another and get into and out of different scenes.

[aricandover]

It was at one of the one of live Delocated Variety shows at the Hideout.

[Gewee]

I went to both shows this years and last years and it's an intimate show, but it's clear that Jeff's either not that into it or feels the audience is not that into it. I don't know. Maybe it's partly because it's during the year-end hiatus where Jeff's usually in the studio and the mix of comedy and great music aren't meshing? There's no disconnect in my mind, but I get the feeling that the audience gets a lot of laughs and is just reacting to the hilarity and then the engagement that usually feed a great Jeff/ WIlco performance is different than a music performance? Hard to put into words but I don't feel like Jeff enjoyed himself this year or last.