Jeff Tweedy - Film: Acoustic in Durham, NC

[shawnsolo73]

Has anyone ever been to one of these before?

http://www.carolinatheatre.org/events/film-acoustic-jeff-tweedy-wilco

In the past they've had Wayne Coyne and Frank Black, among others. They introduce the film and then discuss after it's over. I'm not expecting any performances at all but if someone has been to previous ones and can offer any more info that would be great! Regardless, I'm looking forward to it. Tickets went on sale yesterday and I just found out about it today.Couldn't get two seats together. I was able to get one. Hope the wife isn't pissed...

[GtrPlyr]

Remember seeing that Patterson Hood was doing one for the film "Network" about a month back. As a film and music buff these events sound kinda fun.

[ringo444]

Just bought two tickets for this...I can't believe Jeff Tweedy's coming to Durham to discuss American Movie of all things!

 

This is going to be fun.

[shawnsolo73]

Looks like more tickets were released. I wish I had been patient as I'd love to have taken my wife. Oh well, since I got a single it's up a bit closer...

[Magnetized]

I got a tweet about this yesterday and it said Jeff would be doing a short acoustic set after the Q&A. Gets betterer and betterer!

[shawnsolo73]

Wow! That's great news! I wonder if it will be short by Wilco standards, which could be 5-7 songs...

[Magnetized]

FYI, I bought 2 tickets to this because they were cheap and I had hoped that a friend of mine might be able to make the trip with me. She can't though, so anyone needs a ticket PM me and you can have the spare at face (around $15-20, I think). As I recall they're good seats--maybe 10-12 rows back, center.

[smells like flowers]

How was it?

[Magnetized]

I'll reply in more detail later when I have more time, but for now I'll just say that it was fascinating and satisfying beyond my wildest expectations!

[Magnetized]

For me this was an absolute dream event. First, I totally love "American Movie' but had only seen it before on DVD at home, and it was such a treat to watch it on a big screen in a nice theater with an engaged audience. (If anybody hasn't seen the movie, you should remedy that ASAP. It's just great--by turns hilarious, heartbreaking, infuriating and poignant.) So just seeing the movie in this setting was lovely.

 

Then after the screening the moderator introduced Jeff and told us that he had brought along a very special guest--none other than aspiring filmmaker and photographer Sammy Tweedy! To be honest, I found the moderator a bit of a windbag, but despite his repetitiveness he did still manage to get out of the way when Jeff was talking, and he asked some pretty good questions. It was fascinating to hear how Jeff related to the people in the movie and to hear him discuss what differentiates an optimistic but delusional person with a passion to create from someone with similar qualities but who has found success. He touched on many things that I think most fans would have found revealing: whether he can relate to the fact that people find his songs meaningful in their lives and how he feels about that, his less than stellar academic and job history, how he feels about the act of creating a song vs. performing it, what he thought was the most awkward scene in I Am Trying ti Break Your Heart, and so much more. Actually, it's pretty impossible to convey how engaging Jeff was, but let's just say that he was very spontaneous, sincere, unguarded, thoughtful, introspective and self aware. And he exuded such quiet confidence! It's not like every response was polished and seamlessly delivered, but you could tell from the way he answered that he was trying to communicate as honestly and candidly as possible, and he was working his way through his thoughts. I'm not expressing this very well, but I've always thought that someone with a secure sense of self worth and intellectual confidence doesn't have a problem with thinking out loud, whereas someone who is less secure wants to have more control in situations like this so as not to possibly come off like a fool.

 

About halfway through the Q&A, Jeff began to intersperse talking with singing. He would rise from his chair, strap on his guitar and go to the mic, sing a song and then sit back down for more talk. It sounds like it could have been awkward but it didn't feel that way at all. I'm sure I have forgotten some of the songs, but I remember the first was Less Than You Think, and some of the others were I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, One By One, The Losing End (Neil Young), What Light, and You Are Not Alone. 

 

Sammy was amazingly comfortable onstage considering that he's just 15. He seems to have inherited the creative urge although he's still--obviously--trying out different forms of expression. He handled himself very nicely, not a showoff but not afraid to speak either.

 

I know this is a long, rambling post, and it may be that not everyone here would have found this as fascinating an evening as I did. But it happened to combine two of my passions--movies and music--and two of my favorite examples of each. So, as I said, it was an absolute dream as far as I was concerned.

 

Oh and by the way, a little personal horn tooting: Before the screening the moderator called for volunteers to answer a Jeff Tweedy trivia question. My hand shot up and guess what, I got it right! I forget exactly how the question was worded but the answer was that A Ghost is Born won 2 Grammys, one of which was for cover design. 

 

I hope some others who were there will add to what I've written. All in all, this was one of the most interesting and enjoyable events I've attended in quite a while.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Great review! So, I have to ask: does Jeff relate to the fact that people find his songs meaningful in their lives? And how does he feel about that?

[Magnetized]

Great review! So, I have to ask: does Jeff relate to the fact that people find his songs meaningful in their lives? And how does he feel about that?

 

Yes, he said he accepts it as real and said he has also felt that way about other artists. He said (I'm paraphrasing of course) it's all about what resonates with someone else. He's grateful that people feel this way but he said he never stops questioning what differentiates those like himself who've found a modicum of success with people who constantly strive but don't succeed. He said it's not a fair world sometimes but also that it's probably true that some people have more natural talents and gifts than others.

 

I can't recall how he said this but he talked about how a good song conveys a feeling but is not a literal description of the feeling. Something to the effect that when a song is too literal it's dead--there's no coming back from that. All you can do is put it away and come back to it again sometime later when you're refreshed and not in that same mindset.

[JethroNC]

. I'm sure I have forgotten some of the songs, but I remember the first was Less Than You Think, and some of the others were I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, One By One, The Losing End (Neil Young), What Light, and You Are Not Alone. 

 

 

 

 

 

Songs played, in order:

Less Than You Think

IATTBYH

The Losing End

One By One

You Are Not Alone

...and about 30 seconds of finger pickin' - he was asked what he would play if no one else was in theatre, and he said, "If it was just me, I'd probably be trying to learn some finger picking thing that I don't know how to play."

 

 

I can never remember the rules around here, so I'll just note that there's a YouTube video of

.

[JethroNC]

Great review! So, I have to ask: does Jeff relate to the fact that people find his songs meaningful in their lives? And how does he feel about that?

 

 

Yes, he said he accepts it as real and said he has also felt that way about other artists. He said (I'm paraphrasing of course) it's all about what resonates with someone else. He's grateful that people feel this way but he said he never stops questioning what differentiates those like himself who've found a modicum of success with people who constantly strive but don't succeed. He said it's not a fair world sometimes but also that it's probably true that some people have more natural talents and gifts than others.

 

I can't recall how he said this but he talked about how a good song conveys a feeling but is not a literal description of the feeling. Something to the effect that when a song is too literal it's dead--there's no coming back from that. All you can do is put it away and come back to it again sometime later when you're refreshed and not in that same mindset.

 

Along the same lines, here's one of my favorite exchanges from the night:

 

Robert Milazzo: Do you understand why people would want to meet you? 

Jeff Tweedy: Yeah, because I think people develop emotional connections to songs and to art. It's very understandable because the emotion is coming from the listener, from the viewer, from the watcher. You can't put emotion in music, I'm sorry to tell everybody that. You put yourself into a piece of art and hope that somebody else identifies something that they hadn't been able to identify but it's coming from them. 

[Magnetized]

Along the same lines, here's one of my favorite exchanges from the night:

 

Robert Milazzo: Do you understand why people would want to meet you? 

Jeff Tweedy: Yeah, because I think people develop emotional connections to songs and to art. It's very understandable because the emotion is coming from the listener, from the viewer, from the watcher. You can't put emotion in music, I'm sorry to tell everybody that. You put yourself into a piece of art and hope that somebody else identifies something that they hadn't been able to identify but it's coming from them. 

Yes, that's exactly what he said. This looks like it came from a transcript. Is there one available? I'd love to go back and read this.

 

By the way, you should take my lame attempt at translating what Jeff said with many grains of salt. As I read the above, I realize that I'm probably mixing up his responses to several questions and filtering them through my own feelings. So I'm definitely an unreliable reporter.

 

And oops, it looks like he didn't play What Light. I wasn't sure about that one when I wrote it down in fact, but it was running through my mind.

[moniker]

Nicely reviewed, folks.

 

A few notes about the songs he played:

• Less Than You Think: this was an audience request from someone up close to the stage.
• IATTBYH: This was a request from the moderator. He had brought up the movie and had asked a few questions about it. It made for an interesting comparison to the documentary that we had just watched. The moderator mentioned that he really liked the version of IATTBYH that's in the movie and asked if Jeff would play the song... and he did.
• The Losing End: After each song Jeff would sit back down (with guitar on knee) and answer a few more questions. After discussing IATTBYH, the conversation segued into Jeff's involvement in the film I'm Not There. The moderator asked if he would perform Simple Twist of Fate to which Jeff said... "no" and chuckled. He added something about there being too many words and that he'd mess it up. There was then a short exchange about performing covers which I don't recall. This seemed to result in Jeff deciding to play The Losing End. Very unexpected and I quite enjoyed it.
• One by One: a microphone had been set up halfway back in the hall and a woman was allowed to ask a question. She thanked Jeff for Mermaid Avenue and asked if he could talk about the sessions as well as play one of the songs. Jeff picked One By One.
• You Are Not Alone: this was in response to a discussion about Mavis Staples and Jeff's work with her. The moderator than asked if he'd play the song.
• "Finger-Pickin' Thing": see great comment above from JethroNC... and the quote sounds spot on to me.

A few more notes:

• I don't believe Jeff brought any of his own guitars with him. Before the movie, I'm pretty sure the moderator stated that they had found him one. Unfortunately, we were't close enough to see it in much detail. It was a matte black acoustic guitar with a white pick guard. Not sure on the make.
• IATTBYH discussion: the awkward scene as mentioned above by Wilco Me is the one where Jeff is asked to meet some folks in a room after one of his solo performances. He credited the director for staying with the room when he exits. He said something to the affect that at the time he really didn't understand or had a hard time realizing that he was the focus of attention in the room. Later, he found it curious to see how the crowd mills about speechless and then slowly disintegrates upon him leaving the room. It's very hard for him to watch. There was more about IATTBYH... wish I could remember it all. Sorry. 
• Mermaid Ave discussion: Jeff corrected the questioner... Nora Guthrie did not directly ask Wilco to be involved, but it was Billy Bragg that did so. This, I believe, is pretty general knowledge. However, Jeff then went on to say that he found out much later that Billy first asked Son Volt but that Jay declined to be involved. Don't think I had ever heard that before.
• Sammy: Jeff was introduced and he walked out with the guitar which was placed on a stand beside the chairs. They talked for a bit before Sammy was brought out as an added special quest. Sammy did great, although really wasn't out there for very long. They talked about how the whole family was involved in picking which movie to present. But once Jeff started performing, Sammy quickly b-lined for backstage. There was mention of him grabbing his camera but I don't recall seeing him again. Jeff joked at one point that he might have already jumped on a plane for home.
• Oh.. also, Boyhood was brought up and the moderator asked how that came into being. Jeff said they had asked him to contribute and that he provided Summer Noon. And then quickly said he wouldn't perform it as it's not a great tune to do with just an acoustic guitar. I got the impression that he didn't realize that Hate it Here would actually be discussed IN the movie and that it actually distracted Jeff a bit while he was watching the film for the first time... took him "out the movie". He also mentioned that instead of "Boyhood" the film should have been called "Motherhood" and was very complementary of Patricia Arquette's performance.

[shawnsolo73]

I am so thankful for the people who have posted their thoughts on the evening. Although I did not get drunk I probably had one more beer than I normally do and couldn't remember all the songs Jeff performed. It was a fascinating evening and I'm so glad I was lucky enough to attend. I was talking with someone who had been to a few of the previous ones and she said that sometimes they are over at around 9:30 so this one went a little longer it seems. Nice that Jeff took his time. I didn't get the impression that the artist performed at all of them.