Jump to content

Jeff Tweedy — 5/15/15, Chicago, IL (Vic Theatre) [Benefit For Youth Scholarships]


Recommended Posts

More details to come, but for now, here was the complete setlist as played:

Lost Love
Remember The Mountain Bed
I'll Fight
Blasting Fonda
Don't You Honey Me
Childlike And Evergreen
Radio King
Please Tell My Brother
Be Not So Fearful [bill Fay]
No More Poetry
Pecan Pie
You Are Not Alone
Secret of the Sea
Everlasting Everything
Camera (aborted)>
Kamera
Panthers
Far, Far Away
Pot Kettle Black
Nobody Dies Anymore
Wait For Love
Hummingbird
Forget The Flowers
Flowering
Fake Fur Coat
The Long Cut
Theologians
The Thanks I Get
----------------------------
Acuff-Rose
A Shot in the Arm
Misunderstood

Link to post
Share on other sites

Jeff got some real curveballs thrown at him tonight. The obscure/rarity ratio was high, as were the number of quieter songs requested by,as he put it, "depressed people". It's always so great to see him at these shows, though I do wish he had reached down into the first 3 rows stage right and scooped up some of the inane chatterers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I love these shows and go every year, but the crowd always ends up bothering me by the end with their yelling,etc. good show though, highlights were lost love, be not so fearful, blasting fonda, long cut, flowering and forget the flowers personally. I will say, I was pleasantly surprised with the requesters restraint in not requesting Jeff play random covers and instead just play songs in the tweedy/wilco songbook, so bravo!

Oh, I also loved how he got mixed up with no more poetry because it sounds exactly like several other songs he had already played haha.

Link to post
Share on other sites

tumbleweed.gif

Yeah, I guess it has been weirdly quiet around these parts in terms of this show. On a personal level, I blame it on an extra-busy weekend; apologies for the delay... :ninja I guess I was also thinking a few more people would chime in, but then again, this year's show wasn't all that well attended, unfortunately.

 

The balcony was only half full, by the looks of it, and the floor didn't feel all that crowded either. You could speculate on why — an especially-busy Friday in Chicago show-wise with Gary Louris/Kraig Johnson, Tame Impala and Ben Folds, among others, also in town; or Wilco/Tweedy burnout with two TWEEDY band shows in the same venue just two months prior; or too much other stuff going on with lots of people in town for graduations, etc.; or the fact that this is no longer exclusively a Montessori benefit now that neither of Jeff's kids are enrolled there (and so that school's parents and teachers don't feel as compelled to attend) — but I heard that there were $25 walkup tickets being sold at the box office the night of the show. I don't have any independent confirmation on that by the way, but, at any rate, I hope this was just a one-year anomaly because this show or show(s) are among the rare opportunities for Chicago-area folks to see Jeff perform solo anymore and it's always a fun time.

 

In terms of the show itself, I wouldn't say it was Jeff's best or worst performance in terms of these Youth Scholarship Benefit gigs. It's almost impossible to satisfy everybody anyway because for every person who wants to hear deep cuts, covers and side project obscurities, there's others (like some of the above commenters, apparently) who prefer it when Jeff sticks to the relatively well-known portion of his own catalog and does favorite cuts off of favorite Wilco albums. It's always a tricky balance, and it's always interesting to see what Jeff ends up playing and what he doesn't.

 

From the outset, it seemed like Jeff might shy away from playing a lot of the Sukierae material that was requested but I'm glad he decided to do a few of those songs in the second half of the set (though still no I'll Sing It, much to the chagrin of at least one person I know!). For the record, one of my requests was Why Why Why but I certainly can't complain at getting Don't You Honey Me instead. That one didn't come to me until the last minute, but looking it up, it looks like maybe he hasn't played it since '97. He said it was a song that "everyone else in Wilco hates," so I guess that means we won't be hearing a full-band version again anytime soon? Anyway, thanks to Jeff for taking that one on; I enjoyed it!

 

As for Banter Corner, there were too many little moments to recount them all. But Jeff got good mileage throughout the show from a running bit that stemmed from him forgetting to take his phone out of his pocket for the first couple of songs and feeling it buzz when his wife texted him. So after a couple of songs, he put his phone on the table next to him and would periodically read the texts that she was sending him. Since all of the song requesters also had a chance to ask Jeff a question, we also:

 

—learned that Jeff doesn't eat sugar (negating questions about whether he prefers plain or peanut M&Ms and what his favorite ice cream flavor is)

—got some insights on Jeff's "desert island" guitar (if I'm not recalling incorrectly, he bought it while making Mermaid Avenue and it has since been used to write many of his songs and appeared on every subsequent Wilco record)

—heard why Wilco probably won't be playing in Normal, Ill., again anytime soon (the financial realities of live music promotion)

—discovered Jeff's favorite commercial jingle ("...by Mennen")

—found out if Jeff has ever played anywhere weirder than a bathroom (which he had actually done earlier that day at his son's school; he replied the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom in Santa Cruz, Calif., just because of its weird name)

—got to see him put on an enormous bass guitar he said he brought along just because it made him look smaller and all clapped at the appropriate point when he played the riff from Blister in the Sun.

 

Jeff didn't really struggle too much throughout the set, though he did have a little lyric flub midway through You Are Not Alone and ended that one a bit early. And he tried to grant a request for Camera, but ultimately decided he couldn't really play it that way with an acoustic guitar — he noted that he doesn't play guitar at all when the band does it — and wound up playing Kamera instead. He also seemed to stumble a bit with No More Poetry, but noted that that song was originally meant to be open-ended lyrically and be more of an improvisational vehicle (hence the title), so maybe that doesn't count. Other highlights for me included Panthers, the rarely played Everlasting Everything (which he said was Bill Fay's favorite song of the Tweedy oeuvre) and Secret of the Sea.

 

One other thing I don't know if anyone else noted but that seems worth mentioning was the fact that Jeff technically played the whole show unplugged. By which I mean that he didn't have a cable plugged into his guitar(s) but just a vocal microphone and another shorter one to amplify the guitar. He didn't have the echo pedal he sometimes uses on songs like Someday, Some Morning, Sometime, or anything else for that matter. I can't remember another public solo show when he hasn't been plugged in at all, so it made for a slightly different feel (though like I said, I doubt many people noticed) that was almost like a living room show. So that was pretty cool, IMHO.

 

I guess that's all I can think of for now, but hopefully it fills in at least some of the details for anyone who was interested... :cheers

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't have much to add to that recap, except that I had an excellent time as always. I hope we can get another 2-night stand next year (c'mon, Chicago!) but it was fantastic to have this show in May instead of February or March, weather-wise. I was able to catch my first game at Wrigley on Saturday with some good friends. Even though I'll never be a Cubs fan, gotta respect the ballpark.

 

I maintain that it would have been interesting to hear an acoustic arrangement of Diamond Light, but I don't have to worry about pesky things like how that would even work! I was more than happy to get Lost Love, at any rate.

 

Congrats again on your own graduation weekend, P!

Link to post
Share on other sites

On a personal level, I blame it on an extra-busy weekend; apologies for the delay... :ninja I guess I was also thinking a few more people would chime in, but then again, this year's show wasn't all that well attended, unfortunately.

 

I never lost my faith in you - many thanks  :pirate

Link to post
Share on other sites

Perhaps the best mention from Friday night's show was Jeff's comment about 'next year's show'..

Let's hope that this winds up being a two night affair...

 

My requests didn't include deep cuts as I thought I'd offer the new 'Everyone Hides' with 'Pot Kettle Black'.

What a fantastic show!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Perhaps the best mention from Friday night's show was Jeff's comment about 'next year's show'..

Let's hope that this winds up being a two night affair...

 

My requests didn't include deep cuts as I thought I'd offer the new 'Everyone Hides' with 'Pot Kettle Black'.

What a fantastic show!!!

"Next year's show..."!!! Right On! First I've heard mention of this tradition continuing! Such great news. I was wondering if it might end when his last kid finished the Montesorri school (which I think is very soon, if not already).

With no Solid Sound next year, I'd hope to possibly make this again, if it was a two night stand (too far to travel for just one show).

Great requests BTW- Know he chose "Pot Kettle Black", which is great, but I'd also have loved to have heard a version of "Everyone Hides"!!

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Finally got around to this just today.

Front of Balcony - Tascam DR-40 WAV 16bit/48k > Audacity (audience level adjustments) > FLAC

Let me know if there are any problems with the link.

Nice spending time in line with you.

 

-Josh

 

https://goo.gl/Suapdj

Thanks Josh, good to see you too!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sure.  I just did the same for both of this year's shows as well (in the torrents section).  Feel free to add them to the Archive as well. 

 

The system you are using wants me to add some extension to Firefox. I don't want to do that. I think it is good enough that you are putting it out there and if someone needs it down the road they can contact you.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The system you are using wants me to add some extension to Firefox. I don't want to do that. I think it is good enough that you are putting it out there and if someone needs it down the road they can contact you.

 

Sorry about that.  it works natively in Chrome (which is what i use/tested it with).  I will update if I find another host. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tried my best to download the show but no disc. Any chance it can be put up on etree? DIme a dozen would even work. Thanks for posting. I am sure there is some grey matter missing preventing me from understanding how to do it on this platform

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tried my best to download the show but no disc. Any chance it can be put up on etree? DIme a dozen would even work. Thanks for posting. I am sure there is some grey matter missing preventing me from understanding how to do it on this platform

Try the new link...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...