Jeff Tweedy — 14 May 2016, Chicago, IL (Vic Theatre) [Benefit For Youth Scholarships; Night 2 of 2]

[bböp]

Tweedy family jamboree, anyone? That's more or less what Jeff's second and final youth scholarship benefit performance of 2016 turned into when both Spencer and Sammy Tweedy joined their dad on stage tonight for the end of the main set, providing a couple of the evening's biggest highlights. The trio of Tweedys teamed up on Big Star's Thirteen, with Sammy reprising his excellent lead vocals from several recent performances overseas and Spencer adding backing vocals, and then Spencer and Sammy both contributing backing vocals (along with Spencer handling the drumming) on a fun version of Doug Sahm's Give Back The Key To My Heart.

 

Spencer's appearance, at least, was probably fairly expected given that there was a stripped-down drum kit on stage from the start of the show, but he ended up playing with Jeff for a pretty significant portion of the show — 11 songs, by my count — that included runs through a couple of Tweedy band tunes as well as Just A Kid, which Jeff noted was probably Spencer's first official appearance on a recording. (Jeff tried to coax Sammy to come out on that song to contribute some "na na na na nas," but to no avail.)

 

At any rate, the presence of Jeff's progeny added another memorable dimension to what was already an enjoyable performance with the kind of varied song selection and requisite banter that we've come to expect from these annual concerts. Once again, Jeff started by offering a half-joking disclaimer for anyone that hadn't attended one of these shows before that the setlist had been chosen by the first 30 people in line and that while he had "rearranged (the order of) the songs so as not to be excruciating...because it's for a charity, I don't feel compelled to make it any better."

 

As he had the night before and in previous years, Jeff intermittently answered (or didn't answer) questions throughout the show that had been posed by some of the same people who had made song requests. Among the questions tonight included queries such as:

— If he was to get a tattoo, what would it be and where? (I don't know if he answered the latter, but he mentioned "the Pringles guy" as a likely subject, perhaps with the phrase "snack and destroy." And incidentally, that response was predicted completely accurately by Mrs. Tweedy while she was taking song requests.)

— Are all his daydreams really disasters? (Just as he was answering, a siren blared outside and he offered that as positive evidence that they were.)

— Did he ever get into the Ramones concert about which he had told a story the previous evening? (After retelling the story, Jeff said that no, he hadn't gotten in and thus never got to see the Ramones live. "Fuck the Ramones," Jeff said, half-jokingly. "They're like the greatest band of all time, but fuck the Ramones.")

— What was his favorite concert? (He mentioned getting to see the Replacements opening for X early on when they were playing material from the Stink EP. "I'm not trying to brag, but I got in on the ground floor," Jeff said.)

 

The mention of the Replacements caused one particularly loud-voiced fan who had apparently flown in from Minneapolis for the show to yell out, giving Jeff a bit of an audience foil for a few minutes. "How come I can hear you better than I can hear myself?" Jeff asked, rhetorically. "I think Paul Bunyan's here." The back-and-forth didn't quite reach the level of "Alrick The German" from the night before — see last night's recap for more details — but Jeff still mentioned Alrick briefly when he said early in the show, "I had to shut a German down last night. He liked the worst Wilco songs — that's his thing." Another question for Jeff entailed whether Alrick had "really cost (the audience) a 30th song last night" and the answer was, of course, yes.

 

I'll happily let some other folks fill in details of a few other visits to Banter Corner over the course of the evening, but let me say that, musically, I thought it was cool to see Jeff do a run of four straight songs on 12-string guitar starting with What Light and also of course another highlight was the encore crowd singalong to Space Oddity. My request was for the José Feliciano song Let's Find Each Other Tonight, which Jeff covered late last year for the Fargo television series and though Jeff said there weren't very many lyrics, he also admitted to not knowing them very well. Nevertheless I definitely appreciated the effort that he and Spencer put into playing as much of the song as they did.

 

Generally speaking, I'm sure the vast majority of the song requesters appreciated the effort Jeff made to play their choices and, despite an occasional hiccup and/or (joking) personal comment related to said choices, I think this show will ultimately go down as another fond memory for those who came from near and far to fill up the venerable old Vic. Hopefully we can do it again in 2017!

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night Two:

 

Misunderstood

Muzzle of Bees (started and restarted)

New Madrid

One Wing

Forget The Flowers

The Ruling Class

How To Fight Loneliness

New Moon*

Low Key*

At Least That's What You Said

What Light

Reservations

Secret of the Sea

When You Wake Up Feeling Old

Magnetized

A Magazine Called Sunset

Whole Love

Sunken Treasure* (no harmonica)

Simple Twist of Fate* [bob Dylan]

I Can't Keep From Talking*

You Are Not Alone*

Only The Lord Knows

We've Been Had

Let's Find Each Other Tonight* [José Feliciano]

I'm Always In Love*

Just A Kid*

Thirteen^ [big Star]

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

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

Space Oddity [David Bowie]

Acuff-Rose

 

* — with Spencer Tweedy on drums and/or backing vocals

^ — with Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals and Spencer Tweedy on backing vocals

# — with Spencer Tweedy on drums and backing vocals and Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals

[Albert Tatlock]

 As always a big 

[Magnetized]

Ah, you've done it again, bbop, capturing the show details so well that you've created a perfect structure for the rest of us lucky attendees to fill in with embellishments. (And thanks for not calling out the woman sitting directly behind you who might have, occasionally, been singing along too loud!)

 

The only comment I'll make at this moment is that the whole experience this year left me with a severe case of the warm fuzzies. The two shows were a study in contrasts, with night one being a bit more relaxed and off the cuff, while night two felt more studied and deliberate. This is definitely not a good/bad judgment, just an observation about a subtle shift in tone between the two nights, and not incidentally what makes me love Jeff all the more: You're going to get a sense of the real person behind all the amazing songs, because he never phones it in. From the very beginning with Misunderstood and then on to Muzzle of Bees, Jeff seemed to be playing just a little more quietly and precisely than usual. All of the songs were beautifully rendered, and some of the difference in feel was no doubt due to the song selections, but there were also several other factors for him to orchestrate last night, including which songs Spencer would be contributing to and where to bring in Sammy. That's a lot to pull together in just the 3 or 4 hours he has between submission of audience requests and showtime and--clearly I am projecting here--there was a lot riding on this show with having his two sons up on stage with him in front of a hometown audience.

 

There were several moments last night that left me misty-eyed, including my own selection Magnetized. (Thank you so much for that, Jeff! ) Spencer's subtle, intuitive drumming added nice dimension on Sunken Treasure especially, and Sammy's sweet, pure, young voice on Thirteen was a standout moment. As I was leaving the theater I ran into Sue and said she sure had a lot to be proud of up on that stage. I can only imagine how full her heart must have been.

 

As I pack for my flight home today, I'm grateful to everyone who makes these annual weekends such a rich experience. It all starts and ends with Jeff, of course, but Sue, Spencer, and now Sammy just deepen my affection for the band, and "those same 30 people in line" are all part of what makes this an unforgettable weekend every year. May it go on forever!

[Preferred B]

Nice recap, P! Thirteen was wonderful - I really enjoyed seeing Sammy and Spencer up on stage with Jeff. And I know I'm not the only person who wanted to hear Space Oddity, but I was certainly thrilled that Jeff granted my request. The song holds a lot of memories for me, so to be with friends and see Jeff play it - and sing along with the crowd - meant a lot.

 

Of course the banter corner made the show even more fun. The retelling of the Ramones story yielded some additional entertaining details (like Joey Ramone spending an hour putting on and taking off fingerless gloves before coming out, as seen through the bus window). Jeff poked a little fun at a couple audience members who had requested multiple "dirges" before hitting on songs Jeff wanted to play. And I am probably just projecting based on my own mental reflex every time I hear the name Steve, but there may have been a fleeting Flight of the Conchords reference as Jeff was attributing one of the other requests.

 

As always, this is one of my favorite times of the year. Jeff and Susan (and Mark) deserve a mountain of thanks for their generosity and hard work on these shows!

[Cold as Gasoline]

My memory is terrible, so thanks for the recap, bbop!  These were 2 exceptionally good solo shows, very warm and entertaining.  You could feel Jeff's pride to have his kids up there with him on Saturday. Really good, attentive crowds both nights, too!

 

The whole weekend gave me the warm fuzzies too.  Though I'm not much of a socializer, it was a joy to see some old friends and meet some new ones.  There were a few people I was looking out for that I didn't connect with, but there is always next time.  Thanks to everyone involved for making these shows such a wonderful experience.

 

[sonicshoulder]

I couldn't dial up a better set list....nice job first 30. Wish I could have made one this year.