Jeff Tweedy — 3 February 2018, London, UK (Barbican Centre [Barbican Hall])

[bböp]

Perhaps Herr Tatlock (always good to see you, sir ) or someone else will already have some thoughts typed in by the time I get a chance to offer a more thorough recounting of the final night of Jeff's all-too-brief UK and Ireland solo run, but I will say that IMHO there was a somewhat weird dynamic between Jeff and audience tonight. Not enough to ruin the show by any means, but probably enough to keep it from gaining much momentum...

 

[edit: Since only one other person has chimed in so far, I suppose I shall endeavour to post some further thoughts now.]

 

As I was saying, a bit of a weird vibe between Jeff and audience at the Barbican the other night. I've long maintained that for a full Tweedy solo experience, you need a proper mix between respectfulness and rowdiness, but in this case I'm not sure there was really either — or at least they manifested in somewhat offbeat ways. Perhaps I'm biased by the two well-lubricated gents sitting directly in front of me, who decided to finally make their way to their seats two songs into Jeff's set, chat regularly, shoot video clips on their phones and even contribute some to the crowd yelling. Or more likely, it was just the various audience members who clapped sporadically (and badly), asked Jeff random questions or liberally shouted requests and then told him to play songs when he chatted too long.

 

In some ways, this probably could have been expected. The sold-out Barbican show was held in a auditorium with two balconies that probably held three times the audience as the other venues on this run — and more people usually equals more yahoos. Add to that the variety of cultures that probably were represented in such a cosmopolitan melting-pot city as London, and there were bound to be some relatively odd behaviours.

 

For his part, Jeff didn't say a word until six songs into the show when he somewhat surprisingly picked up his harmonica rack again to play She's A Jar and wound up humorously sharing that "at soundcheck, I got one of my beard hairs stuck in my harmonica, and if that happens again, there's going to be no way to continue. You'll think I'm really into (playing the song) when tears shoot out." After a few more songs, Jeff introduced the new song Let's Go Rain by saying it drew from the Biblical story about the Great Flood. "I want it to happen again is what I'm getting at," Jeff said. He then added his only real political comment of the tour, saying he "can't sleep when he's over here, thinking, 'What the fuck did that asshole (Trump) do?'

 

But arguably Jeff's funniest quip of the show came during the next song, Hummingbird, in response to a simply terrible lone clapper. It finally became so distracting that Jeff had to pause and say, "OK, that's enough. I know we're white, but come on."

 

During the encore, Jeff came back out and attempted to grant an earlier audience request for Remember The Mountain Bed. When he stumbled over a lyric in the first verse, however, he aborted the song saying he was "chickening out." Then someone yelled out and asked him just to play the last verse, which he did. "I should do that with more songs," Jeff said. "I've been knocking myself out up here with whole fucking songs!"

 

Two songs from the end of the show, the audience interaction came to a head when Jeff essentially ended up doing a Q&A session after a woman yelled out to ask him what tuning he had been using on Kamera. He answered her in detail, then invited more questions. Of course the next one was when Wilco would be touring again (he confirmed that Wilco would tour again in 2019, "just not here.") And it went on and on with various questions about his Kel Kroydon guitar — the turning lady naturally inquired about whether they held tunings well — and his Stetson hat. Then some lady yelled for him to play some songs, which I think pissed Jeff off because he told her to fuck off and that he was having fun answering questions. At some point he joked that since there had been so many requests that he couldn't or wouldn't play, he was going to give away all his tunings and tell people to get their own Jeff Tweedy hats so they could just come on stage and play all the songs they actually wanted to hear.

 

At any rate, it was a bit of a strange conclusion to what was generally a pleasant winter run of solo gigs on this side of the pond. If nothing else, it was fun to hear the new songs Jeff played each night and see how the acoustic arrangements of old favorites like Bull Black Nova and Impossible Germany have continued to develop. Here's hoping Jeff will play at least a few more non-festival solo shows this year and that we'll get to hear more of what he's been working on...

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played at the Barbican Hall:

 

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Ashes Of American Flags

Locator

new song-Bombs Above

New Madrid

She's A Jar (w/harmonica)

Bull Black Nova

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

new song-Don't Forget

Impossible Germany

new song-Let's Go Rain

Hummingbird

You And I

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Passenger Side

California Stars

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

Remember The Mountain Bed (fragment)

Jesus, etc.

Born Alone

Kamera

Misunderstood

A Shot in the Arm

[Chronicpop]

Having the pleasure of a seat directly below the mic I was able to see Jeff’s reactions to the endless chatter, shouted requests and questions from the audience- at times he seemed like he was processing quickly how to react or whether to push on. On balance he seemed to take the banter well and gave as good as he could given the chatter that flowed the other way. Still, I’d have to guess that maybe two potential songs were wiped out by the amount of time he spent on the audience (“what turning was that in” - “when’s Wilco coming to the U.K.? “Why does your guitar have painted birds on it?”) The set list was on a cabinet near his mic stand so it was impossible to see what was actually played vs audibles. Still, the Barbican often seems to create odd interaction between artist and audience - a few years ago some people were incredibly rude to Daniel Lanois who was opening for Emmylou Harris.

[bböp]

Still, I’d have to guess that maybe two potential songs were wiped out by the amount of time he spent on the audience (“what turning was that in” - “when’s Wilco coming to the U.K.? “Why does your guitar have painted birds on it?”) The set list was on a cabinet near his mic stand so it was impossible to see what was actually played vs audibles.

 

The paper he had on that table wasn't really a setlist so much as a list of songs he wanted to get to (or could potentially audible to) grouped together by various tunings. There's an example of one in the thread about the Edinburgh show.

 

I took a picture of the London one — I think it probably was the one used by Jim Elkington while pseudo-guitar teching for Jeff — that I could probably post at some point. But basically it had quite a few songs on it, some he did play and many others he didn't (including The Ruling Class, Someone To Lose, Someday, Some Morning, Sometime, In A Future Age, Radio King and I Can't Keep From Talking — unfortunately none of which he played at all on this little tour).

[Albert Tatlock]

Apologies for a late few words, but had a family event yesterday and I'm suffering from a cold today. Thanks for keeping up the reporting Bbop.

 

It did feel a bit 'different' - inevitably since this was a sterile large arts centre type venue compared to the cosy Union Chapel where I had last seen JT totally solo, and that kind of venue, like the Edinburgh one on this trip, makes it much more of a celebratory meeting rather than a performance to an audience (with as you said, a higher ration of weirdos). Only the buttocks were won over by the Barbican's comfy chairs (I didn't expect the  ...) compared to the Union Chapels rock hard pews. The acoustics were also fine of course, and I did think JT's little light brown guitar (getting a bit technical there) sounded gorgeous.

 

The other factor in my case was that I had a first time JT/Wilco show attendee with me so I was in indoctrination mode.

 

I was a tad miffed that none of my random sprinkling of less common requests never got a look in. Interesting that one of them (Sometime) was on that list you saw, so shame. Would have liked to hear Lost Love too since it did get played earlier on the trip. The new songs on first listen did not completely grab me, but then it was just the one listen. I can't imagine the rain song being on a Wilco album - it's much more of the simple folky/gospel lyrical style of Woody, or the recent songs for Mavis. Maybe it was left over from those recordings with her and we might not see too much of it again.

 

The encore with extended QA was entertaining since it was unexpected, and still enjoyable despite the few awkward moments (and a few things about the guitar that had been spoken about at other times). It didn't seem to get to the point where JT was actually annoyed. It was a bit random to bring up the Lee Harvey Oswald picture with reference to the Texas Ranger Open Road style stetson. More information than I really needed to know about hats but could be useful at my next fancy dress party.

 

Still, another notch on the bedpost of shows, and the JT/Wilco first timer came away a mild convert too.

 

A question - having got to know by sight a few members of the Wilco entourage over the years - and with the entry/exit to the Barbican stage being through a side door and small flight of steps in front of the audience making him visible, is Hagrid the minder a regular?

[50footqueenie]

Apologies for a late few words, but had a family event yesterday and I'm suffering from a cold today. Thanks for keeping up the reporting Bbop.

 

It did feel a bit 'different' - inevitably since this was a sterile large arts centre type venue compared to the cosy Union Chapel where I had last seen JT totally solo, and that kind of venue, like the Edinburgh one on this trip, makes it much more of a celebratory meeting rather than a performance to an audience (with as you said, a higher ration of weirdos). Only the buttocks were won over by the Barbican's comfy chairs (I didn't expect the  ...) compared to the Union Chapels rock hard pews. The acoustics were also fine of course, and I did think JT's little light brown guitar (getting a bit technical there) sounded gorgeous.

 

The other factor in my case was that I had a first time JT/Wilco show attendee with me so I was in indoctrination mode.

 

I was a tad miffed that none of my random sprinkling of less common requests never got a look in. Interesting that one of them (Sometime) was on that list you saw, so shame. Would have liked to hear Lost Love too since it did get played earlier on the trip. The new songs on first listen did not completely grab me, but then it was just the one listen. I can't imagine the rain song being on a Wilco album - it's much more of the simple folky/gospel lyrical style of Woody, or the recent songs for Mavis. Maybe it was left over from those recordings with her and we might not see too much of it again.

 

The encore with extended QA was entertaining since it was unexpected, and still enjoyable despite the few awkward moments (and a few things about the guitar that had been spoken about at other times). It didn't seem to get to the point where JT was actually annoyed. It was a bit random to bring up the Lee Harvey Oswald picture with reference to the Texas Ranger Open Road style stetson. More information than I really needed to know about hats but could be useful at my next fancy dress party.

 

Still, another notch on the bedpost of shows, and the JT/Wilco first timer came away a mild convert too.

 

A question - having got to know by sight a few members of the Wilco entourage over the years - and with the entry/exit to the Barbican stage being through a side door and small flight of steps in front of the audience making him visible, is Hagrid the minder a regular?

 

I think you're referring to Eric the Tour Manager who is also the ghost of Jerry Garcia.

[milenaferrante]

Hi everyone!

 

I will read everything above since I am really curious to know what you think...

 

But here's my take...

 

I am forced to write “by heart” since I planned to record the show but my plans fell through. Which is not a bad thing per se. The only warning is that I might write relying more on my impressions than on the real thing. Warning: 1. don’t read if you don’t have time since it’s really long but the reading time is actually 5 minutes :-) 2. excuse my English if it’s wrong (and please correct it) and 3. let me know if you have a different view.

 

First, the Barbican is a hell of a venue. Nothing comparable to old Italian theatres of the same capacity in terms of fascination, but the urban feeling and the perfect crystal clear acoustics maybe favoured by the wooden floor and wall woodwork made it the ideal venue for a solo guitar show. The feeling you get is the one of antique craftmanship without it being regarded as something “passé”.

 

That’s exactly what I get from Tweedy solo shows. He uses all tricks of old country and western and the hobo tradition, but he embellishes them with the aura of a contemporary landscape and a metropolitan flavor. What he has in mind, I think, is educated “leftist” audiences, well grounded in literary references and musically savvy. That is evident when one lady at the fronts asks for the chord progression of one of the songs. When he launches in the rather usual remark on the Trump government, apparently casual but well prepared, (he says something like “you wake up in the morning thinking of what “he” might have devised during the night and having nightmares about it”) he utters it with such ironic confidence that he seems completely sure that each member of the audience agrees.

 

Musically, he’s embarking more and more in a shrinking process which reminds me of late Tim Buckley and Johnny Cash. He keeps the volume of the amplifiers rather low as he were in a room with 12 people rather than 2000, uses 2 mics, one for the voice and one for the guitar, almost no pedal effects, he often re-tunes on the spot instead of changing guitars, but he has at least 3 wonderfully sounding guitars (the black one, a vintage Depression era Gibson and another guitar which doesn’t seem a Martin, but please correct me if you can since I am really interested to know and now I can’t remember) which make the acute and sensitive listener appreciate the variation in sound and dynamics.

 

But what’s more interesting of all is its use of his voice. Some already commented on its vocal confidence which dates back to the 2002-2003 era. Now he seems to be pushing farther and farther in that direction. When I saw Tweedy in Leuven with his son and band some time ago, he was really showing what a great guitarist he is, not exactly technically, but in terms of choosing the arrangements and the voicings of the chords. His fingerpicking, although really effective, might not be judged as impeccable technically speaking but it relies, it seems to me, on a natural instinct for judging what colors might better fit a certain song.

 

At Barbican for what I remember (as I told before I might be wrong since I am going by heart) he almost completely left his fingerpicking aside and opted with simple and sparse chords with a few subtle solutions to cover up for Cline guitar solos. One which even made the crowd smile was the one chosen for the solo section of Impossible Germany, basically a cluster of dissonant strings played sometimes as chords other times in different combinations or arpeggios. What I regret, actually, is seating on the right in the stalls rather than on the left. He tends to turn to his right with the guitar and since I was on his left I couldn’t watch what he was doing with his fingers most of the time. The Gibson vintage Depression era guitar prompted a discussion with the audience. A now well confident Tweedy decided to start a question and answer session. Among the questions was one on the guitar. He explained it was one of the guitars he collects, with hand painted birds on the body done at a time when people losing their jobs started painting guitars to pass the time and you can tell it’s true if you look at the way they are painted, with some strokes made on a Sunday at 4.45 in the afternoon when you’re bored. But as I was saying before, guitars were not the leading actors in the play. This time the main focus was on the voice. With it, he chose subtraction: a colloquial mood, a denial of rhetoric of any kind, a trend towards the intangible and whispering for dramatic effects. These are the tools he is using more and more. I think of Nick Drake as the easiest, almost inevitable reference which comes to my mind, but I don’t know if that’s the case. He uses the higher octave in the same way: rarely, for specific and well studied dynamic variations, on songs which need an extra boost for not allowing the live setting to be too subdued.

 

 

 

The chatting breaks are one of the reasons why I really like his solo shows. The fact that he adapts his repertoire of jokes to the circumstances is a craft he has refined. It shows how he’s able to add an extra value to the package which I think is essential not to make a 2 hour solo show too standardized and let it be perceived as ultimately unique. He jokes on his hat, a Stetson adorned with his name, on the fact that during soundcheck his beard got trapped and he started to cry and one might think he was really involved in the song. In summary, as it always happen, he doesn’t allow himself to be taken seriously as the usual rockstar does, at least up to a certain point. Because lately he makes sure the audience understands he is in full confidence.

 

But what is the real plus of the solo shows? Why should one be attracted to a one man band without complex arrangements and the musical variety which only a full band can provide? In my case, simply the fact that the stripped down versions on the guitar makes me well aware of the real value of songwriting. You can hear the songs, you can feel the heart. I don’t know if London was one of his best solo shows, I think he might be better. What is true is that when you play only with a guitar it’s really evident which songs really work and which ones not. Naked songs cannot cheat. And I also think that a person able to entertain for 2 hours with a guitar must be either really boring or really brave. Ultimately, I think he was the latter.

[Chronicpop]

I too had wondered about the Martin-looking guitar with the nylon strings. It's in the range of the Martin and Coupa styling shape but I'm most likely incorrect on this - there was no marking on the headstock to even ID it as a Martin. I thought about asking this during the less formal part of the show as I was in the front row but I also felt it would be a bit churlish. 

[mpolak21]

I’m pretty sure that is a Martin with the headstock logo worn off. Those vintage nylon Martins are a real treat to play.

[Pennyghael]

This appeared on The Barbican’s twitter feed. I get the feeling that her knowledge of Jeff and Wilco is gleaned wholly from the Wikipedia and other sites.

 

https://youtu.be/t5VpJ8IMbpw

[bböp]

This appeared on The Barbican’s twitter feed. I get the feeling that her knowledge of Jeff and Wilco is gleaned wholly from the Wikipedia and other sites.

 

At least her accent is nice...

 

(And she only got one fact wrong, saying the long song that was requested and which Jeff played the last verse of was One Sunday Morning instead of Remember The Mountain Bed.)

[Pennyghael]

I think she got it wrong as Jeff mentioned it was his/their longest song, so she went back home and searched on iTunes or Spotify for the longest song. However, Remember the Mountain Bed is listed under Billy Bragg & Wilco! Rookie error!

 

I think it was her who I saw asking for the set list at the stage at the end. She didn’t look like your typical fan.

[Albert Tatlock]

At least her accent is nice...

What are you implying? :-(

[bböp]

What are you implying? :-(

Uhhhh....

[Albert Tatlock]

Uhhhh....

Just checking you haven't taken a turn against the Welsh ...

[bböp]

Just checking you haven't taken a turn against the Welsh ...

Oh, certainly not! Cymru am byth!

 

I do have a soft spot for the Scots, though...oxters aboin!