Jeff Tweedy — 19 September 2018, Milwaukee, WI (Pabst Theater)

[bböp]

[starting a new thread for this show because — well, frankly — I'd like to start this tour off by adhering to the titling protocol.

 

Anyway, that was a very fun way to kick off Jeff's final tour of the year! So many familiar faces that it almost felt like a living-room show (or perhaps that was just my personal perspective of Jeff). Anyway, I will write some more in the morning when I have a better chance of being at least somewhat coherent...]

 

There's that old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt," but in the case of Jeff's first show of a fall solo tour that will see him head west over the next few weeks, the very familiar and relatively intimate confines of the Pabst Theater made for a relaxed performer who felt comfortable sprinkling in half a dozen unreleased "new" songs (as well as more than a few relative rarities) into a leisurely 90-minute set.

 

Indeed, there was plenty of new — and old — in the building (and I'm not talking about the ages of the audience). But as Jeff humorously noted, he simply was more in his element on a darkened stage in an old-style theater setting. When an audience member shouted, "I love you, Jeff," he responded by saying, "I love you too, but I can't see you." Then he continued, explaining that "I've been playing a lot of outdoor festivals in the middle of the day. My songs aren't for that." When another audience member asked, "Is this better?" Jeff replied, "I can't see what you're doing, but I assume you're not batting beach balls back and forth." He went on to reiterate some of his other bits along these lines, telling the story about how he once had to follow a band that had the entire crowd waving their hands in the air while saying everything was going to be all right. "Then I had to go on, and tell them that it wasn't," Jeff deadpanned.

 

It seemed to take the audience a little longer than usual to warm up, but after Jeff played Summer Teeth — with those in the know adding the harmonies toward the end — it finally seemed like a proper Jeff solo show. "Thanks for singing along," Jeff said afterward. "Have you been trying not to sing along? I don't mind. I guess you should ask your neighbor. Just don't clap — well you can clap between songs. Some places in Europe, they really want to clap. That's what they do, and they're terrible at it. They clap, like on the 1 and 4 or something. It make me feel soulful."

 

Then before Jeff could even start the next song, Let's Go Rain (aka Noah's Flood), he ended up going on a long tangent after someone asked about his baseball cap. He explained that the 'C' stood for the Connecticut Tigers, a minor-league baseball team, and went on to tell a story about how he once threw out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game and they gave him a hat, which he liked and occasionally wore. Then while he was walking in the forest back in Chicago wearing the hat, he encountered a man who looked at his cap and said, "Brewers? You gotta be fucking kidding me." So Jeff explained that his choice of headwear wasn't worth dying over, so he started wearing minor-league hats instead. Of course at this point, various people in the crowd began listing off various minor-league teams for a good 30 seconds. Finally Jeff said, "Let's just do this for the next two hours," before finally going into Let's Go Rain.

 

That was about it for Banter Corner, but Jeff certainly continued to surprise with some of his song choices. It made for a poignant moment (for this scribe, anyway) to hear the "new" song Don't Forget, which was about saying goodbye to his father who passed away last year, followed immediately by On And On And On, which was written in the aftermath of his mother's sudden death as an attempt to comfort his father.

 

Then in the encore, along with the usual staples like Misunderstood, California Stars and the show-closing A Shot in the Arm, we also got an unexpected version of Art Of Almost that Jeff said had been "requested." It's obviously a markedly different-sounding version stripped down, but Jeff said that was how the song initially started, so it was almost like hearing the demo version or something.

 

Again, I suppose we'll never know exactly how Jeff feeds off the crowd or how much an audience can affect a given performance in a performer's mind. But with this show in Milwaukee, it felt like Jeff was just comfortable — perhaps moreso than usual — and that ultimately made for a delightful show for seemingly just about everyone in attendance.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (I also realize that I should probably be noting as "new" any song that hasn't been officially released yet, even if Jeff has been playing some of them for the better part of a year now, so I will commence doing that here):

 

new song-Bombs Above

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Lost Love

new song-New Wave Theater

new song-Evergreen

New Madrid

One Sunday Morning

Hummingbird

Passenger Side

new song-Some Birds

Impossible Germany

Summer Teeth

new song-Let's Go Rain (aka Noah's Flood)

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Jesus, etc.

new song-Don't Forget

On And On And On

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Misunderstood

Acuff-Rose

Art Of Almost

California Stars

A Shot in the Arm

[worldrecordplayer]

Summer Teeth! 

[knotgreen]

So many new songs! Exciting stuff...

[Marijn]

Wow. That's at least half an album of unreleased material. Bring it on already, mr. Tweedy!

[Smokestack Joe]

Great show in Milwaukee! Thanks Jeff. 

[bböp]

FYI, I did finally add a short recap for this show (lest certain eagle-eyed readers think I didn't keep my promise to return to it).

[Albert Tatlock]

Who me? Ta.

[bböp]

Who me? Ta.

Only one eagled-eyed Welshman I know of on here...

[bbsimkins]

Thanks for the set list!  FYI Some Birds = new song-I'd Love To Take You Down (And Leave You There)