Jeff Tweedy — 25 September 2018, Missoula, MT (The Wilma)

[bböp]

A very good friend of mine (who, incidentally, happens to be an old-school VCer) used to play music at a regular Tuesday night gig in Manhattan and was fond of telling audiences that "a Tuesday night in New York City is better than a Saturday night anywhere else." If the latest stop on Jeff's fall solo tour tonight was any indication of a Tuesday night in Missoula, well, I guess a Tuesday night in Missoula is more or less what you might expect it to be — that is to say, friendly and pleasant but perhaps a touch subdued.

 

Perhaps that had something to do with the setting, a darkened theater with reserved seating, and also the fact that this was Jeff's second solo performance in Missoula in less than two months after he performed at the Decemberists-curated Travelers' Rest festival in early August. (On a personal note, I wonder if that was why this Missoula show wasn't initially a part of the dates announced for this solo run. I didn't even know there was a show in Missoula until well after I had bought tickets for the rest of the tour.) At any rate, it seemed like Jeff struggled a bit in terms of forging a connection in Missoula — especially in contrast to the previous night's show in Bozeman, which Jeff likened to "a Monday crowd acting like a Super Bowl Sunday crowd," though he also admitted that it had been "a memorable night." (Jeff also noted that while the Missoula audience was in the collective darkness, "just where I like you," he said he could see a lot of the folks in Bozeman pretty well.)

 

As mentioned, connection proved somewhat elusive with the audience in Missoula (which, incidentally, lustily booed at the mention of Bozeman). How awkward did things get? The biggest running gag of the night developed out of a round of applause that Jeff got early on after taking a sip from a glass of Coke he had on the table next to him. A few songs later, he took another sip from the glass and got another cheer. "Still got it," Jeff deadpanned. Then he made a comment about the large single ice cube in the glass, and a man in the crowd yelled that he needed two ice cubes. "I'll choose the temperature of my drink, thank you very much sir," Jeff replied. Then a woman in the balcony yelled, "None." To which Jeff responded, "This is the stupidest thing I've ever done on stage — and I've been on stage for 30 years." Then somehow the type of ice came up, with Jeff making a comment about the pearl type they have at Sonic drive-ins. No one really seemed to catch Jeff's reference, so mercifully, he finally let it go. Yes, this entire exchange actually happened.

 

Other visits to Banter Corner over the course of the evening were at least slightly more fruitful:

 

* After playing Normal American Kids, Jeff dedicated the song to Brett Kavanaugh, the embattled Supreme Court nominee, "because c'mon, fuck that guy, right? With his dirty little Chiclet teeth."

 

* Responding to a request for Sunken Treasure, Jeff turned a tuning knob and began playing the opening chords. And then he abruptly stopped. "I don't think so," Jeff said. "It just goes on and on." He then asked, somewhat mischievously, "What else can I start and stop?" When a few more requests were shouted, Jeff said, "I'm just gonna show that I know the main riff from each of those songs." Then he went into Jesus, etc.

 

* Taking another sip of Coke near the end of the main set, Jeff asked if other singers struggled with their voices here — perhaps due to the elevation? (Jeff almost never drinks anything while on stage, so seeing him do so the last couple of nights made me wonder as well.) Someone may have suggested Jeff drink something stronger, so he told the audience that he doesn't drink and hasn't had a drink for 25 years. "I did a lot of drugs in that time, though, so hold the applause," Jeff said. Then he joked, "When I get older, I'm going to do drugs again. I got a date already marked on my calendar. When you're 85, what else are you going to do?"

 

* After California Stars, during which Jeff has been specifically telling audience members that he will sing the high harmony part and they should sing the melody and NOT his part, he remarked that "Well, you really didn't sing my part." (The implication being, as I took it, that very few people sang along at all.)

 

From a musical standpoint, I wonder how much Jeff considered the set he played at Travelers' Rest when figuring out what he might play last night. For those counting — I was not at Travelers Rest — it looks like 13 of the 15 songs he played last month were played again. One consequence of less back-and-forth with the audience than in Bozeman meant that Jeff wound up playing a few more songs, and at least a couple of those (You Are Not Alone, Someone To Lose) were ones we haven't heard on this run yet if I'm not mistaken, so that's always nice to get a couple different tunes from night to night.

 

I guess that's all I've got for now, except to say that Jeff wore his Stetson hat for the first time this tour after sporting his Connecticut Tigers baseball cap for the first four shows. File that under things that no one cares about, to be sure — right next to ice cube chatter.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played for Missoula, Part Deux (new songs indicated, with proper titles as known):

 

new song-Bombs Above

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

Normal American Kids

new song-Some Birds

Impossible Germany

new song-Evergreen

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

Hummingbird

new song-Having Been Is No Way To Be

Bull Black Nova

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

new song-Let's Go Rain

[sunken Treasure (first chord only, then aborted)]

Jesus, etc.

You Are Not Alone

Dawned On Me

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Someone To Lose

Misunderstood

Passenger Side

California Stars

Acuff-Rose

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta. Presume they're not selling advance copies of WARM from the merch stall, in which case someone might give an initial impression.

 

Am I right in remembering a song for which the main repeated refrain seemed to be 'drawing from memory". Don't see anything on the WARM listing that matches that - though as you have said, the song that was labelled New Wave Theatre turned out to be called something else, so maybe that's going on here too.

[bböp]

Ta. Presume they're not selling advance copies of WARM from the merch stall, in which case someone might give an initial impression.

 

Am I right in remembering a song for which the main repeated refrain seemed to be 'drawing from memory". Don't see anything on the WARM listing that matches that - though as you have said, the song that was labelled New Wave Theatre turned out to be called something else, so maybe that's going on here too.

 

They are not selling WARM at the merch stall, presumably because the physical editions aren't ready yet. Its release date isn't until late November, I think, so still a bit far off.

 

And yes, there has been a song played with the chorus including Drawing From Memory. I don't have notes from shows I attended where that was played in front of me, so can't say if it's called something else or just didn't make the cut for this record. He's also been playing a song presumably called Evergreen that I'm fairly confident won't be on WARM. Also, Family Ghost which may or may not be called something else.

[Albert Tatlock]

Found it in your notes for "27 April 2018, Chicago, IL (Vic Theatre) Benefit for Education Night 1 of 2". I knew you wouldn't let me down ...

[bböp]

Found it in your notes for "27 April 2018, Chicago, IL (Vic Theatre) Benefit for Education Night 1 of 2". I knew you wouldn't let me down ...

 

Also played in North Carolina on 20 April 2018, fwiw.

[Sun Caught Fire]

During the live feed of soundcheck he was asked about the hat and Jeff confirmed a Stetson and noted it said inside made especially for Jeff Tweedy by Stetson. Nice. He also played two of the new tunes and You and I.