Jeff Tweedy — 6 October 2018, San Francisco, CA (Golden Gate Park) [Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival; Day 2 of 3]

[bböp]

Figured someone else would've posted the setlist by now since apparently this one was available to be seen/heard over the Internet, but I guess not...

 

Less than 20 hours after walking off stage with thoughts of a heckler on his mind, Jeff found himself back on stage in his "favorite" setting to perform solo acoustic — namely, the outdoor festival. And fortunately for both performer and audience, there were no hecklers in sight, or at least none that could be heard anyway. Instead, there were just a bunch of people who had enjoyed a spectacularly beautiful afternoon in Golden Gate Park watching some bluesy, twangy music for free (say it like a circus announcer...Buddy Miller's Cavalcade of Stars!).

 

Jeff has been joking at some of his recent solo shows about playing outdoor festivals this summer and how he thought about canceling his appearance when the weather was good because his songs don't lend themselves to a setting where beach balls are being batted back and forth and he has to follow bands that tell crowds everything is going to be all right. "Is everybody having a good time?" Jeff asked early in his Hardly Strictly set. "I'll see what I can do about that."

 

As far as other visits to Banter Corner, they were not infrequent but relatively short and controversy-free. Responding to audience comments about the two small potted trees he had on his side table, Jeff said, "Want one?" and made a joke about how they were a gift from the festival because they were afraid he wouldn't see any trees in the park or something. "This is how I was paid today. I can't wait to fly home with them." When he spotted some folks watching the set from behind a fence, he quipped, "Why are you guys watching from behind a fence? I thought this was free. I guess times are tough all over." And after a seemingly early mid-set run through California Stars and before introducing Let's Go Rain, Jeff noted that he though the crowd was "doing a pretty good — not great — job singing along. I'm pretty transparent with how I feel about audiences. I hope that's not too jarring."

 

As far as Jeff's performance, from a musical standpoint, he pretty much stuck to what he has been playing on this tour (though the back-to-back selections of You Are Not Alone and Ashes Of American Flags late in the set — perhaps a subtle nod to the disappointing conclusion of the Kavanaugh saga earlier in the day — were welcome). He seemed to be having some minor difficulty with Remember The Mountain Bed early on, stopping to tune once and then starting and stopping again to tune some more and eventually moving the key up a half step. Otherwise, though, I suppose the only real surprise was that he only played a handful of his new songs, and only one (Having Been Is No Way To Be) that I think hasn't been available online in some form before. So I guess anyone waiting at home to check out some of the new material Jeff has been playing lately will have to wait a little longer.

 

One positive (in my mind) concession to the outdoor festival setup and webcast was that Jeff's guitar was plugged in for the first time in a while, in contrast to his preferred setup of having a microphone at waist level to amplify his unplugged guitar. It's a subtle difference that most people probably wouldn't even notice, but for me, it's always nice to hear that crisp guitar sound.

 

Also of note was Scott McCaughey's continued presence at side stage during Jeff's set. It seems almost as if the Tweedy traveling party picked Scott up in Portland and invited him along for the final week of the tour, which is awesome and I'm sure Jeff is enjoying being able to spend some time with his friend. Still no meta moment of Scott sticking his head out — or otherwise being overtly acknowledged — at the mention of his name in Let's Go Rain, though. Can you say hashtag missed opportunity?

 

That's about all I've got for now. With just one more show left on the tour, and perhaps for this year, it has definitely been a pretty interesting and memorable run. Will file a report from Los Angeles, of course, and we shall see if Tinseltown provides any more drama than we've already witnessed...

 

Here was the complete setlist for Hardly Strictly, as played (new songs indicated, with proper titles as known):

 

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Remember The Mountain Bed (started and restarted)

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

new song-Some Birds

Hummingbird

California Stars

new song-Let's Go Rain

Passenger Side

Jesus, etc.

new song-Having Been Is No Way To Be

New Madrid

Misunderstood

Acuff-Rose

You Are Not Alone

Ashes Of American Flags

A Shot in the Arm

[TCP]

The show is archived here, if anyone missed it like I did. Not sure if HSB keeps their archives up forever though. 

Nice to see You Are Not Alone in the mix again.

[hilliard]

This is on dime for you torrent folks

 

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=632204

 

Jeff Tweedy
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
Rooster Stage
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
October 6, 2018

Lineage: LIVE Webcast -> downloaded with livestreamer -> ffmpeg (edit) -> .ts
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720p 2737kbps 16:9 29.97 fps
Audio: AAC 128 kbps 48 KHz Stereo

Setlist:
I'm the Man Who Loves You (Wilco song)
Remember the Mountain Bed
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Wilco song)
Some Birds
Hummingbird (Wilco song)
California Stars
Let's Go Rain
Passenger Side (Wilco song)
Jesus, Etc. (Wilco song)
Having Been Is No Way To Be
New Madrid (Uncle Tupelo song)
Misunderstood (Wilco song)
Acuff-Rose (Uncle Tupelo song)
You Are Not Alone (Mavis Staples cover)
Ashes of American Flags (Wilco song)
A Shot in the Arm (Wilco song)

TRT = 1:13:46

[bböp]

You Are Not Alone (Mavis Staples cover)

I always have to chuckle when sites like setlist.fm and tapers forums list stuff like this. It’s not really a “Mavis Staples cover” if Jeff wrote it, right?

[Yaz Rock]

"Insightful and Accurate" sounds like it could be the title of an early-era outtake. It could also roll off the tongue as "Insightful Inaccurate", which sounds like a typical Tweedy lyric. Jeff should write this song for bböp.