Jeff Tweedy — 8 March 2019, Birmingham, AL (Lyric Theatre)

[bböp]

It was bound to happen, as it almost always does on these solo tours: Two consecutive evenings, two reserved-seated theaters, two totally different atmospheres...

 

A night after playing before a polite, but perhaps too-respectful, audience in the Memphis suburbs, Jeff encountered a boisterous, but not overly obnoxious, crowd in Birmingham. Depending on your point of view of an ideal Jeff solo performance, you could make an argument for one or the other as being the "better" show. In that case, you'd have to put me into the Birmingham camp (my friends in Memphis notwithstanding).

 

Jeff actually didn't say anything for maybe the first 30 minutes of the set, finally breaking his silence after a relatively rare run through the controversial Summerteeth track She's A Jar to announce that it had been the most requested song of the night in the requests section of the Wilco Web site. "I'm a little concerned about that — and on International Women's Day no less," Jeff said half-jokingly. Then, turning serious as he took off his harmonica rack, he added, "It's really hard to sing that last line. I'm sorry."

 

One thing I love about Jeff as a performer is that he's always sensitive to where he's playing and trying to forge a relationship with that particular audience. He might not remember particular shows very well after the fact, but you can never accuse him of not being in the moment, of the stereotypical rock star faux pas of saying "Hello, Cleveland" when he's in Detroit. So it was that a few songs later, Jeff took a shot at our Idiot-In-Chief while simultaneously acknowledging the recent deadly tornado in the area by quipping that, "I flew in on Marine One today. Just wanted to get a look at the destruction. I'll be signing Bibles later because apparently that's now a thing." (All proceeds from sales of the Birmingham show poster were donated to tornado recovery efforts.) And late in the set as he explained the back story behind Let's Go Rain, he remarked that he was "not sure I've ever played this song in the Bible belt before" and jokingly looked to the side of the stage and asked his tour manager if the bus was idling.

 

Unprompted, Jeff also took some time out to address the few guys who 'woo' every night when he does something he deems elementary such as bending a string on IATTBYH or blowing a few harmonica lines on She's A Jar. Jeff said he wanted the wooers to know that he could easily teach everyone how to do those things that people 'woo' at him for. Jeff even shared that his team had once considered selling harmonicas at the merch table before realizing that "would be the worst idea ever. Can you imagine? It's a Friday night, everyone's been drinking and has a harmonica? I would be crying."

 

Other visits to Banter Corner came, as they often do, from the Q&A session that rarely ever seems to go well on the surface but almost always ends up being entertaining. There was a question about where Jeff got the army green jacket he was wearing, a couple of loudly shouted requests for Company In My Back by a guy in the back who didn't quite know the correct name of the song and a suggestion that Jeff play the song he wrote in third grade (a reference to the story he told in his book about taking a tape of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run to a show-and-tell session at school and claiming it was his song).

 

The Q&A also gave Jeff another chance to tell the story he has sporadically told on this tour about his sister calling him recently and asking if he had heard of a band called Queen. He said that she had just seen Bohemian Rhapsody and that led her to think about who would play him in a movie if they made one about his band someday. According to Jeff, his sister came up with Jack Black. To which he replied, "Really?" Jeff said, "I was thinking more like Denzel." And his sister said, "Really?" Then Jeff joked that his sister wasn't "the stupidest person in the world, but she's pretty stupid." Of course he finished the story by saying he was kidding and that he loved his sister very much.

 

After the Q&A had ended, a few songs later, a guy interrupted Jeff just as he was about to play Heavy Metal Drummer. He actually stopped and took the question, which turned out to be a polite request for the ultra-obscure Mermaid Avenue track The Unwelcome Guest. Jeff demurred, saying that the song had way too many words and "about 10 people have heard that song — on the planet — but thanks for listening." Then he launched into Heavy Metal Drummer, which proved to be a much more crowd-pleasing choice (even if I secretly sided with the guy who requested the other song).

 

By then, it was more than evident that the Birmingham crowd was an engaged, participatory one, with loud singalongs (and clapalongs) closing out the main set, including the hoo-heys in HMD (which used to always be a fun part of Jeff's solo shows) and even the instrumental bits in I'm The Man Who Loves You. It heartened me that Passenger Side was included in that batch of singalongs, because that's how I've always thought of that song (and remember it from early show recordings) but which doesn't always happen these days. Actually the only thing I was surprised about was that Jeff didn't play California Stars.

 

Personally, the musical highlight was getting to hear Warmer track Guaranteed again. I really love the opening verse ("We've been through a lot me and you, hospitals and bars/I know it hurts, and I'm a piece of work/And you're no walk in the park,") and just the overall sentiment in the song ("When things go wrong, our love gets stronger," and "Tragedy is guaranteed/We think we can't go on/Things go wrong/But nothing can break you and me.")

 

Cheers to you and well done, Birmingham (I would make a glib comment about Brummies here, but I fear only our British denizens would get it)! At any rate, after an energizing show, I'm looking forward to what lies ahead as the Warm tour rolls on to Georgia and — gasp! — Florida over the next week.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Birmingham:

 

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

Bombs Above

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

She's A Jar (w/harmonica)

Family Ghost

Having Been Is No Way To Be

New Madrid

Guaranteed

Hummingbird

I Know What It's Like

Jesus, etc.

Evergreen

Heavy Metal Drummer

Let's Go Rain

Passenger Side

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Don't Forget

Misunderstood

The Late Greats

Acuff-Rose

[theashtraysays]

So, does he have a jumbo with him?  Is it just the old Martin and a Kel so far? 

We're getting close to Nashville (I'm going), and he's gonna need a bigger guitar....

[bböp]

So, does he have a jumbo with him?  Is it just the old Martin and a Kel so far? 

We're getting close to Nashville (I'm going), and he's gonna need a bigger guitar....

 

Sorry to say I haven't seen the (or a) jumbo thus far, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have it with him. So far in terms of guitars, it's just been, I believe, a Gibson J-45, the old Martin and a Kel.

 

Incidentally, Nashville is the only show on the rest of this run that I won't be able to get to (found out that Lucinda is playing Car Wheels in Asheville the night after Jeff plays there, so I decided to stick around an extra day), so please help me out with some reportage from that one, if you're so inclined! And I hope you get your song...

[Albert Tatlock]

I have requested The Unwelcome Guest on more than one occassion. Obviously to no avail.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

 

Incidentally, Nashville is the only show on the rest of this run that I won't be able to get to.

If that means you'll be in Tampa, would love to meet up at the theatre. A buddy of mine is driving us down and we should be there by 7:30 at the latest. Feel free to PM me.

[Boss_Tweedy]

I loved everything about last night's show. It was my first ever Wilco or Jeff Tweedy show for which I was in the very front. I totally dig the songs from "Warmer" that he played. Having a couple of Uncle Tupelo songs in the set is always a treat. Buck Meek was great, and Jeff's interactions with the audience were very entertaining as you said. Also, the Lyric Theatre is quite a gem in Birmingham. I'd never been to a show there, but I was very impressed with the intimacy and the beauty of the building. I needed something to lift my spirits, and last night delivered.