Jeff Tweedy — 22 March 2019, Chicago, IL (Vic Theatre) [Annual Charity Benefit; Night 1 of 2]

[bböp]

While I haven't really researched it, I'm fairly certain that Jeff's annual benefit shows at the Vic this year were the first — or at least the first in a long time — to take place on the heels of an actual solo tour. Often Jeff is coming off a relatively long layoff from performing solo acoustic and it usually affects the first show most of all, especially when you consider that he gets the requests for the 30 songs on the setlist just a few hours before showtime.

This year, in addition to being in the routine of playing solo acoustic shows after a three-week trek through the Midwest and South in support of his record Warm, Jeff amended the process slightly by taking song requests from just the first 20 in line and, as a result, reserving 10 songs of his own choosing to sprinkle into the set as he saw fit. That enabled to him to play quite a few of the songs off Warm, the forthcoming Warmer and even newer material that he has been performing regularly on tour (and even some he hasn’t been performing regularly), and almost certainly feel more comfortable than usual at these shows. And ultimately, in my experience, a more comfortable Jeff usually makes for a stronger performance.

It didn't take long for Jeff to visit Banter Corner, that's for sure. He issued his usual disclaimer about the protocol for the show two songs in, poking some fun at the "group of freaks" mostly seated in the front rows who wait in line for hours to make requests and whose "whole motive is make me the least comfortable (I can be)."

After playing Cars Can't Escape, Jeff confessed that had been one of his "requests" not only because he knew from experience how to put together a "program," but because that song usually gets the most requests via the Wilco Web site for any given show and how he doesn't understand it. Furthermore Jeff said he always felt like singing the song in a "Crying Man" voice or a "Confident Man" voice — both of which he proceeded to demonstrate in amusing fashion. A few songs later, Jeff heaped a bit of (expected) abuse on our own VCer Vince — a/k/a theashtraysays — whose monomaniacal requests for Bull Black Nova have become a bit of a tradition. Jeff joked that "just because of that one fact, we have a restraining order against him."

But really, if there was a singular theme for this show, you would have to say that this was really the Jeff and Susie Show. This started about midway through the show when Jeff decided to check his phone to see what his wife had been texting him while he had been playing and shared some of her thoughts with the audience, including one questioning whether Jeff was wearing her T-shirt, whether he was using a teleprompter and that she thought his hair "was cute." He would then intermittently check his phone for the rest of the show and, more often than not, find another gem from Susie.

It would be impossible to succinctly recap all of these exchanges without a transcript, but suffice it to say that these exchanges helped make for quite an entertaining diversion from the serious subject matter of some of Jeff's songs. At one point, Jeff quipped he was about to enter "a stretch of songs despised by my wife," including Hate It Here (which he said his wife called "a pack of lies,") and the Warmer track Guaranteed (which he introduced with the funny bit he developed on tour about changing a lyric in the first verse). Apparently, Jeff then received another message from Susie: "Way to make everyone hate me. I don't hate those songs; I hate you." To which Jeff replied, to the audience, "It's been a good run."

There was also a pretty funny exchange surrounding the song Screen Door, which Jeff also suggested his wife did not care for, only to get a message from her that he read as, "Idiot. I love Screen Door." Then Jeff admitted that he actually hated the song himself, in part because it "sounds like if an Appalachian pimple had a voice," but that he he had to play it because "that's the rules." And toward the end of the set, Jeff played a request for I Got You (At The End of the Century) and got another message from his wife that he shared: "Is that song about me dying? Fun." To which Jeff hilariously replied, again to the audience, "There's only two (types of) songs I write: songs about Susie and songs about death. Sometimes I get some peanut butter in my chocolate."

That was pretty much how much of the show went, and it was a lot of fun. Jeff seemed to be in a great mood, being back in town and with Susie and I’m sure other friends in the audience. He even responded to a question about what Susie's favorite song was by playing a fragment of the Herman's Hermits classic (written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin) I'm Into Something Good. If only he had just decided to play the whole thing...#alas.

But all of the songs Jeff did play — both new and old, upbeat and downtempo, serious and light — seemed to really work together well. Maybe there really is something to letting Jeff choose at least part of the set he plays and then arrange the songs into an order that he sees fit!

 

About the only thing that went wrong all evening long might have been during the show-closing Dreamer In My Dreams (good request, Brianne!) when Jeff suffered the pretty rare — these days, anyway — broken string. Luckily it happened as the song was winding down anyway (and if a broken string is going to happen, isn't the shambolic DIMD the perfect song for it?) and Jeff basically shrugged it off and finished out the show, waving to a satisfied crowd as he headed out into the night.

 

Of course, given the events of the previous couple of hours, one can't help but wonder what sort of text message Jeff might have gotten from Susie as he got into his car and set out for home (if they indeed left the venue separately). I like to think it might have been something like: "Good show, honey. Now where are we going to eat?"

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1:

Bombs Above
Some Birds
Wait Up
Radio King
I Know What It's Like
Cars Can't Escape
Family Ghost
Bull Black Nova
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
You And I
Hate It Here
Screen Door
Guaranteed
It Must Be Love [Labi Siffre]
From Far Away
When You Wake Up Feeling Old
Whole Love
Fake Fur Coat
Orphan
Poor Places
I'm Into Something Good [Herman's Hermits] (fragment)
Let's Go Rain
White Wooden Cross
I Got You (At The End of the Century)
Candyfloss
Don't Forget
We've Been Had
The Late Greats
I'm The Man Who Loves You
----------------------------------
Someone To Lose
Dreamer In My Dreams

[remphish1]

Great show, nice venue funny banter!

 

Huge favor to those who get a song request in and have no preference here are songs I have been chasing forever and would be grateful if you pick any of these (as I’ll never make it early enough!

[Madcap]

Great show. Not a lot of banter compared to years past, which I was actually ok with, and most importantly a really good, respectful crowd for the most part. I love that this run is in the middle of his tour, his voice and playing were really in “game shape”, no rust to shake off.

[TCP]

Wow nice setlist!! Good job requesters and Jeff. 

[Madcap]

During question time tonight someone needs to ask him when Wilco is touring the US!

[remphish1]

During question time tonight someone needs to ask him when Wilco is touring the US!

Wouldn’t you like to know?!

[Madcap]

lol touché Jeffrey, touché

[bböp]

Fwiw, I finally filed my full report from Night 1 above. Seems like old news now, but I would've felt guilty to have written about only the second night and not the first. Carry on...

[Albert Tatlock]

You're getting me all out of kilter. I need a cup of tea and a lie down.

 

P.S. Always been more of a No Milk Today man myself.

[bböp]

You're getting me all out of kilter. I need a cup of tea and a lie down.

 

P.S. Always been more of a No Milk Today man myself.

Apologies. And anything by Graham Gouldman is worth a listen, IMHO, though I don’t think you’ll sway Mrs. T from her tune.