Jeff Tweedy — 17 April 2019, Cincinnati, OH (Cincinnati Music Hall Ballroom)

[bböp]

Hoo boy...where to even start with this one? I guess the best place is the most obvious, which is to say that while there have been more than a couple of odd venues and peculiar audiences on this Warm tour — Jeff did play five shows in Florida recently, after all — this penultimate performance in Cincinnati probably took the proverbial (wedding) cake.

 

Seriously, about the only things missing from this scene were a bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom) feeding each other said cake — and maybe a run through the Electric Slide. Jeff has probably performed at weddings of family or friends before, but this show in a fairly large banquet hall upstairs from an even larger orchestra-type theater might have been the closest he has come to feeling like a wedding singer in a public setting. It was a notion not at all lost on Jeff, who couldn't help but address it almost from the start.

 

"I'd like to offer my congratulations to the bride and groom," he said sarcastically, after opening the show with the Bombs Above-Some Birds combo. "We'll get to the hokey pokey later, but first I'm gonna serenade the bride and groom with some songs about the frailty of the human experience. And just the statistical unlikeliness that they're gonna make it."

 

Things got even weirder a few songs later when Jeff made a comment about a couple of empty seats in the front row, which led a couple of intrepid people to come forward and fill them. Jeff then made a joke about how he "knew it would be Chuck's side of the family" to do so, basically continuing to play with this fake wedding scenario. But apparently one woman who was either too tipsy or too dense to get it thought it would be a good idea to step forward and put her foot up on the stage and start a conversation with Jeff. Apparently she was making a joke of her own about the Chuck Taylors she was wearing, which no one else really seemed to get right away. But the only thing she did was sort of alarm Jeff, who thought she was trying to climb on stage. "Leave the comedy to me, ma'am," he said.

 

Then a few songs after that, Jeff called out one of the women who had come up to take one of the empty front row seats and said if she was going to talk and check her phone, she should go back to her original seat. There was a little back and forth, which I wasn't close enough to hear entirely but it was pretty clear that Jeff was a little annoyed and he eventually quipped that "this is like every wedding I've ever been to."

 

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the awkward audience interactions. Just after the encounter with the chatty phone lady, Jeff also snapped mid-song at a man who was apparently clapping badly during You And I. Of course Jeff felt badly after the fact, and he sort of apologized to the man afterward. "I didn't mean to be so harsh to the gentleman in the shorts about the clapping, but it wasn't good." Jeff continued, saying that he was just trying to be honest and that sort of straight talk is what we need more of right now. "That's the kind of honesty that will probably serve Chuck and Darla well," Jeff quipped. "I dated Darla at one time." Anyway, it wouldn't be the last time Jeff would interact with this guy. He asked his name at one point, which the guy was initially reluctant to give but I think eventually said was Aaron (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong). And when Jeff spotted Aaron returning to his seat a few songs later just before he played Let's Go Rain, he said, "Welcome back, Aaron. Now Aaron's gonna lead us in a clap..."

 

To be honest, this was one of those shows where Jeff paid so many visits to Banter Corner that it would be virtually impossible to recount them all without a transcript. But one more visit worth mentioning was near the end of the show when, after Jeff had earlier related how Warm and Warmer were initially going to be a double album called Open Kimono and shared the traumatic (for his older son Spencer) story about that title as he has periodically done on this tour, he said he was going to sing a song about his dad. Someone in the audience asked if he was the grandfather Jeff had referred to in the open kimono story and Jeff said no but then proceeded to share way more about his dad's underwear than any of us ever needed to know. "(My dad) wore the biggest tighty-whiteys I've ever seen in my life," Jeff said. "They were pretty stained. My mom would always say it was creosote from the railroad. But now I'm realizing that was just a weird lie for her to make up."

 

I don't know how Jeff proceeded to play the relatively tender Evergreen after that digression, but I guess that's why he's making the big bucks. Actually, from a musical standpoint, there were some pretty cool aspects of this show. For me, the main one was Jeff's seemingly impromptu performance of the excellent Meat Puppets song Plateau (which most people probably know from when the Kirkwood brothers performed it with Nirvana on the classic MTV Unplugged episode and album). It's always a wonder to me when something like this just comes out of nowhere — Jeff said afterward that "I just figured it out, and it just popped into my head," — and it makes seeing as many shows as possible even more worthwhile.

 

For whatever reason, the comfort level between Jeff and this audience was such that just about everyone seemed comfortable yelling out requests at any time. That included one guy whose booming requests for Passenger Side were almost comical — and, ultimately, unfulfilled. But some of the requests were pretty funny, like when one lady yelled out for She's A Jar (can you imagine that played at a wedding reception?) and another person suggested Dash 7. Jeff even had to pause at those requests, asking "Are you guys OK? You're like the worst ever at picking songs." Then he teased, "I know all of those songs. I'm just withholding."

 

Jeff did eventually grant one request, for Bob Dylan's 49th Beard, which was very nice to hear. But he had basically already pooh-poohed the audience in terms of requests, pointing out that the most requested song of the night via Wilco's Web site was Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. "Which says to me you're not taking this seriously; you're making a mockery of the request process," Jeff said, then deadpanned, "So I worked it out. It's the last song of the evening."

 

I'm not sure how many people got that joke, but fortunately Jeff didn't end the show on a seven-minute narrative folk song about a boat sinking. Could a joke be made here about this show resembling, at least in part, the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald? Probably, but I won't go there. I'm not taking for granted any of these dwindling chances to see Jeff perform solo before he goes back to his day job, even if they come in glorified event spaces (whose acoustics required Jeff to once again plug in his guitar) on makeshift stages in front of so-so audiences. Personally speaking, I'll take what I can get.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, in Cincinnati:

 

Bombs Above

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I Know What It's Like

Radio King

New Madrid

You And I

Guaranteed

Hummingbird

California Stars

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Plateau [Meat Puppets]

Jesus, etc.

Family Ghost

The Ruling Class

Let's Go Rain

Heavy Metal Drummer

Evergreen

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Don't Forget

A Shot in the Arm

[TCP]

Great recap bbop. I really enjoy reading these when I come into work, after I check my e-mails, but before I'm emotionally ready to tackle my tasks of the day. 

Great setlist! I wish I could have heard Plateau.

[theashtraysays]

Having spent my voting bandwidth for the Louisville show, I figured I'd resort to the tried-yet-not-overly-true signage approach for the Cinci show.  I even had a new(ish) sign that said "DON'T FORGET..... to play BULL BLACK NOVA" (see what I did there?).  Anyway, I happened to be in the second row, just behind the 4 empty front row seats (see bbop's recap).  When Jeff commented about those seats a few songs in, I propped up the sign on one of the empties.  That elicited an immediate "THAT'S not gonna happen tonight".  Alas, twas not to be. I still think it was a better suggestion for a wedding reception than She's A Jar.  Just sayin. 

On to the non-BBN report. 

Speaking of the empty seats, one of the guys who jumped up to claim them was Brian Methe, who designed the teddy-bear-in-a-jar poster for the evening.  He told Jeff that he did that, and Jeff gave a pleasant but not overly enthusiastic acknowledgement.  Brian then slipped back to his regular seat...

On the interaction with the lady who claimed one of the front row seats, then proceeded to talk and work her phone... that conversation was indeed a little tense.  As Jeff was calling her out, Eric (burly tour manager extraordinaire) poked out from behind the curtain side stage to see if he was needed.  Jeff saw him and said "Eric, check their tickets!" and to the lady "he's a big guy".  Lady: "my husband's a big guy".  Jeff (not seeing any big guys on the front row): "where's he?" Lady: "he's over there".  Jeff: "then maybe you should go back and sit with him".  She did eventually settle down, and it was her that he addressed with the "are you still mad at me? I played Cali Stars".

After Aaron's clap-along for Let's Go Rain, and ahead of HMD, Jeff announced that there would be a dance contest, asking everyone to line up on the left and right sides of the room, and then dance down the center aisle to him.  He would the judge the contestants.  That didn't happen, but there was one enthusiastic woman on the front row (on the other side of the room from me and the phone lady) who unlocked her body, stood and did some moves throughout the whole song.  Jeff awarded her the coveted harmonica prize which seemed to shock her quite a bit.  She was the only contestant. 

It really was a weird room and vibe.  The room was 3x wide than deep, with a curved ceiling (think small airplane hanger).  Seats were silver metal banquet style with cushy seats, linked together on their sides, arranged in a wide fan shape such that the wings were much farther away than the back of the center.  There was some lighting all around (sconces or something), and Jeff commented that he could see this audience much better than most shows, and that this was rather disconcerting.  There was no standing, save for the post-set applause, and a quick return to seats for the abbreviated encore.  James E was poised to bring Jeff another guitar after Shot in the Arm, but Jeff kinda waved him off and headed straight out. 

It seemed that Jeff was again looking for a singalong path to try and engage the crowd, but not to very much success.  There was zero singing on Hummingbird, which then prompted a rather desperate Cali Stars.  We collectively failed at singing the melody while Jeff did the harmony.  Let's Go Rain was better but not overwhelming at all.  Ahead of that one, there were several of the failed request shouts, but someone did yell a loud and clear LET'S GO RAIN, and Jeff replied with "Now THERE'S a great suggestion.... 'cause  I was just about to play that one".  And he did.

The underwear and the Edmund Fitzgerald banter segments were definitely the tops of the evening.  I didn't think that Cinci is known for their Canadian heritage (mostly German), so I can't imagine how the Gordon Lightfoot song won the vote.  That song would have been no more out of place than anything else that evening. 

Cheers!!

[bböp]

On to the non-BBN report.

Speaking of the empty seats, one of the guys who jumped up to claim them was Brian Methe, who designed the teddy-bear-in-a-jar poster for the evening. He told Jeff that he did that, and Jeff gave a pleasant but not overly enthusiastic acknowledgement. Brian then slipped back to his regular seat...

On the interaction with the lady who claimed one of the front row seats, then proceeded to talk and work her phone... that conversation was indeed a little tense. As Jeff was calling her out, Eric (burly tour manager extraordinaire) poked out from behind the curtain side stage to see if he was needed. Jeff saw him and said "Eric, check their tickets!" and to the lady "he's a big guy". Lady: "my husband's a big guy". Jeff (not seeing any big guys on the front row): "where's he?" Lady: "he's over there". Jeff: "then maybe you should go back and sit with him". She did eventually settle down, and it was her that he addressed with the "are you still mad at me? I played Cali Stars".

After Aaron's clap-along for Let's Go Rain, and ahead of HMD, Jeff announced that there would be a dance contest, asking everyone to line up on the left and right sides of the room, and then dance down the center aisle to him. He would the judge the contestants. That didn't happen, but there was one enthusiastic woman on the front row (on the other side of the room from me and the phone lady) who unlocked her body, stood and did some moves throughout the whole song. Jeff awarded her the coveted harmonica prize which seemed to shock her quite a bit. She was the only contestant.

Thanks for filling in some gaps (and correcting me when necessary), Vince! That show was just too bizarre from a crowd interaction and banter standpoint to fit into a reasonably sized recap. I forgot about the, er, dance contest!

 

Sorry again about your song, but good to see you the past couple nights either way. Onward!

[Oil Can Boyd]

Thanks for the great recap.  Sounds like a weird night.

 

Plateau! Wow.  Did he play the whole thing? And his explanation was that it just popped into his head!?!

[bböp]

Thanks for the great recap. Sounds like a weird night.

 

Plateau! Wow. Did he play the whole thing? And his explanation was that it just popped into his head!?!

Yes, and yes!

[nalafej]

This has been a weird tour, right? Between Florida, food poisoning, and weird rooms. The last three setlists have been cool.

[bböp]

This has been a weird tour, right? Between Florida, food poisoning, and weird rooms. The last three setlists have been cool.

Yeah, I think weird (or maybe just long) is a pretty apt one-word description. Coming down for the finale? There’s still time!

[nalafej]

Coming down for the finale? There’s still time!

 

Yes. Just bought a ticket a couple days ago so I'm close to Stan. See you there.

[bböp]

Yes. Just bought a ticket a couple days ago so I'm close to Stan. See you there.

Nice!