Jeff Tweedy — 25 June 2023, Brooklyn, NY (Brooklyn Made) [Night 4 of 4]

[bböp]

Four 90-minute shows in five days, no repeated songs! Standing up the whole time, despite a defective hip socket (or two?) causing a painful, uh, bone on bone situation! Playing not one, but two different 12-string guitars! While juggling a ball in one hand! OK, just kidding about the juggling! But really, what can that Jeff Tweedy not do?

 

At one point during tonight's fourth and final solo outing in Brooklyn, whilst musing on how the run of shows had gone and why he had ended up doing four completely unique sets, even Jeff had to concede that it was "pretty crazy" that he hadn't played even one song twice and asked if there was anyone from the Guinness Book Of World Records in attendance to certify what surely must have been some sort of record. Guinness, however, apparently missed the memo about the show (and perhaps a few other folks arrived a bit late as well owing to an earlier start that the venue decided on, I guess because it was Sunday. Jeff joked at one point, after already having played for about 45 minutes that he wasn't even due on stage for another 15. "Is it because everyone was tired from getting up early and going to church?" Jeff asked of a crowd that was maybe only half what it had been on the previous evenings.)

 

The relative sparseness of the crowd didn't deter Jeff from his path, however, which he said also had something to do simply with his desire "to play all of my guitars." While he had used one guitar exclusively during at least one other show on this Brooklyn run, during this final set, we got to see the gamut of the instruments he had at his disposal. Which was a delight, by the way. That included the aforementioned two different 12-string guitars, which both rang out beautifully with Jeff being plugged in — as opposed to just externally miked — and revealed their individual character. One featured a slightly richer, fuller tone on songs like Love Is Everywhere (Beware) and You Are My Face, while the other he used on Sad Kind Of Way and Kamera was a bit higher-pitched and janglier, at least to my relatively novice ears.

 

It occurred to me, as Jeff navigated between his various guitars, that he definitely seemed to be in a mood to play songs, especially early on. I don't think he often has a firm setlist he strictly sticks to for his solo shows and usually chooses from a list of songs, but the first half of tonight's set featured perhaps the closest thing to a plan that he maybe had throughout this run. How else to explain relative rarities such as Happiness and Black Moon popping up within the first half hour (which was more than welcome, by the way, though maybe some audience members who hadn't attended other shows might have preferred to hear a few more "conventional" tunes).

 

Then again, those same folks also got to hear Kingpin. Jeff had plenty of fun with that one, quipping almost immediately that it's "such a stupid song," but also conceding that it's "the only song I have like this...if we had pursued this path, we'd be a lot richer. We'd be on the jam-band circuit, chilling." Jeff then went on an amusing riff, exploring that very scenario: "I would have a silk hip...two silk hips...teeth made out of truffles...diamond eyes. I'd have have the best house, better than any of your homes. I'd have glasses that made my vision worse — I don't need to see this shit. I'd have a car made of marzipan."

 

Between moments like that, and subsequent guitar workouts on Laminated Cat and Side With The Seeds, I'd say this audience got to experience a good chunk of (in my humble opinion, anyway) makes Jeff's solo acoustic shows so compelling. For his part, Jeff seemed to be enjoying himself throughout. On Seeds, for example, he even had some fun trying to replicate some of the electric guitar parts on an acoustic. It's perhaps difficult to appreciate if you weren't there, but I know those of us who were up close all shared in the look of delight and wonder that crossed Jeff's face as he stretched to hit the highest point of one of the solos. Before finishing the song with an acoustic shredding flurry, Jeff shared that "Nels is here right now and he's gonna freak out that I'm gonna do his solo." Afterward Jeff deadpanned, "We must have different phrasing."

 

And so it went tonight, seemingly every song leading to some fun moment or expression or comment. Jeff even timed his inevitable loss of control of the audience pretty well. After announcing that the show was nearing its conclusion and encouraging the audience to boo him, as he has occasionally done recently, he singled out one gentleman to his left who was particularly vociferous in his booing and must have looked like he enjoyed wrestling, as Jeff observed. Of course, given a small platform, the guy couldn't help but to articulate a request for the song Drawing From Memory (Charlie), which had apparently made him "cry like a baby" when Jeff had performed it at another show he attended. Jeff demurred, saying he didn't think it was a song he could play tonight and the back and forth went on for a while until Jeff responded that "I'm gonna make you cry by denying your request," adding that he was going to also add a little extra spite as a sort-of bonus. "Fuck you, sir," Jeff jokingly said to the guy.

 

That wasn't the only noteworthy crowd interaction Jeff had over the course of tonight's set. He gently chastised a chatty section of the room early on, and also had his usual fun introducing and briefly interacting with courtroom sketch artist Elizabeth Williams, who has been at all of the shows drawing scenes from various angles. And a little later, while discussing his hip situation with a young woman in the front row, Jeff somehow got onto a brief tangent about how "you can see your junk in an X-ray" and how he was a bit miffed by that while going through the diagnostics with his hip ailment. Unfortunately, he also used the expression about it being a "bone on bone situation" before immediately trying to extricate himself from the phrase, which he said he definitely did not mean to use in conversation with a young woman. Oopsie. As Jeff himself admitted, "Boundaries are getting obliterated."

 

I should say, by way of trying to come to some sort of conclusion, that these shows were pretty special because of how intimate they really were. The only other parallel I think would be the Jeff's near-annual run of shows at Largo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see how some of the other solo shows coming up go, but there's something unique about not only the relatively tiny venue that Brooklyn Made is, but also the run of multiple shows there that will be difficult to replicate. So I feel pretty lucky to have been able to get to all of these sets this week — and I know I'm not alone.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 4 at Brooklyn Made:

 

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

One And A Half Stars

Happiness

Company In My Back

Hints

Black Moon

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

You Are My Face

She's A Jar (w/harmonica)

Sad Kind Of Way

Kamera

Whole Love

Bombs Above>

Some Birds

Half-Asleep

Someone To Lose

Kingpin

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Side With The Seeds

A Robin Or A Wren

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[Albert Tatlock]

41 minutes ago, bböp said:

just kidding about the juggling!

 

So he still has his ball in his hand?

[bböp]

20 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

So he still has his ball in his hand?

Ah, Tatlock...that's for you to decide.

[Albert Tatlock]

50 minutes ago, bböp said:

Ah, Tatlock...that's for you to decide.

 

Guffaw.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4mC3Y4Dw-E

 

[bböp]

1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

Guffaw.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4mC3Y4Dw-E

 

 

Hold on now, Nigel Tufnel entered the match?!?

 

https://youtu.be/TJL942hg0uM

[knotgreen]

Thanks for the recaps, Paul. Sounds like you got a great run of shows. Bummed to not have been there! Next time...

[Brian F.]

How big is Brooklyn Made compared to Largo (which is, officially, 284 seats)? I was wondering about this while marveling at these sets and the lack of repeats. From a strictly selfish personal perspective, this is what I hope to see during the Largo runs as an attendee of the entire run, but I recognize that most of the people at any given show are there for that show and that show only. At Largo this past January, Jeff had not repeated a song through Night 1 and the main set of Night 2. When he came out for the Night 2 encore, I gave him the "Little Lies" 45 (which he had played on Night 1), and he asked me if I wanted him to play the song. I started to say no, since he had played it the night before, but he started playing it anyway so what ended up coming out was something like, "No, that's O.K.... Go right ahead!" Anyway, I was afraid I had blown the whole no-repeat thing for everyone (although he ended up repeating several songs across the four nights which leads me to think that was always the plan).

 

I like the term "acoustic shredding." That should be the new "unplugged."

[JAK2112]

20 hours ago, Brian F. said:

How big is Brooklyn Made compared to Largo (which is, officially, 284 seats)? I was wondering about this while marveling at these sets and the lack of repeats. From a strictly selfish personal perspective, this is what I hope to see during the Largo runs as an attendee of the entire run, but I recognize that most of the people at any given show are there for that show and that show only. At Largo this past January, Jeff had not repeated a song through Night 1 and the main set of Night 2. When he came out for the Night 2 encore, I gave him the "Little Lies" 45 (which he had played on Night 1), and he asked me if I wanted him to play the song. I started to say no, since he had played it the night before, but he started playing it anyway so what ended up coming out was something like, "No, that's O.K.... Go right ahead!" Anyway, I was afraid I had blown the whole no-repeat thing for everyone (although he ended up repeating several songs across the four nights which leads me to think that was always the plan).

 

I like the term "acoustic shredding." That should be the new "unplugged."

 

Brooklyn made is officially a 500 capacity room, but it's much wider than it is deep, so it ends up feeling more intimate than that. It's also all standing room, as opposed to the Largo which is seated, and i think that is the biggest thing that creates a difference in vibe between the BK Made and Largo shows (though i've only seen one show at the Largo, so i could be over-extrapolating)