Jeff Tweedy - 12 November 2023 - Stoughton Opera House (Stoughton, WI)

[KevinG]

Never started one of these before and always relied on the kindness of strangers for the a recap, but I may have been the only VC'er at the show.  I am not the greatest at remembering the show and the full details, so bear with me.  Something is better than nothing, I suppose.  

 

Anyway, a fun, light and breezy show, outside of the book tour.  A pretty standard Jeff Tweedy performance with the witty banter one would expect. My buddy and I remarked, after the show, seeing Jeff these days is like putting on a comfortable sweater, it feels nice, warm and just makes you happy.  Playing only an acoustic guitar in a small old 400 seat theater it felt very intimate.  For those that don't know Stoughton WI is a small, sleepy suburb of Madison WI with a population of about 13,000.  Stoughton is also very obsessed with its Norwegian Heritage.  The theatre has been in operation since 1901 and  in recent years has been getting in some pretty large National acts (Bob Mould, Jayhawks, Leo Kottke, Aimee Mann, etc.).  They recently got cushion's on the seats, which is an improvement to the hard metal seats they had previously.  This lead to some fun interactions between Jeff and the crowd.  Jeff wore his standard black jeans, black jacket (which he remarked he'd been wearing for the past week and only smells when it is activated by heat) and stocking cap.  He looked good and happy.  The director of the Stoughton Opera came introduce Jeff telling the story of how he got the email on a pontoon boat in northern WI with just one bar of service and hitting reply holding the phone high in the air hoping it would go through.  

The show was a tight 90 minutes (21 Songs) focusing on some solo stuff (which he said he doesn't really get to play live), stuff from Cruel Country and stuff from what my friend called "mid-career Wilco, that no one really knows."  Not that I agree, but that is what he said.  Notably missing was anything from Cousin, which I suppose might be hard to translate to the setting.  Highlights for me were Ruling Class, Please Tell My Brothers, Lou Reed Was my Babysitter and Hummingbird (which is the song I want to be played at my funeral).  The crowd interaction was good, better than a lot of the Madison shows I have been too.  There was a lot of whistling and Jeff remarked how he was gonna whistle a verse in every song.  He did not, because as much as I like whistling, Jeff is no Andrew Bird.  There was some people yelling stuff trying to get Jeff to interact, which he did politely and used some of it to make some fun insights.  Of course there is this one guy who has been at every Tweedy show I have been to in the Madison area who thinks it is job to be Jeff's prompt.  He will yell stuff, song titles, just general randomness at Jeff.  This guy was at the show last night.  Jeff didn't really interact with him, so he quieted down and made him slightly less insufferable.  There was no "encore" per se.  Jeff mentioned that normally he would stand off to the side and have people cheer until he came back and that was silly cause he wanted to bask in the cheers while he was on stage.  The crowd obviously obliged.  

All in all a good fun show.  He plays again tonight (11/13) at the Stoughton Opera House, but unfortunately I will not be in attendance.    

Here is the Setlist

1. Story to Tell

2. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

3. Ambulance

4. Tired of Taking It Out On You

5. Hummingbird

6. Having Been Is No Way To Be

7. Whole Love

8. Guess Again

9. A Lifetime to Find

10. Even I Can See

11. Jesus, Etc.

12. Please Tell My Brother (Golden Smog)

13. Dawned On Me

14. The Ruling Class (Loose Fur)

15. Evergreen

16. Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

17. You Are Not Alone

18. Passenger Side

19. California Stars

20. New Madrid (Uncle Tupelo)

21. I'm the Man Who Loves You

  

[dasradiohead]

At or towards the beginning, Jeff confirmed he knew how to pronounce the name of the town/venue he was performing in: Stough (as in Standing O) ton. Standing O hint added by me, not Jeff. He just pronounced it correctly. Took me several times to get it right.
 

Early on in the set about 5 songs in ish, Jeff commenting on the new cushions for the seats asked the crowd how our butts were doing which caused someone to ask him about his behind and after explaining that he wasn't sitting down so his tuchus would not be as comfortable as ours, remarked that he did have a fine ass and we should check out the glowing Yelp reviews for his ass...all written by him.

 

Even though he never left the stage for the encore after explaining he had realized several years ago he should be on stage to soak up the majority of the applause and affection, Passenger Side began the encore.

[dasradiohead]

I think Hummingbird was the first song with whistling and received the biggest reaction from the crowd upon completion, which caused Jeff to comment on how this is a crowd that loves whistling and maybe he should just whistle all the songs for the rest of the night which drew laughter and more cheers. Then after he whistled in Dawned On Me, someone requested a song without whistling, which he politely pointed out did not fit the theme, and then the request for The Ruling Class was shouted from the balcony. Jeff acknowledged that song had a fair amount of whistling before practicing the lengthy whistling part and quickly stating that he wasn't going to do that song before telling the story of how The Ruling Class had been submitted to Mike Judge for The King of the Hill Theme Song. He played The Ruling Class whistling part and then ended by sing saying, "The King of the Hill". He commented on how the song was not accepted before playing a short bit of his interpretation (strumming fast) of the actual King of the Hill Theme Song. Eventually, he practiced the whistling again and launched into the full song. He may have commented before the final whistling section that the crowd had had enough whistling for now (or that may have been later), but it did not seem he had originally planned to perform The Ruling Class.

[dasradiohead]

Sometime during the first half of the show, he asked "Who only knows Wilco songs?" and a few people clapped/cheered causing Jeff to comment on the sheepish reaction to the question. He then proceeded to ask who had his solo albums and during the banter in which Jeff explained there would be more solo material tonight because he doesn't get to play it as often, someone shouted out he should write a book. Not one to pass up the softball, Jeff replied, "Funny you should say that!" and recounted how he had been on a book tour for the last week and it was available to purchase in the lobby. During this portion, he mentioned that he had been signing hundreds of books each day over the past week, so if anyone finds an unsigned copy, to hang onto it because it will be a collector's item. Finally, he went on to ask how many people read one of his books, which drew large applause, then asked how many read two of his books, which drew slightly less applause, with Jeff finally asking who has read all three of his books, which drew even less applause causing him to remark something like an incredulous "Why not (more)?" before admitting the third book had just come out that week implying people may not have had time to finish the third one yet.

[dasradiohead]

Possibly during the book portion described above or after it around the halfway point of the show, Jeff mentioned that he had been answering questions all week on the tour so he was used to talking a lot more than usual and wanted to ask the audience questions which persisted throughout the night. One of the questions asked was "What is there to do in Stoughton?", which drew the response, "Ice fishing." Jeff commented that was one way to cure boredom(!), sitting on ice waiting for fish, so you're cold and bored before adding that maybe someone might want to take him ice fishing with them. Several people cheered before a woman replied that there wasn't any ice causing Jeff to respond in a politely sarcastic tone, "I didn't mean now!"

 

At another point, a woman said she likes to go dancing in Stoughton with Jeff inquiring "What kind of dancing?" The lady replied "Rock 'n' Roll dancing." with Jeff responding that he didn't know if he believed the lady because that kind of dancing is "dangerous".

[dasradiohead]

California Stars was a request with Jeff explaining that people don't usually like that song. During the song, he asked if the audience wanted to sing along but be careful not to take his part. Before the second verse, Jeff cautioned the audience that it was a little more tricky than the first and either at that point or after the two verses the audience contributed to, also pointed out that some of us had sung his part.

 

Towards the end, a woman requested a song which I couldn't make out, but Jeff replied that he had prepared 800 songs which he could perform over the two nights and thanked her for requesting one of the few he hadn't prepared. She retorted that he could learn it for tomorrow and replied in the affirmative when asked if she would be returning for the second night causing Jeff to exclaim to the entire audience in a slightly exasperated tone, "Great, you just want me to practice all day tomorrow."

 

Thank you KevinG for recording the setlist! The theatre was indeed very intimate, so I didn't want to have my screen glow disrupting others trying to take notes in between songs as Jeff kept things moving at a nice pace even with the banter. I tried to capture the essence of the evening with the notes above. I'll bring pen and paper tonight to more accurately record the banter.

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta

[viachicago22]

Thank you for the setlist!

[Lotti]

21 hours ago, dasradiohead said:

"What is there to do in Stoughton?", which drew the response, "Ice fishing."

Maybe I write to this place and ask if they want to be twin place with our village. Are they also of the ABBA?

[dasradiohead]

1 minute ago, Lotti said:

Maybe I write to this place and ask if they want to be twin place with our village. Are they also of the ABBA?

 

Stoughton is very proud of their Norwegian heritage and has Norwegian flags hanging from every street lamp in the city center.

[Lotti]

Thank you for confirmation that it is not town of Danish influence. Welfare!

[KevinG]

Forgot to post the poster from the show(s)  

 

[gogo]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:21 AM, dasradiohead said:

California Stars was a request with Jeff explaining that people don't usually like that song.

Maybe it's because it's a while since I've seen Wilco outside of California, but... who doesn't like that song?!?  It gets a great response around here. 

[dasradiohead]

47 minutes ago, gogo said:

Maybe it's because it's a while since I've seen Wilco outside of California, but... who doesn't like that song?!?  It gets a great response around here. 

I think it gets played fairly often, so people are just always chasing their white whales.

[KevinG]

3 hours ago, gogo said:

Maybe it's because it's a while since I've seen Wilco outside of California, but... who doesn't like that song?!?  It gets a great response around here. 

 

It's not that I don't like it, I am very tired of it.  There are other songs that I would much rather hear live then California Stars for the millionth time. 

[Brian F.]

7 hours ago, KevinG said:

 

It's not that I don't like it, I am very tired of it.  There are other songs that I would much rather hear live then California Stars for the millionth time. 

 

Pretty much this. I always have to remind myself that someone else is seeing "California Stars" or "Jesus, etc." for the first time and try to feel happy for that person while I silently complain to myself about having to hear it for the umpteenth time while fifteen years of their catalog remains largely missing in action.