Jeff Tweedy — 25 October 2024, Grass Valley, CA (The Center For The Arts)

[bböp]

Not that I'm speaking from any kind of personal experience, but I can imagine that for some performers, building a rapport with a live audience isn't necessarily first and foremost in their minds. I mean, of course you want people to respond favorably to you, but once you develop a set of material you're confident in and the lights go down and everything fades to black, you try to present that set to the people in front of you to the best of your ability and let the proverbial chips fall where they may. But I guess it always helps when an audience seems to "get" you, perhaps even surprising you at times with their feedback and participation.

 

In Jeff's case, making his début in this small bedroom community about an hour northeast of Sacramento, that helped elevate what might have otherwise been a fairly routine or even potentially awkward evening into a pretty fun and memorable one.

 

It started from the jump with Jeff's opening salvo of Story To Tell and Normal American Kids, the latter played for the first time on this solo run and for the first time in well over a year. The crowd at the 500-seat Center For The Arts demonstrated its attention to the lyrics of both songs by laughing at many of the humorous lines (which, trust me, does not always happen). And that fact was not lost on Jeff, even though he might have been a bit skeptical at first.

 

"I can't see you, but you sound like a subversive bunch," he said after NAK. "I didn't know what to expect. ... You're laughing at things that nobody laughs at, things I think are funny but no one else does. That kind of acceptance makes me feel weird. I depend on a certain separation between my intent and how it's perceived, so I don't know if this is gonna work."

 

Gradually, though, Jeff seemed to be won over. The first half of the set turned into a de facto greatest hits of his banter and stories from the past couple of years, including a lengthy version of the story about his days as a teenage liquor store manager before An Empty Corner (during which, incidentally, he was discussing how his employers once burned down one of their stores and Jeff amusingly uttered the line, "I didn't start the fire," before realizing what had come out of his mouth and, with a wry smile, joking to his crew offstage to note that "Somebody should write a song about that.") He also briefly discussed the origins of Gwendolyn, talked about learning how some people get mad when he doesn't use all the guitars he has on stage (including calling his unused harmonicas "Chekhov's harmonicas," a remark which I finally had to ask someone to explain to me) before switching to a 12-string instrument for the only time to play Country Song Upside-Down, and got a healthy laugh at the story about modifying the lyric in Guaranteed.

 

The Grass Valley crowd really seemed to win points with Jeff a little later in the 94-minute set by singing along properly to California Stars, which Jeff dedicated sweetly to the late Phil Lesh with whom he and Nels Cline performed during a special "Philco" set a little over two years ago at the inaugural Sacred Rose Festival in Chicago. In his brief comments, Jeff said that Lesh had been "lovely" and that "nobody played bass like him, though people tried." Jeff added that they played California Stars with Lesh during that Philco set, which was the reason for his dedication (even though further research reveals they actually didn't play the song that night). Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

 

Even when there was something that probably annoyed him, Jeff played it off in a humorous fashion — like when he gently teased someone in the front row about making noise while apparently unwrapping a cookie during Radio King. "You couldn't eat before the show? Did you bring enough for everybody?" Jeff joked good-naturedly. "Whoever wrapped that cookie did a hell of a job. It took you about a verse and a half (to get it open). Meanwhile, I'm up here racking my brain for lyrics. Can you do me a favor? Can you not wrap it back up if you're not done?" Then as he was gently strumming the opening chords to the next song and still sort of dealing with the cookie issue, someone yelled out in recognition, "New Madrid!" and someone else (I think) started to sing the opening line. To which Jeff shot back with an amused smile, "You wanna sing it? You want a piece of this?"

 

The cookie subplot resurfaced a few songs later when the guy who had been chided returned with a cookie and dropped it at Jeff's feet. Jeff picked it up, observed that it was a peanut butter cookie and gave the guy one more bit of grief, asking "What if I had the peanut allergy? Can you imagine...that'd be the worst rock death of all time."

 

And that was basically the vibe of the show: a performer and his audience more or less simpatico. It's funny that I can barely even get to the delightfully surprising nugget that was Acuff-Rose — Jeff hadn't played it live in more than five years — in this recap because there was so much back-and-forth with the crowd that I wanted to mention. Like when Jeff once again recalled how he and the audience had "hit it off right away" and characterized the relationship as "besties." Or how the crowd nailed the "Whoo!" part on Lou Reed Was My Babysitter right away, which seemed to genuinely surprise Jeff and caused him to say that "you guys really are a professional audience." All in all, it made for an entertaining evening in Gold Rush country.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played:

 

Story To Tell

Normal American Kids

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

An Empty Corner

Gwendolyn

Having Been Is No Way To Be

County Song Upside-Down

Guaranteed

Ambulance

You And I

Radio King

New Madrid

A Lifetime To Find

Impossible Germany

Family Ghost

California Stars (dedicated to Phil Lesh)

Acuff-Rose

Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

Jesus, etc.

Laminated Cat aka Not For The Season

I'm The Man Who Loves You

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta.

Synchronicity - in the last few weeks I’ve heard a couple of Checkov plays on the radio - The Seagull and apparently his first work whose name I can’t remember. I’ve never read his work. I was extremely disappointed. It seems to be all minor bourgeoisie on their rural estates moaning about not having enough money, falling in love with younger women (often whilst being married), and then shooting themselves. Big dissappointment. Based upon my radio play history of ‘the classics’, I’m much more of a Zola fan. P.S. I hardly read fiction.