TCP Posted November 7 Share Posted November 7 If you've ever arrived at the historic First Avenue early to see a show, you'll know there's two lines for different sets of doors. The main entrance is directly facing the corner of 1st and 7th, so you can either line up along either street. Natually I assumed our esteemed reporter @bböp was in the 7th Street line. With all the excitement of getting into the venue, securing a spot centre on the rail, buying merch, rediscovering the men's room has a fucking trough (what year is it?!), and making it safely back to my designated spot on the rail (I don't mark my spot with my name like some folks do but I leave my denim jacket for everyone to know a Canadian is standing here) I didn't realize bbop wasn't present till just before Sima took the stage. Oh shit, I thought. I drove down from my home of Winnipeg, MB to Minneapolis that day and was carefully rationing my energy to give me just enough to rock out during the show and make a one hour drive back to St Cloud for the night. Truthfully, I'm not the best at keeping notes at the best of times, in fact last time I did this @theashtraysaystook notes for me. So long story short I have like two notes and I have already driven the 6ish hours back to Winnipeg and everything is already getting hazy. Please set your expectations appropriately! Complete setlist, per WilcoWorld but I'm pretty sure it was as played: Betrayed One Tiny Flower Caught Up In The Past Sign of Life Forever Never Ends This is How It Ends Low Key World Away KC Rain Mirror Gwendolyn Stray Cats In Spain Out In The Dark Cry Baby Cry Flowering New Orleans Diamond Light Pt. 1 No One's Moving On Feel Free Lou Reed Was My Babysitter --------------------------------------------- Twilight Override Family Ghost Kiss (Prince cover) Androgynous (Replacements cover) Enough Number of Twilight Override songs played (out of 30): Oh man I'm so tired... 17?? “Special” song: As we know, Jeff and the band have been covering one song a night that they're not going to do anywhere else. Often these songs have some sort of local connection. As Jeff explained, unlike some other (unnamed) places, this is not a problem here and then proceeded to launch into the first few bars of Kiss by legendary Minneapolis singer and performer Prince. However, Jeff very quickly shut it down in a manner that resembled Elvis Costello on SNL. But instead of launching into an entirely different song, he apologized for starting the song in the wrong key, proclaiming "I fucked up!". When the song restarted Sammy lead the band with a high falsetto vocal performance that delighted everyone in the sold out venue. After Jeff mentioned that Minneapolis gets two covers and the band then performed Androgynous by the Replacements, also sung by Sammy. Interestingly, on the setlist was Cosmic Dancer crossed out in pen with Androgynous written below. I'm not sure what connection T-Rex has with the area but the Replacements song received such an enthusiastic response the band must feel like they made the right call. Support report: Sima! She was great. I didn't really know what to expect but I really liked her songs. At least three of her songs were about family members (a song for her brother Liam that sort of was in the vein of Jeff's Golden Smog tune A Long Time Ago, a very touching song about her uncle who passed away, and a song for her child) which felt like the perfect songs to hear in an opening set for a headliner with two sets of siblings one of which also has that pair's father as the frontman. Venue vibes: This venue is all about the vibes. It has so much vibes I think you are required to write it ~vibes~. As some of you may know First Avenue was a setting in a very important music film called ..... I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Oh and another one called Purple Rain, which I admittedly have never seen. As mentioned previously, the bathrooms are a little dated, which only adds to the ~vibes~. As a venue itself it's not that special and I would have maybe preferred the recently renovated Palace Theatre in St Paul but there's definitely something special about that place that I can't quiet figure out. Maybe worth mentioning here... as you may have read on social media, longtime First Avenue stage manager Conrad recently passed away. I never had the pleasure of meeting him but you can tell from the reaction in the music industry that he was very respected and admired by touring bands coming throght SMP. Jeff talked about him during the encore, that this was the first time he's played First Ave and wasn't greeted by Conrad. Jeff mentioned he's been coming here for a very long time. He also mentioned that while he's not a spiritual person, he does feel Conrad in the room with them. "Conrad made this place what it is" is a direct quote. This got a huge response from the locals and it was all very heartwarming. Interestingly, this made me curious when Jeff's first performance in First Ave was, which, unless I missed something, appears to be Uncle Tupelo's Nov 6 1992 show... 33 years to the day exactly. Bits of tid, including Banter Corner: Some of Jeff's go-to banter appeared, including a suggestion of going around the venue and everyone giving their thoughts on the show.. this was after Jeff heard a very loud "Minneapolis loves you!" from an enthusiastic audience member. Perhaps the best banter came when, before one of the quiet songs, Jeff told the audience the next song was going to be very quiet "just like how David Lee Roth would warn his audience", Jeff then joked "it might get quiet" 3 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
theashtraysays Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Notes?? We don’t need no stinking NOTES! Well done ya hoser. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Albert Tatlock Posted November 8 Share Posted November 8 Ta. T'was thirty three years ago today, Uncle Tupelo rolled up here to play. Twang's been going in and out of style, And it's often known to raise some bile. Now may I introduce to you the act they've transformed to? Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's side project family band. We’re Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's side project family band, We hope our new album you all know, We’re Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's side project family band, Even if not we're going to give it a go. Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's, Jeffrey Scott Tweedy's, Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's side project family band. It’s many times Jeff's been here. It’s bogs are still a thrill. There's Canucks in the audience, Trump’d like to take your home from you. He’d love to take your home. Jeff doesn’t really want to stop the show, But there's banter corner to fill y'know So the singer’s gonna preface a song And he wants you all to guffaw along. So let me introduce to you, The one and only TCP, And Jeffrey Scot Tweedy's side project family band, yeah P.S. Bog is British slang for toilet (usually public toilet), not used too much now I think but particularly prevalent during my schooldays, when the toilets at school were always 'the bogs'. And they were about as inviting as that word picture conjures up. 1 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nalafej Posted November 10 Share Posted November 10 Any chance Jeff changed the lyrics in Feel Free at First Ave swapping "Paul and Tommy" in for the Beatles? That would have been a really nice touch... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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