I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 18, 2018] Jeff Tweedy

I knew I was overbooking myself this particular week (this was my third concert in three days), but how could I pass up Jeff Tweedy playing in Princeton?  He’d never played here before.  Who knew when he’d do it again.  And I could get seats by walking right up the box office.

After seeing Wilco live I knew I’d want to see them again.  And while Wilco is much more than Jeff Tweedy, Jeff Tweedy by himself is pretty great.  Especially if you’re in Row E.

I came to Wilco pretty late in their existence.  I didn’t want to know about any alt-country bands back then.  Who needed to add -country to alt- music?  Well, then I heard “Via Chicago” live and I was hooked.  I have retroactively enjoyed all of their releases.

So how awesome was it that he opened with “Via Chicago” just for me?

Jeff Tweedy has been involved with music since 1990, and he’s quite prolific, so who knew what kind of setlist we’d get.  I assumed it would be largely Wilco and it was.

But I had forgotten just how many projects Tweedy has worked with.  So there were a number of songs that I didn’t recognize.  Like the Golden Smog song “Lost Love” (a band I was only vaguely aware of at all) or the Loose Fur song “Laminated Cat” (a band I’d only recently even heard about but which I think I’d like quite a lot).  And then there was the Uncle Tupelo song “New Madrid” (a band I’d resisted because of the alt-country label, but which I’m slowly exploring now).

Couple these with some brand new songs (“Charlie”, “New Wave Theater” and “Noah’s Flood”) and it was like a greatest hits mixed with new soon to be favorites.

Because there were great versions of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” and “Hummingbird.”  A romping version of “Passenger Side” and a wonderful “Jesus, Etc.”

Tweedy was a lot of fun onstage, being the lovable curmudgeon that he is he told us that of the 1,000 or so of us there, he’d probably like about 4 of us.

When somebody shouted “we all hate your hat,” not only did the crowd shout that this guy did not speak for them, but Tweedy was not afraid to throw down with the guy.  He said people look up here and see a guy with no self-esteem, but nothing could be further from the truth.  And no asshole like that guy is gonna bother him.

People shouted out songs which he primarily ignored.  Although when someone shouted out a song he said “that’s your favorite song.  But everybody here has a different favorite song.  That’s the problem with not having a hit.”

Despite the curmudgeonly nature of Tweedy, he was delightful and very funny.  Early in the set after playing “One Sunday Morning” he rejected our applause when he played a rather simple guitar line a few times, saying he knows that what he does is simple.  It’s like when he plays harmonica–anyone can play harmonica.  A woman in the front row said “I can’t.”  He said, “you can” and he gave her the harmonica he used in “Via Chicago.”  (How cool is that???). He said that he expected her to know how to play it when he came back in a few years.

Later on he joked that he wished that when people heard the song they came to hear that they would just leave, it would make everything so much easier for him to know what songs people really wanted to hear.  He then looked at the harmonica woman and said, “you got a harmonica you should have just left right then.”

After one of the songs someone asked him was the tuning was on that song. He told us it was DADADE and then asked if anyone else had any questions.

After a wonderful set-ending trio of “Impossible Germany” “Theologians” and “I’m the Man Who Loves You” he went off for an encore.

There was a sign when we entered that said Jeff Tweedy “The performance will be two hours and thirty minutes including one twenty-minute intermission.”  I initially read that to mean that he would be playing for that long (since Wilco plays forever).  But it dawned on me that that was probably OHMME and the intermission between them, so that this was going to be the end.

But Tweedy and Wilco don’t do that one and done encore nonsense.  No indeed, Tweedy played four songs including a brand new sing along called “Noah’s Flood (Let’s Go Rain Again)” in which full audience participation was encouraged and appreciated.  But before that was a spectacular version of  “Misunderstood.”  I wondered what he would do during the chaotic middle part,and he did not disappoint.

Tweedy told us about the old guitar that he was playing on most of the songs.  He said it was from the 1930s and had no resonance.  Because, he said, his voice didn’t have any either and he would never want to be shown up by a guitar.

He ended the show with a fun version of “Kamera” in which he seemed  to miss a few chords here and there (and was a good sport about it).  It was followed by a rousing singalong of “Shot in the Arm” which we all enjoyed immensely.

It was a terrific show and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Setlist

1. Via Chicago (Wilco Summerteeth)
2. One Sunday Morning (Wilco The Whole Love)
3. Charlie (previously unreleased)
4. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
5. New Madrid (Uncle Tupelo Anodyne)
6. Lost Love (Golden Smog Weird Tales)
7. Hummingbird (Wilco A Ghost is Born)
8. New Wave Theater
9. Laminated Cat (Loose Fur Loose Fur)
10. Bull Black Nova (Wilco (The Album))
11. Passenger Side (Wilco A.M.)
12. Jesus, Etc. (Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
13. Impossible Germany (Wilco Sky Blue Sky)
14. Theologians (Wilco A Ghost is Born)
15. I’m the Man Who Loves You (Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
16. Encore:
17. Misunderstood (Wilco Being There)
18. Noah’s Flood (Let’s Go Rain Again) (previously unreleased)
19. Kamera (Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
20. A Shot in the Arm (Wilco Summerteeth)