Yes, it was Christmas with the Tweedys as the now beloved Wilco front-man travelled to the Grand Canyon State with his wife Susie and sons Sam and Spencer to spend the holidays with Tweedy’s sister. So for us lucky Arizona residents Tweedy decided to book a single gig at Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre, for a reason he explained as “a way to pay for his family’s visit to his sister’s house for the holidays.” Whether or not that is true, it doesn’t matter – it is sure as hell beats The Nutcracker.
But as the often amused Tweedy pointed out, making up about half the crowd and most of the guest list were his sister’s friends. But even without the help from family and friends, the cozy 1400 sold out capacity room would have still been an easy hot ticket.
A Jeff Tweedy solo show these days harkens back to what many refer to as the golden age of Wilco (Being There, Summerteeth, Mremaid Avenues, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) – pre Nels Cline and the noodly solos and Tweedy’s recent optimistic yet disappointing lyrics ( “What Light,: : Wilco the Song”). But for the un-jaded, the intimate show represents six acoustic guitars, witty banter, camp-fire friendly sing-alongs (“Jesus, Etc”, “Heavy Metal Drummer”) and plenty of laughter.
So while the five and a half year old current six piece version of Wilco has created both some interesting and non-interesting tangents, there still remains an army of noise that shelters Tweedy’s stark/fragile appeal as a singer-songwriter. While many Wilco fans would rather see a Tweedy solo gig than a full-on rock show , that doesn’t go to say there are some Tweedy penned songs that the current six piece still owns live, including two performed on this evening – “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” and “Impossible Germany.” During “Spiders” the singer had a senior moment and flat-out forgot the words and needed an audience member to holler out the forgotten lines to get him back on track. But why he would even try to include those more jam-friendly numbers in a solo show where he has a plethora of more appropriately suited acoustic numbers to pick from, it caused the evening’s only fault.
The evening revealed a number of quaint originals that rarely see much action in today’s live Wilco catalog: “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard,” “Remember the Mountain Bed,” “Please Tell My Brother” “Acuff- Rose,” Loose Fur’s “The Ruling Class” and a cover of The Handsome Family’s seasonally themed –“So Much Wine?”
Outside of a few annoying song requests between songs and the tinkering of knocked over beer bottles, the crowd was much appreciative of having Tweedy in town – most adoringly during “Jesus, Etc” as the crowd handled lead vocals passionately, leaving the voice himself to do not much, but strum his chords.
The night’s most memorable moment arrived for the closing two songs (“Someone Else’s Song,” “Acuff-Rose”) where Tweedy stepped away from the mic and stood at the edge of the stage and performed with no PA. “This is what it’ll be like when we lose power”, he joked, referring to a post-apocalyptic world. For many in attendance it could have ended all right there, having seen Tweedy play in a rare raw-stripped down fashion. Either way, here’s to Arizona having Jeff Tweedy spend another Christmas with his sister, making this the first of many future Phoenix Christmas week performances.
