What do solo tours say about an artist? Were they not getting enough admiration from the fans and the media? Sick of their band? Perhaps they prefer more space to themselves on a tour bus? Whatever the reason, Jeff Tweedy, proud frontman of alt-country favorites Wilco, self-described “pissy crybaby prima donna” and sarcastic wiseguy recently hit the road by himself, which featured a stop at Spreckels Theatre on Saturday, Feb. 11.
After a warm-up in which Wilco’s drummer, Glenn Kotche, seemed to operate effortlessly with far more than four limbs in a solo drum performance accompanied only by sparse drum-machine percussion, Tweedy took the stage with only himself, five other guitars behind him, a lone spotlight and an all-too-eager crowd.
Tweedy wordlessly launched into his first song “” his constant banter, which entertained the crowd all night, for now kept under wraps. Tweedy’s audience felt the performance’s intimacy as well, for during the second song, a rhythmically challenged couple of people in the corner tried to clap along. They quickly got off beat, and in an otherwise dead-silent room, Tweedy looked up from his guitar work and quickly smiled at their attempt. Following the song, Tweedy deadpanned, “You ain’t got it “” that’s why I work alone.” Following this and each subsequent rip against the crowd members in question, Tweedy would flash a pained look of regret, sorry that his sarcasm had gotten the best of him.
This interaction opened the floodgates: requests were coming in from the crowd between songs, with Tweedy’s comments providing as much entertainment as his music. After someone shouted for “California Stars,” his popular collaboration with Billy Bragg over Woody Guthrie lyrics, Tweedy retorted, “isn’t it obvious I’m going to play that later? Don’t you know anything about show business?” This and any other time Tweedy spent with his mouth open between songs was met with automatic applause from the adoring crowd practically regardless of what he said, to his slight annoyance.
His vocals throughout the night were far more dynamic than on record “” more piercing and precise at times, more endearingly lazy and flat at others, depending on the song. With no band to distract the audience, his voice and guitar work were the center of attention. The solo format really exposes the artist, and his impressive voice, as well as occasional guitar mishaps were on full-frontal display. Tweedy didn’t shy away from further exposure as his extroverted nature led to countless memorable moments, not even including the songs.
“¢ Tweedy scored a touché by remarking that it was nice of the crowd to elect a spokesman after they shouted the typical “We love you!”
“¢ After cutting off a song he had started, Tweedy said to someone sitting in the private boxes just off the stage if she would finally be quiet after listening to her chattering all night. Feeling somewhat guilty for berating her, he launched into his labeling by critics as a pissy, crybaby prima donna artist by retorting that “It’s all I’ve ever aspired to my whole life!” In a tongue-in-cheek manner, he then compared himself to Bruce Springsteen, making mention of tickets to the Boss’ solo performances, which supposedly request that the audience be totally silent throughout the show.
A few songs later, referring back to his tangent on crowd chatter, he asked of his audience, “Aside from my unfortunate tirade, are we having a good time? I’ve had a wonderful time.”
After numerous other stripped-down, nakedly beautiful songs combined with random musings in between, Tweedy played “California Stars” after all in his second encore as he invited the crowd to sing along, though it wasn’t his final song. For that, he wielded an unplugged acoustic guitar and stepped out in front of his microphone and monitors on the edge of the stage, saying he’d like to do his last song this way. It was a fitting way to end the night “” the crowd was deadly silent, except for a few screams that were quickly shushed.
The very second his song ended, the crowd exploded with applause and leaped to its feet in the loudest roar heard all evening.
With that, Tweedy endeared himself as a true performer “” savvy, funny and incredibly talented.