I was in Phoenix for Christmas with the fam and Jeff Tweedy happened to be playing a one-off solo show at the Orpheum Theatre downtown. It also happened to be my Mom’s birthday and I managed to get tickets for everyone as a nice family outing. A writer for the Phoenix New Times went as far as to call it the best show of 2009 in Phoenix, and while I might not be that bold, I will say it was a fantastic performance and probably in my top three for the year.

Inside the Orpheum just before showtime

The show was certainly intimate – Tweedy’s sister, who lives in the Phoenix area, was in attendance (along with a lengthy guest list of friends) and he dedicated a song to her early in the show. He also performed “You and I” for his wife who was in the crowd along with their two sons.

Jeff Tweedy talks to the crowd just before the encore.

Tweedy played a slew of great songs over the course of roughly two hours dating as far back as the Uncle Tupelo days. Just a few of the memorable tunes that come to mind include “Please Tell My Brother,” “In a Future Age”, “How to Fight Loneliness”, “The Ruling Class” (which – given the season – he felt compelled to state was not blasphemous), “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, “Muzzle of Bees”, “Hummingbird”, “Heavy Metal Drummer” with the crowd chiming in, and a fantastic version of “Acuff/Rose” during a portion of the encore where he chose to eschew the house PA and simply play at the edge of stage.

Hearing Tweedy sans Wilco has given me a renewed respect for his craftsmanship as a songwriter. I certainly agree with New Times writer that this show was better than any Wilco show of recent memory.

Went to the sold out Wilco concert in Madison on Thanksgiving Eve with my older brother. The show was at the Barrymore Theater which I thought I’d never been to before, but after checking my old ticket stubs I found I’ve actually been there twice in 1997 while still in high school. The first show was Leftover Salmon and moe. in January and the second was just moe. in March. Not surprisingly, I don’t remember much about either show but I do recall Marshal Olson getting violently sick in the bathroom for the entire moe. performance in March. Poor Marshal, he’d been waiting to see moe. for so long.

Anyhow, back to the Wilco show on Wednesday. It was first Wilco show I’d been to since the summer of 2003 when my older brother and I saw Wilco and Sonic Youth play two nights in Central Park. Since that time the band has gone through some significant changes including Jeff Tweedy’s stint in rehab, the addition of Nels Cline on guitar and the loss of the multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach. I recently saw Bach on the blue line train here in Chicago and actually thought of asking him how the new Wilco album was coming along – probably a good thing I didn’t.

Wilco played a few new tunes that I’m guessing will appear on the forthcoming album including the song ‘The Thanks I Get’ which they played on ‘Conan’ a few months ago. They also did a slew of well known Wilco numbers: ‘Handshake Drugs’ – ‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’ – ‘Sunken Treasure’ – ‘Theologians’ and they kicked off the first of two encores with ‘War on War’. Tweedy dedicated a new number to John Stirrat’s recently born daughter Grace and then proceeded to fuck up the beginning, but the song itself was one of the better new ones they played.

All in all, I really liked the addition of Nels Cline and thought his guitar solos really added to the new material but I also think that Cline’s esoteric musical stylings sometimes have a damning effect on Tweedy and his songwriting approach. But what do I know.