Review: Jeff Tweedy @ Boulder Theater

The reason he is adored, despite his seemingly overarching requests for silence during a show, is because of the music he creates. Jeff Tweedy’s countenance alone demands attention – as he quietly strums his guitar and sings lyrics often of missing a lover or of needing nothing else, the room stays silent. Most people want to hear every note he plucks and every word he sings. Because of the unconditional love showered on him from everywhere around, he gets away with being an asshole.

As for the songs he played, they were what you’d expect, and what you’d be happy to hear – Sunken Treasure, I’ll Fight, Forget the Flowers, and Either Way to name a few – but you were never quite sure if he was losing himself in it or if he was just playing through the motions. Sometimes it felt like both, until the third song of the encore as he covered Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, following a 12-string acoustic version of Heavy Metal Drummer, and preceding Dreamer in my Dreams, for which he came front stage and sang to the small, quiet theater without amplification or microphone before quietly heading off stage, head down and hand held up. From this we know, or can at least tell ourselves, the asshole is an act.

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7 Responses

  1. I’ve often wondered this myself. I live in Chicago and have seen him around and it seems he’s an asshole, but I often wonder. I am going with the asshole not being an act.

  2. The one Wilco show I’ve seen, he really made a point of how rude we were as an audience. Half of me agreed and the other half wanted to remind him of his core demographic – 30-ish Gen-Xers who (like me) paid $100 for a sitter that night. If I see a friend on this rare night out, give me a break if I say Hi. Besides, it was a GA show with an open dance floor. Book reserved seating theaters if it bothers you so much, dude. Genius, maybe… I was there to see Nels Cline shred my face off.

  3. OK kids. Tweedy writes cool songs and is for sure a true individual, never really met or even heard of somebody so peculiar. And let’s not get too carried away on his lyrics. Very sweet, sticky sweet. My girlfriend almost slid right out of her seat at the show. But, they’re love somgs and pretty straight forward. Further, most of the really die hard Wilco lovers I’ve met aren’t really geniuses either. Go to a show, look around, talk to the fans. They definitely fancy themselves geniuss. But the fact that they can’t differentiate genius from eccentricity speaks to that. Neils does shred and those licks were missed from the show. A great show, a truely memorable experience. Tweedy is a great entertainer. And a weird mother fkcer. Not a genius.

  4. Almost forgot the most important part! I’m pretty sure he is an asshole. Being one myself I can identify it a mile away. The fact that you might even pretend to be an asshole, makes you, well kind of an asshole. Perfect!

  5. it makes sense that egocentric white brahmins would pay $100 to see this asshole. you are meant for each other!

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