White Plains’ 4th Best Personal Blog

I just realized that if I managed to recap the last four shows I saw, which all involved twangy (to varying degrees) singer-songwriters, then I would actually be more or less all caught up on show reports. For a couple of days anyway. Oy.

I’ve seen Rhett Miller, particularly in a solo setting, more times than I can count. Part of that has to do with the fact that, after he moved to New York a few years ago, Rhett used to play regularly at the late, great downtown venue Fez. So what keeps me coming back? One reason is I’ve always found it enjoyable to see solo performances by singer-songwriters with vast repertoires because you never quite know what you’re going to hear. Often, they’ll be trying out some new material and sometimes you’ll get lucky and get a real chestnut in the set as well. I think the audience sometimes has more influence on a solo show as well, sometimes causing — in good and bad ways — an artist to veer slightly from what he or she had planned. Additionally, with Rhett, I’ve made some good friends at his (and Old 97’s) shows in New York over the years. Since those shows are primarily where I get to see those friends, it’s always another strong incentive to make it to as many shows as possible.

Accordingly, when Rhett announced a show at Black Cat a day after Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings played the same room, I decided it would be a good time to go visit Heidi in Washington. I wasn’t expecting any of the “New York crew,” as I dub them, to come down since there was a show in Ridgewood, N.J. (pretty close to Manhattan) less than a week later at which I figured I’d see them all. But it was a happy surprise when I found out the day of the show that they would all be making the trip. And it was a lucky thing they did because Rhett played a really fun mix of stuff, including four songs off the upcoming Old 97’s record including one that he said he’d never played in front of people before. (I think it was the “Borrowed VW Bug” song, which he somehow got through despite more than one “oops” moment.) We also got a true rarity in “Tupelo County Jail” (a/k/a the hidden track on the 97’s first album, Hitchhike to Rhome) and the song that I had wanted to hear, “Busted Afternoon” (the crew and I filled in the background vocals at the appropriate moments, unlike most of the crowd). I’ve always been fascinated and a little amused by Rhett’s audiences. There are always the youngish girls who think of Rhett as little more than a hottie with a guitar (I’d say the girl at Black Cat who kept insistently yelling for Rhett to “take off your shirt” fit into this category), the alt-country fans who haven’t lost the faith, the older suburbanites who heard about him on radio stations like WXPN and WFUV. It’s an eclectic bunch of people, for sure.

Nearly a week later, Rob picked me up (thanks Rob!) and together we headed over the Tappan Zee Bridge to Rhett’s Ridgewood show. Ridgewood is an affluent town in Bergen County that reminded me of Rye, N.Y., in a lot of ways. The show was at pretty yuppie-ish bar called Blend — or, to be more accurate, in the slick music space beneath Blend that resembled an upscale Manhattan nightclub. Given the venue and the fact that he was essentially opening for a Jersey bar band called The Nerds, Rhett pretty much stuck to the “hits.” So there was a lot of stuff off The Instigator and The Believer and requisite stuff like “Question” and “Rollerskate Skinny.” I don’t blame him, of course, and because of the presence of friends, I still had a good time.

As often as I feel like I’ve seen Rhett the last couple of years, I had definitely gone through a Neko Case drought during that time. Although I’d seen her a couple of times with the New Pornographers, I had missed her area show(s?) in support of her most recent solo record, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. So I planned on rectifying that at Tarrytown Music Hall. Thanks to some fast fingers when tickets when on sale, I managed to score a nice seat in the front row, more or less center. Rob also got a front-row seat over to my left.

Apparently Neko has been recording her next solo album in Vermont and brought her band along on this mini-East Coast tour (on which Tarrytown was the first stop) to test out some new material. Happily, that band included Chicago-based songstress and sometime Hideout bartender Kelly Hogan on vocals as well as mainstays Jon Rauhouse on steel guitar and Tom Ray on upright bass. Neko and Kelly provided plenty of goofy, back-and-forth banter all night long, perhaps working out some anxiety about playing some of the new songs live for the first time. I don’t believe any allusions were made to their recent appearance in an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but as one review I read noted, their humor was definitely in that sort of vein.

As for the songs, there was an abundance of new stuff. I can’t say that any of it made much of an impression on me after a single listen, but that’s not all that unusual. It only worries me insofar as I didn’t really get into Fox Confessor as much as Neko’s earlier records. There wasn’t enough older material for my liking, but obviously with so much new stuff, concessions had to be made somewhere. And they made up for it in part with a trio of covers. There was “Listen To Her Heart” by Tom Petty as well as interesting renditions of songs by Sparks and Harry Nilsson. I’ve never quite bought into the sex appeal thing with Neko that some guys seem to be drawn in by, at least in part. But getting to hear her sing, especially in tandem with Ms. Hogan, is something I’d gladly do anytime.

There wasn’t much time to rest after the Neko show, however, because I had to head home, quickly pack a bag and head straight to the airport to catch an early flight to Chicago. Fortunately there wasn’t any severe weather with which to contend, so I made it in plenty of time to drop my bag off and have a tasty breakfast/brunch before heading up to the Vic to get in line for Jeff Tweedy’s second annual benefit show for scholarships at his kids’ school. Ordinarily I might not have arrived quite so early — ha, who am I kidding? — but I felt some responsibility to get a good spot on behalf of Brianne, who had done the same for me the year before. Brianne and some other friends were at our friend Stacy’s wedding, so it wasn’t the usual crowd you might expect at a Chicago show. (I guess some of that also had to do with the $100 price tag for tickets.) I just counted my blessings that I had brought my thickest jacket and a neck gaitor.

As she did at the first annual show, Jeff’s wife, Susan, graciously stepped out into the frigid air prior to the show to take requests from people in line. I initially put in for “Someday Soon,” and when she came back around to take additional requests because there weren’t enough people in line at that point, I also submitted “Pick Up The Change.” To my surprise, Jeff wound up playing both during the show, acknowledging the granting of a rare double request (thanks Jeff!). Unfortunately someone’s ringing cell phone interrupted the latter, leading to some good-natured scolding. But still, it was nice to get those songs as well as hear rarities such as “Pieholden Suite” and “Just A Kid.”

This charity show ultimately is an interesting one because I think Jeff feels like he needs to entertain the audience with stories and banter more than at a regular show because part of the crowd (especially those in the reserved seats in the front) doesn’t comprise his usual fanbase and another part is made up of people who have traveled from far and wide to experience what has been described as “a giant living room show.” It must be a challenge to balance those varied interest levels, which can lead to a somewhat uneven and freewheeling, though fun, performance.

Rhett Miller//1-18-08//Black Cat, Washington, DC//support: Jennifer O’Connor

The El/The New Kid/My Valentine/Barrier Reef/new song (“Borrowed VW Bug”)/new song (“Dance With Me”)/Busted Afternoon/Tupelo County Jail/Brand New Way/Adelaide/Melt Show/World Inside The World/Buick City Complex/new song (“Blame It On Gravity”)/new song (“Down The Mountain On My Own Two Feet”)/Victoria/Fireflies/Rollerskate Skinny/Question (w/French verse)/Singular Girl/19/4-Leaf Clover/Doreen//e: Come Around/Big Brown Eyes/new song (“Government Man”)/Our Love

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Rhett Miller//1-24-08//Blend, Ridgewood, NJ//support: none

This Is What I Do/The New Kid/My Valentine/Salome/new song (“Borrowed VW Bug”)/new song (“Dance With Me”)/Murder (Or A Heart Attack)/Desperate Times/Brand New Way/Things That Disappear/Barrier Reef/Doreen/World Inside The World/Buick City Complex/new song (“Unless I Ride”)/new song (“Down The Mountain On My Own Two Feet”)/Fireflies/Rollerskate Skinny/Question (w/French verse)/19/Singular Girl/The El/4-Leaf Clover//e: Come Around/Big Brown Eyes/Our Love/Timebomb

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Neko Case//1-25-08//Tarrytown Music Hall, Tarrytown, NY//support: Eric Bachmann

A Widow’s Toast/Favorite/new song (“Pharaohs”)/Dirty Knife/Star Witness/new song (“Godspeed”)/new song (“Prison Girls”)/Listen To Her Heart [Tom Petty]/Margaret vs. Pauline/Deep Red Bells/The Tigers Have Spoken/Maybe Sparrow/Don’t Forget Me [Harry Nilsson]/new song (“I’m An Animal”)/That Teenage Feeling/Hold On, Hold On//e: new song (“Vengeance”)/I Wish I Was The Moon/Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth [Sparks]/John Saw That Number

* — setlist courtesy of Porchlight forums

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Jeff Tweedy//1-26-08//Vic Theater, Chicago, IL//support: none

Spiders (Kidsmoke) [started, flubbed]/The Community Song, pt. 1/Spiders (Kidsmoke)/Someday Soon/Radio King/She’s a Jar/The Family Gardener/Cars Can’t Escape/The Community Song, pt. 2/Pecan Pie/The Ruling Class/Passenger Side/Just a Kid/A Shot in the Arm/Remember the Mountain Bed/I’m The Man Who Loves You/Muzzle of Bees/Pieholden Suite/The Thanks I Get//[intermission]//California Stars/Jesus, etc./Pick Up The Change/Be Not So Fearful/Airline to Heaven/When The Roses Bloom Again/I Must Be High/Gun//e: Someone Else’s Song [off PA system]/Acuff-Rose [off PA system]