the old buildings downtown empty so long ago

Seattle ended up as the whirlwind portion of this quick trip, serving mainly as a gateway to Vancouver, but there was the matter of attending Jeff Tweedy's show at the Moore Theatre between arrival and departure.

Jeff Tweedy, the Moore Theatre, September 30, 2018

I'm ashamed to admit that I don't venture to the Pacific Northwest often, though it's such an easy trip from the Bay Area. It should surprise no one that my last two trips to Seattle coincided with my last two trips to Vancouver. Funny how that works out! But at least we managed to hit Salumi and a Dave Rawlings Machine gig in 2010.

If you're planning to hit both Seattle and Vancouver in a weekend, keep in mind you can anticipate a three-hour drive between the cities, not including however long it takes to get through the border crossing. For various reasons, it made sense for me to fly in and out of Seattle, but it might not work for everyone.

The compressed time frame meant that I didn't do much in Seattle other than see Jeff's show, but that was more than sufficient because it was a good one. I can't explain what changed, except that the Seattle gig was an improvement over Vancouver. Maybe it was the venue, which was much more comfortable than the Vogue. Maybe it was the American audience. Maybe it was Jeff. In any case, it felt different from the get-go.

Shortly before the show, someone informed us that Jeff had asked for requests for the night's show, via his Twitter account. Because I was driving, I had missed the message. I guess enough people had come through that Jeff brought a small pile of papers to the stage with the compiled songs. As he explained, the website had gone down, and they had to assemble the list by hand. As usual, Jeff quipped that the range of requests proved that he had yet to write a trademark hit, but we all know it means that we dig into the deep cuts all across his career.

Perhaps as a sign of his comfort with the crowd and the market, Jeff started with a couple of new songs. No reason to lull us into a false sense of security with the hits, I suppose! But the truth is Jeff (Wilco, too) works from a core setlist, then adds and subtracts, based on the audience and vibe and so on. Thus, "Remember the Mountain Bed" (a good choice in this landscape), "New Madrid," "Passenger Side," and "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" all showed up, but Jeff sprinkled "Lost Love," "Sky Blue Sky," and "Hate It Here" into the performance as well.



Also following his blueprint, he talked trash about the Canadians too. It's a sign of love, I promise. Funny enough, our three nations had agreed to the new NAFTA agreement that day, and Jeff joked about his role in the negotiations.

I've been out of the rock tourism circuit long enough that I've kind of forgotten what it's like to see the same artist in more than one town in successive nights, but it doesn't take long to realize a different energy between shows. Seattle simply felt more relaxed, on both the performer's and the audience's side. From this fan's point of view, it was a welcome reminder of why I go to these gigs time and time again.

See also:
» waiting for a postcard
» i believe in locomotion
» make something that no one else has
» his old rain's just about soaked through