Not just an ordinary side project, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and his drummer son, Spencer, gave Grand Rapids fans a powerful and intimate dose of their new album, “Sukierae,” plus some Wilco faves.
Tweedy is the rare example of a band you can genuinely compliment with the term, “novelty act.”
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This is something truly new.
Memory (by which I mean Google) struggles to conjure much precedent for dads and their sons forming notable bands together, let alone ones that are actually good. But this one, whose principal members are Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and his 18-year-old son, Spencer, is indeed very good, at times staggeringly so.
And Tweedy’s 30-song, two-hours-plus show Thursday night in a nearly full Calvin College’s Covenant Fine Arts Center — by turns laid-back and rollicking, powerful and intimate, intense and good-natured — offered one of Grand Rapids’ most rewarding 2014 concert experiences.
The band features the younger Tweedy on drums, with three friends rounding out the touring lineup: guitarist Jim Elkington, bassist Darin Gray and utility player Liam Cunningham. (Jeff Tweedy joked that he was waiting for the other guys to change their surnames to Tweedy so they could form their own version of The Ramones.) The group is on the road to promote “Sukierae,” a double album of 20 songs(!) that was released last month to strong reviews.
IMPRESSIVE FATHER-SON PARTNERSHIP, PLUS A SOLO SET OF WILCO TUNES
Kicking off with album highlight “Nobody Dies Anymore,” the band eased into the set, finding its high gear during the fourth song, “World Away,” which ended with a double-guitar freakout worthy of Crazy Horse.
About an hour in, following “Sukarie’s” sharp lead single “Low Key,” the band left the elder Tweedy to perform a catalog-spanning solo set of Wilco standards, including “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” “She’s a Jar,” “I’m Always In Love,” “Jesus, Etc.” and “I’m the Man Who Loves You.”
Wilco hasn’t toured or released anything in a few years, so Tweedy’s emergence is a welcome reminder of just how large a shadow Jeff Tweedy — who’s been so good and so innovative for so long that he seems to get taken for granted — continues to cast as a songwriter.
The band’s nepotistic structure notwithstanding, Spencer Tweedy is a drummer of impressive instincts who not only held his own while accompanying his father, but carried more than his share of the weight.
The show’s arguable highlight: During a performance of “Diamond Light, Part 1,” a spacious jam recalling the kraut-rock seasonings of out-there Wilco tracks “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” and “Art of Almost,” Spencer took the reins during an extended drum-and-bass coda as Jeff stood aside to proudly cede the spotlight.
Tweedy doesn’t replace a peak-horsepower Wilco show as a bucket-list item, but the band, which rejoined its frontman for a four-song encore deserves to be regarded as more than a side project.
New York-based trio Hospitality opened with a half-hour set of understated power-pop adorned with lovely harmonies, highlighted by twitchy single “I Miss Your Bones,” from the band’s recent second album “Trouble.”
TWEEDY AND HOSPITALITY: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Anthony Norkus
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music