Hi, everybody. This is a long one. In Madison, Wisconsin, yesterday, on the last day of tour, Sammy, Spencer and I sat down to answer some of your questions. It was all going so smoothly until we went off the rails reminiscing at the end. We’ve included audio and transcriptions for your answer-listening pleasure.
The first leg of Twilight Override tour is done. Thank you to everyone who came out and to everyone who’s been listening to the album. As you’ll see below, this tour has been stuffed with loveliness. OxO—Jeffy
Brian C asked: What’s your favorite room you have played on the tour? Not the audience or town—just the room.
Jeff: We’ve played a lot of rooms that I really enjoyed, but I think the consensus is that Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas, was almost perfect. The shape of it, the sound of it, the size of it, everything was so perfect. But we played a lot of really great ones. I remember it sounding really great in a lot of places.
Spencer: Liberty Hall had custom carpet in the basement that we said looked like two meatballs with a noodle wrapped around them, the pattern of the carpet.
Jeff: Or Saturn.
Liz asked: I’m wondering what kind of new-music listener you are... like, say, when a favorite band/musician comes out with a triple album, how do you digest it? Do you listen from start to finish and then repeat? Do you play it in the background and kind of absorb it at first? Do you deep dive on individual songs? Do you listen with or without headphones? Do you have any sort of deliberate system or pattern?
Jeff: I don’t really have any deliberate system or pattern other than, Fridays when new records come out, I generally spend at least a couple hours scanning around for who put records out, and then checking them out and making a mental note of stuff I want to go back to. But I have the luxury of being able to set aside time to listen to records, because it’s kind of my job, or part of my job. Sometimes I listen to a record while I’m doing something else. Sometimes I have the headphones on and I’m hiking. Sometimes I just set aside some time to lay on the couch and listen to a record.
Michelle asked: What is the process of working out a cover song with the band? Do you just sort of start jamming and see what happens, or do you talk it over first and make decisions about who will do what?
Jeff: It’s pretty haphazard. Because the songs are related to the places we’re going, people can start investigating the artists from each city a couple of days ahead of time. We have a text thread where people start to make suggestions for different cities. But it usually comes down to the last minute. For example, yesterday, about an hour before sound check, we decided that we were gonna do a Jackson 5 song, and that was a mad dash to learn a very difficult song, “I Want You Back.”
In some cases, they’re songs we’re more familiar with and we know how to play them. But the arrangements vary. Sometimes we have the instrumentation to do a really verbatim kind of rendition, and I think it’s fun to see how close we can get to the original arrangement. In other cases, like “Single Ladies” in Houston, we had to just kind of adapt to what we had at our disposal.
And then there are moments where, in Houston, also, Jandek—who Spencer has played with—if you don’t know who he is, I can recommend going doing some studying, because he’s a one-of-a-kind, iconoclastic musician/artist I’ve loved for a long time—[Jandek] came to the show with his partner, Sheila, and so, kind of on a whim, we decided to do a Jandek song in the dressing room about 10 minutes before we went on stage. We thought, “we’ll do that in the encore.” So we listened to it a couple times and reminded ourselves a little bit before the encore of how the song went. But that’s the spirit of Jandek, also. So we kind of lived up to what he’s all about. And he was really happy with it too, which was really sweet.
Rhonda Strickland asked: Do you get out your banjo for any of the performances, and if so, which song?
Jeff: I only break the glass on the banjo when absolutely necessary. Thankfully it hasn’t come to that on this tour.
Paul L. Underwood asked: You’re touring with younger musicians, who I imagine consider you a kind of mentor. If and when they ask you for advice about making music and about navigating the music industry, what do you tell them? (And thank you for doing this!)
Jeff: I try and answer any question almost anybody asks me as honestly as I can. So I just try and tell the truth or what my experiences have led me to believe about different things. I do have a lot of experience, but I don’t know if I fully accept the role of mentor when I feel like I’m being mentored by wonderful, creative, beautiful musicians.
I think it’s good to come at the world like you’re meeting equals or people that are smarter than you, even, all the time, because you tend to learn a lot when you do that. And I like being challenged, and I like knowing new things, and I really don’t think I’m half the musician [my bandmates are]—I think there’s something learned from how everybody approaches it.
Spencer: I wouldn’t say half the musician, I would say—
Jeff: A third?
Dusty Petersen asked: Jeff, Spencer and Sammy, my question for any or all of you is, what is one of your favorite tour memories with each other? One that will stick with you forever!
Spencer: To me, it’s all one cloud. Being here together, it’s all one cloud that I like to be in, you know? I mean, sure, there are specific [memories]—last night is one. The entire band, plus mom, Susie, were on the bus debriefing the show together. We’re talking about Lounge Ax, because Mom has her Lounge Ax diaries here on the tour bus, and she’s been rewriting and transferring information between them. Even just a mundane moment like that becomes a favorite memory because everyone said hilarious shit. And Mom ups the ante on that.
Jeff: As a father, I will say that some of my favorite memories are what you might say are your favorite memories, because I get to watch, for example, Sammy sing Prince in Minneapolis and have the place go crazy. That was unforgettable and a highlight. This tour has been really stuffed with loveliness.
Sammy: I think that it’s hard to pick a favorite moment, per se, that didn’t happen on a day off, because [on a show day] there’s an order to things, and there’s a schedule, so it’s kind of cyclical. The days are somewhat similar, but it’s the combined effect of all of them that really adds up to a great tour. I love the debrief we do after the show. I love the cover we do every night, but we do those things every night, so it’s hard to be like, “Oh, this or that thing.” I mean, it’s the whole experience taken together for me.
Jeff: I like how the covers have turned into kind of a dessert for the audience and the audience—at least the people that are online and paying attention—have kind of gotten to the point where they’re anticipating and thinking about what we might be doing in each town.
Spencer: Some people think they can anticipate it from the audience… with their mouth.
Jeff: Somebody yelled “John Cougar” in Bloomington, Indiana last night. We had him removed [all laugh]. No, I just said the words the most famous person in the world, and they said, “John Cougar!” I’m like, “No.” … In Memphis, we played two songs [laughs]—I’m gonna go back to memories. Now I’m just like grandpa like, “What did we do on this trip?”
Spencer: We toured a Civil War battlefield museum. We went to the World War II History Museum. We ate oysters in New Orleans.
Jeff: We ate oysters in Maine.
Spencer: We sang Big Star with Jody Stephens, Prince in Prince’s hometown venue, First Avenue, Jandek in front of Jandek.
Jeff: Blue Öyster Cult in front of the drummer from Blue Öyster Cult. We didn’t know it.
Spencer: We had some amazing meals.
Jeff: Very, very memorable and everybody’s pretty excited about the prospect of doing more on the West Coast soon, sooner than later, hopefully. Well, I mean, it’s in March.
Spencer: We know when.
Jeff: We know when. Thanks to everybody that’s been coming out too, also. It’s been almost uniformly lovely audiences, with some rare exceptions, of some rowdy crowds. And it’s almost inevitable that the rowdy crowds coincide with shows where I can see a bar from the stage [laughs].
Spencer: Except not last night.
Sammy: They were super quiet last night.
Jeff: But I couldn’t see a bar from stage last night.
Spencer: Yeah, but I mean it still had some rowdy fellows.
Jeff: Oh, yeah.
Spencer: It’s all right, we worked it out.
Jeff: Yeah, we worked it out. All right. Start learning “Mr. Sandman.” Carry on.
This Week in Wilco, Etc.
1999 / November 20: Wilco plays a 23-song set at the Phoenix in Toronto, Canada. The Old 97s open.
1995 / November 22: Paul Kelly opens for Wilco at the American Theater in St. Louis, MO. For this show, the song “Pecan Pie” becomes “Pumpkin Pie.”
2024 / November 23: Jeff and Fred Armisen headline the Letters to Santa Holiday Gala at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Kim Deal, also performing that night, requests her song “Nobody Loves You More,” and it gets played as part of the 9-song set.
I was at the Bloomington show. Loved it! Thought it was beautiful and loved Jeff’s lead guitar! Really thought it was the best concert I ever saw. At 75 I’ve seen a few! The Sukierae songs. Woah. Sounded great in there. I was in the balcony front stage left near the front. Sorry there was a disturbance but you did well and responded with more wonderful music. Love the Tweedy band looking forward to next time! Hello everyone- Bill
Sima’s opening songs were wonderful! What a band and the versatility.
Can we talk about what you didn’t play? I was so relieved you didn’t play Billy Joel at the Long Island show! A thousand thanks for these shows, which have been soul-enriching and so filled with joy. I just loved every moment!