Tweedy, review: The frontman of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco goes solo with aplomb
Palladium, London
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Your support makes all the difference.Usually when singers from revered bands go solo, they scatter fan favourites live to leaven unfamiliar material. Not the frontman of alt.country legends Uncle Tupelo and the eclectic Wilco, who gives us a set of two divergent, yet compelling halves.
First, Jeff Tweedy focuses on the intimate charms of current album Sukierae, a one-man project bar his teenage son on drums (hence the surname billing). Now the fresh-faced Spencer joins a four-piece band to highlight the familial thrust of dad's current concerns.
Compared to Wilco's often austere arrangements, their looseness suits Jeff's personal anthem 'Low Key' and the luminous 'Summer Noon', though the group takes a more experimental detour via the sinister 'Diamond Light Part 1' led by Spencer's dense, metronomic pattern.
When his band departs, the dishevelled veteran runs through his mammoth back catalogue with deceptive ease. Through deft playing and a Neil Finn-style tenor, he teases out the delicate melancholy often submerged in Wilco's more expansive arrangements, notably 'Hummingbird' and 'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart'.
Having conquered personal demons and revelling in family life, a relaxed Jeff spars with the crowd at length. Over two engaging hours, he shows fatherhood suits him, though dad-rock does not.
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