Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Covers Velvet Underground With Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy In Chicago

Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy’s tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.'s 1985 album Fables Of The Reconstruction wrapped over the weekend with shows in the Chicago area. Friday’s concert at the Metro featured Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy coming out to help cover The Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes Again.”

The tour featured Shannon and Narducy fronting a band comprised of Tweedy’s Wilco bandmate, bassist John Stirratt, as well as drummer Jon Wurster, guitarist Dag Juhlin and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak. Like other shows on the tour, Friday’s Metro concert began with a complete track-by-track performance of Fables Of The Reconstruction, followed by a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale.”

R.E.M. included covers of “Femme Fatale” and “There She Goes Again” (and “Pale Blue Eyes”) on their 1987 rarities compilation Dead Letter Office. “There She Goes Again” was previously played at the recent tour stop in R.E.M.'s hometown of Athens, Georgia that featured members of the band performing with Shannon and Narducy.

A second set of R.E.M. songs from various albums preceded the set-length encore. Guitarist Scott Lucas of area band Local H emerged during the encore to sit-in on “Cuyahoga.” Tweedy was next to take the stage to help sing the aforementioned “There She Goes Again.” Keeping with other shows on the tour, opener Dave Hill came back out for the final song of the night, a cover of Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic.”

Watch the Jeff Tweedy-assisted cover of “There She Goes Again” from the Metro below: