Looks like Westerberg's Indianapolis show was a trainwreck: http://www.indystar.com/article.php?slindq08.html I almost ponied up the money for this show. Sounds like I made the right decision in not going, which disappoints me because the Mats and Westerberg's early solo stuff used to be among my favorite music.
I don't know. In some ways it sounds like a slightly less coherent version of when I saw him a month ago. He cut off songs, screwed up lyrics, joked with the audience, fell off the stage - and put on one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. I don't see any indication he's on anything. Forgetting lyrics isn't really that big a deal, especially when you're on your first tour in years. And some of the screwing up and transposing lyrics is intentional and, in my mind at least, adds to the performance. That review was also pretty incoherent itself. It sounds like the reviewer wants to say the second half of the show was a lot cleaner and he really enjoyed it, but seeing as he spent 90% of the article talking about the flaws in the first half, it doesn't really have that effect.