Koe Wetzel, but make it acoustic, please…
The Texas rockstar recently gave fans an awesome, stripped back performance of “Better Without You,” from his new fifth studio album Hell Paso.
In Springfield Missouri last weekend, he played an acoustic set for a few people ahead of the show, and of course, per the usual, he brought the stories and entertainment as he introduced this one.
He told the small crowd that he’d been in Nashville all week, and was trying to take a break from drinking so much… though, I’m not quite sure how that’s going, seeing as the table in front of him had an open handle of Jack Daniels sitting on it.
On the bright side, though, he also told fans he hasn’t been to jail in at least two or three years now:
“Well, Hell. So we’ve been in Nashville all week, and I told myself, I was like, ‘You know what, you need to slow down drinkin’ a little bit. You’re starting to worry everybody.’
We come out with a new record, and some of the lyrics were, I guess, a little too raw, a little too real, and people were freaking out. They’re like, ‘Is Koe okay? Is everything goin’?’
Everything’s fine, I’m good, maybe drinking a little bit too much… But I haven’t been to jail in like three or four years, so that’s a good start.”
Gotta love Koe…
The audience then applauded what seems like a kind of impressive feat for him, seeing as we all know the wild tales about his previous experiences in jail, which he wrote about in “February 28th, 2016,” and talked about on a recent episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast.
And he seemed a little shocked that they were so proud, but assured everyone that he really is doing okay:
“I didn’t expect that applause there, but thanks anyway. But no, everything’s good, I hope y’all like the new record.”
Koe previously detailed a little bit of the inspiration behind “Better Without You,” saying that he first got the idea after unpacking boxes in his new house last year in the wake of a breakup:
“I bought a house a year ago, and I’ve probably slept in my bed for like two months of the last year. I had to unpack everything in my garage. One of those boxes had all of my ex-girlfriends shit in it.
It was raining outside. I was in one of those moods where I was like, ‘Fuck this, I’m going to sit on the couch and grab a guitar.’ You’re over it, but you’re not really over it.”
He sings about the fact that, after years of lying and trying to convince himself this relationship was going to work out, in the end, he’s doing so better without her and he can finally see that:
“I’m doin’ better without youI’m doin’ better without you bein’ aroundTook me 10 years of lyin’ and tryin’ to findI’m doin’ better without youYeah, I’m doin’ better without you”
It’s pretty rare to get an acoustic version of any song like this from Koe, but I’m always happy to get to hear any one of them in their purest form.
To be able to go from loud electric guitars, drums and percussion, to singing with just his acoustic guitar and pure country vocals is impressive, and I’m excited knowing that we likely have a lot more like this coming our way soon enough:
“Better Without You”
