bböp

Since everybody's busy dissecting and discussing the just-announced Yankee Hotel Foxtrot super deluxe box set, maybe people have forgotten that the live version rolls on for a couple more days in New York before shifting to hometown shows in Chicago later this week. For his part, Jeff couldn't help pointing out the irony tonight when briefly mentioning the box set that the band started this five-night run at the United Palace with people saying that it didn't play enough and are ending it with people saying it puts out too much stuff. Bitter much? I keed, I keed...

 

"It's OK," Jeff said of yet another no-win situation. "Let's face it, Wilco has spent our entire career making audiences want less. That's Wilco's motto: Leave them wanting less."

 

All joking aside, it seems like Jeff and his bandmates have finally settled on a set (or rather, two sets) that maintain the integrity of what they want to do in presenting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as a complete album as it was originally recorded as well as playing enough other material to satisfy the demands and expectations of a live audience. Tonight's show marked the first time that consecutive shows in this brief YHF 20th anniversary tour — not counting the band's performance of Poor Places on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert the night before, obviously — have featured the exact same setlist. And as evidence that the audience might finally be "getting it," Jeff admiringly credited the Night 4 audience with its patience as the extended outro to Reservations played out to compete the album cycle.

 

"I think that's the first night we've done this that the song was actually over before we made a sound together," Jeff said upon coming back out for the encore/second set. "Aside from that one guy who went 'Woo hoo,' but don't blame him. He's all right. It's been a meaningful and challenging endeavor to revisit this record and present it (as it was made)."

 

One thing that I've gradually realized as I've seen more of these shows is not only the challenge of unlearning and relearning the arrangements of different songs from the way they have evolved live over the years, but also how much various samples played a role in the sound of the record and, consequently, how difficult it can be to recreate those sounds live at the precise moments they need to be recreated. Maybe because it was of where my seat was tonight, but I took notice in particular of just how much Glenn is hitting his sample pad throughout the YHF portion of the set and that it's not easy to do everything he has to do from a percussion standpoint while also managing those samples at the appropriate times.

 

That may have accounted for the goof that I know Glenn was a bit embarrassed by when he accidentally triggered the chimes that open Ashes Of American Flags a song early, when the band actually was set to play Jesus, etc. "You know what's next," Jeff said to the audience, referring to the premature chimes. It goes to show that despite the album portion of the set being the same every show, the band still must execute it again each and every night. These little flubs — and I'm sure there have been some I haven't even noticed — show that the band members are human. And perhaps that is fitting, too, since humanity is a theme of the record.

 

In general, I've really enjoyed seeing how the band has recreated the sound of the record and who is doing what. How did they ever do this as a four-piece lineup, which they did for some time after Jay Bennett's departure and before multi-instrumentalist LeRoy Bach joined as a touring member? For these 20th anniversary shows, they have even more proverbial hands on deck with the presence of the fantastic Aizuri Quartet as well as the three-member Total Pros horn section. The latter, in addition, to doing both the horn and string arrangements and adding the various woodwind and brass sounds are also chipping in occasionally elsewhere, such as Dave Max Crawford providing the steady drum heartbeat on Radio Cure that frees Glenn up to add more percussive flourishes. Again, I definitely appreciated that more tonight.

 

And it's evident that the band is still tinkering with the arrangements of some of the songs it has chosen to perform with Aizuri and/or the Total Pros in the encore. For example, tonight I noticed that in Hummingbird, Nels actually played his usual solo (though not with the usual "silver bastard" Jaguar he normally uses on the song) that leads to the conclusion of the song whereas I'm almost certain that during the previous show on Sunday, that guitar part was interestingly played by the Aizuri strings.

 

Who knows if any more, or any different, songs will be added to the second set over the second half of this run, though it seems relatively unlikely? Tonight there were at least a few requests shouted out from the crowd, one of which Jeff must have heard. "No, we have put together a program for you tonight," he gently chided. "Just like Broadway." Then perhaps realizing just far uptown he actually was, Jeff added, "OK, close enough."

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 4 (either Aizuri (String) Quartet and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):

 

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

Radio Cure

War On War

Jesus, etc.

Ashes Of American Flags

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Pot Kettle Black

Poor Places

Reservations

----------------------------------------------

Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]

Pieholden Suite

Cars Can't Escape

A Magazine Called Sunset

Hummingbird

The Good Part

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

1 hour ago, TCP said:

A few things I've found interesting:
-Nothing Up My Sleeve is a secondary title to Anniversary. Did we know this? 

 

Pretty sure that’s what that song has always been called, dating back to the Engineer Demos days. I mean, maybe it hasn’t ever officially been released in that form and maybe it was more commonly referred to as Anniversary when Jeff occasionally played it solo (kind of the same thing with Alone/Shakin’ Sugar) but anyway.

 

56 minutes ago, Analogman said:

I've never seen a source out there for that show (07/23/2002). I was curious if they were going to use a show we already heard or not heard. 

 
I think that’s a big goal of theirs when officially releasing a live show as part of a set like this is to find something that isn’t widely out there…

Oh, you mean I have to keep writing different recaps for what is essentially the same show night after night during Wilco's two-city world tour, 20th-anniversary celebration of its breakthrough album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot? Well, you see, the band is joined on stage by a string quartet and a small horn section, they play each of the album's 11 tracks the way they appeared on the record, come back out and play a few other songs and people either like it a lot or complain about how they expected more and we all go home and are in bed by 10:30 p.m. Rinse, and repeat...

 

Just kidding! Of course, every live show — even ones that are part of a singularly focused mini-residency like these YHF gigs — is its own thing somehow. Whether it's a variation in the setlist, a hiccup in the performance, the energy of an audience or any number of other factors, there is something that makes each show unique. And that's why we keep coming back. Right? Right?

 

Since this was my first show since The Great Compromise (that's how I decided I'm going to henceforth refer to the decision made by Jeff and his bandmates on Saturday night to add a few songs to the end of the set to placate the outraged citizenry of a portion of the Wilco fanbase, er, social media contingent), I suppose I can start there in terms of distinguishing tonight from others, at least in my own mind. Once again, the band and its performance partners in the Aizuri (String) Quartet and Total Pros horns returned for an encore after the full YHF set. And in addition to the original trio of songs (Bill Fay's Be Not So Fearful, Pieholden Suite and A Magazine Called Sunset) that comprised the Night 1 encore, they also once again played the YHF-era rarity Cars Can't Escape, a string-laden version of Hummingbird and the closing parenthetically-titled duo of I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind) that was added on Night 2. Personally I thought the familiar finale felt a bit tacked on, but if that's what it takes to make some folks feel like they got their "money's worth," then I'm all for it.

 

Now, of course, tucked into that encore was the surprising inclusion — cue the #BustOutAlert , JamBase friends — of another YHF B-side, The Good Part. You knew it was going to be a song that the band doesn't play very often when Jeff's guitar tech came out with a lyric sheet that he deftly placed at Jeff's feet and Jeff introduced it as "the deepest cut of all time...(It) should've been a hit." He added that they had sent the song to then-label Warner Brothers Records at the time as an example of what they had been working on and "(the label) said it keeps getting worse." The band hasn't performed it very much live at all — not since a couple of times in 2014 during that year's Winter Residency at the Riv in Chicago. Before that, it hadn't been in the setlist rotation since 2006. That was obviously a highlight for the nerds among us, and it was great to hear it again even if it might have been lost on much of the audience. Is this the good part?...indeed.

 

Jeff saved the vast majority of his chat for the evening for the immediate aftermath of the album performance when he thanked the crowd for being a part of the YHF celebration and said that "we wanted to do a good job playing this record for you. And I have to tell you, it's pretty hard." Then he said that he and his bandmates "had some help," and individually introduced the seven players who augmented the performance, including the four members of the Aizuri Quartet, which he said represented the beauty and creativity Wilco had been striving for when making this record — and for which, Jeff added, they still are striving.

 

Afterward, Jeff also individually presented each of his bandmates — all except Glenn, of course, which caused the drummer to crack up. Jeff quickly corrected himself, but still (jokingly) mispronounced Glenn's name as "Glenn Kotch," before getting all sincere and noting how Glenn had transformed his life and the band's life and pointing out that Glenn had joined the band during the tumultuous creation of YHF, his first day coming right around the same time Sam Jones began filming for the I Am Trying To Break Your Heart documentary. After all of that, Jeff finally uttered Glenn's name correctly, the two old friends exchanged googly eyes at one another and their longstanding bromance was once again revitalized.

 

As for the performance of YHF itself, once again it was all about the details. I continued to be impressed by the dedication put in by the band to consciously unlearn and relearn how to play all of those songs, and I wonder if that process will have any effect on future performances of them — or if, when this two-week celebration is over, they will simply revert back to how the arrangements had evolved over time.

 

I've already pointed out some of the changes in my Night 1 recap, but I think there will probably be different things that strike me during each of these shows I'm able to attend. Tonight for whatever reason, one song I took notice of was I'm The Man Who Loves You — from Pat's acoustic guitar strums at the start to John and Pat's backing vocals that restored the "ooh oohs" and "woo hoos" from the album version that have unfortunately gone by the wayside over the years to Jeff actually singing the final "writing this letter to you" lyric, which he does on the record but has omitted from the live arrangement for a long time. As I have mentioned, there's plenty of fodder here for the Wilco nerds.

 

To wit: There was something oddly endearing to me in Pot Kettle Black when Jeff flubbed a lyric at the start — he sang "Baby suck your thumb" instead of "Waves a magic wand," if you must know — and also sang the "rearrival of my health" line in the higher key that he usually does live as opposed to the more hushed way he sings it on the album version. To me, those two relatively minor bits showed me that this YHF performance is still a living, breathing thing from night to night and that any of it can still change in subtle but interesting ways.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (either Aizuri (String) Quartet and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):

 

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

Radio Cure

War On War

Jesus, etc.

Ashes Of American Flags

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Pot Kettle Black

Poor Places

Reservations

---------------------------------------

Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]

Pieholden Suite

Cars Can't Escape

A Magazine Called Sunset

Hummingbird

The Good Part

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

2 minutes ago, solace said:

Looks like they played 19 songs tonight fwiw

WELL, WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT?!? 

Just starting this thread, but I wasn’t actually at the show tonight so look forward to hearing from those who were…

19 minutes ago, TCP said:

All this debate about setlist lengths and I'm just sitting here wondering about the new 7". Did you buy it and have a chance to listen @bböp? If so are these previously leaked takes? Any mention on the sleeve of the forth coming deluxe edition of YHF?

I may have bought a copy (or five), but don’t have my portable turntable with me to spin it yet. No mention on the sleeve of the deluxe edition, I don’t think, but I believe that announcement might be imminent.

 

10 minutes ago, Yaz Rock said:

 
Yes, any pics of the merch booth? What else is there besides show posters and the single vinyl? Cool YHF shirts/hats/pins/ anything?

I didn’t take any pics of the merch stand, but there are several new T-shirts specifically for this run of shows. At least one of the designs harkens back to one of the original YHF tour shirts that I have, a navy blue with orange star motif.

Well, I realize I've been a bit slack on the recap front of late (mostly on account of busy-ness with some real-life stuff but also laziness and old age) but nevertheless I'm starting a new thread for this first in a series of upcoming Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 20th anniversary shows. I see that another thread was already started, but I'm trying to at least rein the thread-titling standards back in after they seem to have run a bit, er, amok. I think I'm entitled to at least that much, right? [Mods, please feel free to combine the threads if you like.]

 

Anyway, until tonight, I guess no one outside of Wilco, its management, crew and special guests really knew exactly what to expect entering this run of shows commemorating two decades of the band's breakthrough album. Judging by the reaction both in real life and on social media in the immediate aftermath of Night 1 in New York City, however, it apparently wasn't this.

 

After a short opening set by the four women who make up the Aizuri (String) Quartet, which included a lovely YHF-themed prelude by Chicago music veteran and leader of the Total Pros horn section Dave Max Crawford — seriously, for those coming to future performances, be sure to get there in time to hear this delightful piece — Jeff suddenly appeared at stage left, turned on a speaker or amplifier of some sort that triggered the familiar Conet Project voice recording of "yankee...hotel...foxtrot..." and then joined his bandmates as they launched into the album-opening I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Roughly 70 minutes later, after performing the album in its entirety plus three encore songs, the band and its special guests took their final bows before the giant red curtain of the United Palace came down and brought the evening to a close.

 

Actually, I kind of think that if Jeff had his druthers, he would have liked to just play the album and leave it at that. But he and the rest of the band at least attempted to placate the desires of a live audience by coming back out for a few more fitting songs. In the only comments he made during the show, prior to introducing the individual members of the Aizuri strings as well as the Total Pros horns who helped augment the performance, Jeff admitted that he and his bandmates "really didn't know what to do for an encore. We kind of wanted to let (the album) sit." He added that Bill Fay's Be Not So Fearful was a song that the band had learned and been playing around the time of YHF, and then acknowledged Jay Bennett's contributions to the record, said he wished Jay was here to celebrate the record with them and, since that wasn’t possible, that they figured it would be fitting to include him by playing two songs he had a direct hand in helping to craft, Pieholden Suite and A Magazine Called Sunset. (And for the record, it was a treat to hear both of those songs with the full horn and string arrangements, particularly the former, which Jeff has played solo more in recent years than he probably ever has but which really sounds glorious with the orchestral backing.)

 

This is sort of the problem with the "album in its entirety" show, right? How to build a live show around it, while also trying to keep the focus on the centerpiece of what you're trying to celebrate and present and also satisfy a sizable audience that has paid a good sum of money for a ticket (and/or traveled from afar). I almost feel like it is a no-win situation for Jeff and Co., because if you come out and play a separate set of "greatest hits," then it's sort of diluting the focus on YHF and the desire to celebrate that set of songs as a singular artistic statement but if you don't do enough other material, then people feel as if they haven't gotten their money's worth. So ultimately, I'll say that I get why some people probably were left wanting a bit more, but personally I tried to just concentrate on the album, the memories it stirred in me and the work put in by the band to re-learn the songs the way they were recorded.

 

That's what I think some people probably didn't, or weren't able to, fully appreciate — the subtle differences in many of the songs from the way they sounded on the album and have evolved in a live setting over time. It's bit hard to explain, I guess, but when you've heard a lot of these songs so many times, you start to notice things as significant as Jeff reverting to the album version in Heavy Metal Drummer, which does NOT have the lyrics about "she lifted up her shirt/at the battle of the bands/he twirled his sticks/she helped him to his van" that Jeff has sung forever live while Glenn twirls his sticks (which obviously he did not do tonight, nor did he stand on his drum stool before I'm The Man Who Loves You) — now I'm trying to figure when exactly Jeff started singing HMD with that verse — and as nerdy as the lack of a shaker accent (on I Am Trying To Break Your Heart) or cymbal scrape (on Poor Places) by Glenn. Just about every song featured something like that, like how we have gotten used to that little back-and-forth guitar interplay between Jeff and Nels during Pot Kettle Black that wasn't there in this performance, replaced by that (bouncing spring? textured ball?) sound that Nels made to replicate the album version.

 

Then again, not every single thing was a reversion to how they used to be. For instance, I noticed that at the end of Kamera, Pat still played the part on xylophone that Glenn used to play on crotales live (and presumably did on the album version). I actually remember when they first made that adjustment in the live version and Glenn saying something about how he thought that it really made that the best-sounding version of the song that the band had done to date. I guess it was too difficult or just not worth returning to that version, so they didn't.

 

And there were just the parts of the record that I'm not sure if I ever remember the band playing live in the way they did tonight. I put the very conclusion of the album, the almost-ambient, beautiful outro to Reservations in that category. At his book event last week in Denver, which I attended, Jeff briefly talked about that part after the final lyrics in Reservations being his favorite part of the record and how he hoped that the audiences for these anniversary shows would stay patient enough to go with the flow of the album and how it concludes (which the United Palace crowd had moderate success with, after the inevitable applause and hooting and hollering that usually happens after Jeff sings the final lyric in the song). I had almost forgotten about it until I re-listened to the album and because the band usually doesn't draw it out nearly as long as it did tonight, but it's a lovely, meditative way to bring this special set of songs to an end — and, I suppose, bring it back to the beginning again if you have the album on repeat on CD or your streaming player, for example.

 

It will be interesting to see if the shows evolve at all as this run continues. Obviously the full album will continue to be performed, but there is always a chance that more songs could be added to the encore to flush out the set a bit more. I wouldn't complain about hearing more music, of course, but if this is what Jeff and his bandmates want to present, then I almost hope that they don't stray from what they want to do whether most people like it or not. If people are coming this show expecting a "typical" Wilco show that ends with a barnburner of a "rock songs, etc.," encore and a lot of visits to Banter Corner, or an epic-length set, I'm afraid they will probably leave disappointed regardless.

 

Certainly this was not a "typical" Wilco show, and if I had one nit to pick, it would be that due to the curtain at the United Palace, the band is set up much further back on stage than usual; there is probably a 15-foot gap between the band and the front of the stage. And between that and the barricade set up in front of the stage, which I think is kind of unusual for a theater show, there is a certain detachment between band and audience that I felt like also prevented that connection that often makes Wilco shows so memorable. But as I have tried to suggest, these shows are probably not going to please a majority of the audience for many reasons. They really are going to be ones for the true nerds, I think, and I'm down with it. Hell, I know there are almost certainly way bigger nerds than me out there as it relates to some of this stuff...

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 (either Aizuri (String) Quartet and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):

 

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

Radio Cure

War On War

Jesus, etc.

Ashes Of American Flags

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Pot Kettle Black

Poor Places

Reservations

-------------------------------------------

Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]

Pieholden Suite

A Magazine Called Sunset

Well I'm not sure if I'll be able to match the excellent reportage of the young phenom known as Firecracker Kid, but I shall at least endeavour to provide a replacement-level effort when I get more of a chance to opine about this Saturday night acoustic performance in Big D (I got the Big D, I got the Big D...anyone? Don't have a dirty mind...)

 

 Anyway, as I'm a bit time challenged for now — the airport calls yet again — here was the complete setlist as played:

 

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

new song-Ambulance

Remember The Mountain Bed

new song-Tired Of Taking It

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

new song-I Am My Mother

Gwendolyn

new song-The Universe

New Madrid

Hummingbird

Radio King

Ashes Of American Flags

Don't Forget

Please Tell My Brother

Jesus, etc.

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Family Ghost

A Shot In The Arm

--------------------------------------

Evergreen

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

5 hours ago, Firecracker Kid said:

Apologies abound for this recap, as it's been a while since I've gotten on this horse. Thankfully I was at least slightly prepared to put my crude scribe skills to work, as a little birdy told me that bböp might not be in attendance at the show. And, one song into the set I was both reminded of the effort it takes to do a show recap justice and thankful that we're so often able to read bböp's wonderful reviews.  I also cursed him under my breath a little for skipping the show knowing I'd have to post my feeble attempt at journalism....

 

The show marked the first time Jeff has visited Texas for a solo gig in almost exactly three years, with his last show in Texas being in the very same theater on 4 March 2019.  Not only was it great to have him back in my home State, but the Paramount is one of those perfect venues for a solo acoustic act. One of the few "grand dames" in Texas, the Paramount dates back to 1915 and has the feel of a very intimate space despite the nearly 1,300-person capacity. It's beautifully decorated inside, the sound is great, and the staff and volunteers are all beyond amazing. It's definitely worth a visit.

 

Excellent work, O Firecracker Kid! Sorry to have missed it, but you’re a regular sparkplug. Did you buy the poster designed after your handle? Oh, that’s all of them lately…

Glad you found Claire Rousay to be better than you expected! I’m kind of curious to see perform myself.

 

Sounds like kind of a rowdy crowd down in ATX, but Jeff knows how to handle those by now. Glad you got to hear more than a handful of the new tunes. Not surprisingly, it really does seem like those are the ones that Jeff is most engaged with lately.

 

And Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard is always welcome, at least to me! 
 

 

4 hours ago, BrandyCatNap said:

Thanks for the recap!! 

 

Is this who I think it is? If so, welcome! 

11 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

FYI I don't do instagram (but people can join my OnlyFans site at £10 a pop, if you pardon the expression).

Hey now, O Tatlock! 
 

P.S. I’m sure you have a secret account on Tik Tok where you post dance vids. I’m gonna find it! 🕺🏾 💃 🕺🏾 

Since anyone who cares can watch (most of) tonight's show on Instagram, which by the way is almost unheard of for a show at Largo (where they are usually very strict about photography, recording and the use of electronic devices in the theater) and is a testament to how much Flanny (who runs the joint and is a regular Tweedy Show client) loves Susie and Jeff, I guess I don't really need to get too far into the minutiae of Banter Corner and the like. Which is probably a good thing, since it's the middle of the night, my brain is a bit foggy from trying to digest the past 10 days in California and I have to go catch a flight home in about four hours.

 

But anyhoooo...Jeff capped yet another successful run at the beloved Los Angeles venue with one more wide-ranging solo set (preceded by opening comedian Natasha Leggero) that touched on everything from a song he wrote roughly 30 years ago to one of his most recent efforts that he said he hadn't played live in concert before — and plenty of the in-between. I'd say tonight was definitely the most diverse setlist of the three solo shows in L.A., as far as exploring the totality of his catalog, even if he struggled through a song or two.

 

I don't think knowing that Susie would be filming the show live really affected Jeff all that much, but he did seem slightly less freewheeling and more focused than the previous two shows as far as progressing through the list of songs he wanted to present. Then again, he had been so musically spot on the previous two shows that perhaps he was due to have a couple of flubs on the final night. One came in Either Way when he missed he "either you will, or you won't" line and almost immediately knew it, looking sheepishly at the audience, shaking his head and acknowledging, '"That's not right." Then, after singing, "Maybe you just need some time alone," for the second straight time, he quipped, "That's how I wrote it, (for) one of those lines to be back to back." Afterward, he said, "You're all so very, very kind, thank you. I massacred that. Something's wrong with my guitar. It's probably my guitar. They say a good craftsman never blames his tools. What else is there to fucking blame? That's a dumb saying."

 

Later in the set, Jeff tried to pull off Hate It Here but only got about two-thirds of the way through the song before deciding to scrap it. Perhaps he sensed Susie scoffing at some of his claims of domesticity in what she has jokingly called "The Liar Song." Jeff actually didn't flub any lyrics, but he just couldn't seem to keep a straight face while playing it. "This was a bad idea," he said. "That might be the worst performance I've ever done of any song. It's giving me an idea. I think I should stick to things that I know how to do."

 

One thing Jeff clearly knows how to do is write songs, and he shared several more compositions of relatively recent vintage that he hadn't yet showcased at Largo, including the aforementioned live debut of a song that might be called Tired Of Taking It (that's how it was noted on a setlist shared in one of the other Largo show threads). The somewhat plaintive number starts, "I'm tired of taking it out on you/Tired of needing to/Freeze my warmth away/Tear the tears out of your face/I can't face the way I am with you/Or replace the bite I'm chewing through/I'm tired of taking it out on you." He also played Darkness Is Cheap, a relative rarity only played a couple of times on The Tweedy Show — Episodes 138 and 179, to be exact — which features the "high on a cloud" chorus. And of course, he opened the show once again with Out For A Walk (aka Circumcised), which gave those who were in attendance the night before a nice chuckle since he had played it twice the other night.

 

The most welcome repeat might have been TTS client favorite Lou Reed Was My Babysitter, which came two songs after a gorgeous Sunken Treasure and which Jeff argued was "the same song as Sunken Treasure but written 30 years later. ... I think it's very, very much the same song." Interesting observation, but I think pretty apt. It wasn't the only grouping of similarly themed songs with We've Been Had sandwiched by newer songs Hints and Family Ghost coming soon after and causing Jeff to remark, "Those (three) are all kind of the same song too, aren't they?"

 

As I said earlier, I'm not going to rehash all of tonight's visits to Banter Corner here because I don't really have time to get into all of it. But I will say that Jeff did have a couple of excellent responses to audience questions about how he remembers so many lyrics without a teleprompter and which songs become Wilco songs versus solo songs, which someone else can chime in on if anyone who cares didn't already see/hear it for themselves. And he had some funny comments on solitude and what he learned about it from his mother after an audience request for You Are Not Alone (which he didn't seem to want to play and then did anyway). We also got perhaps the first instance of a Jeff Tweedy "Mean Tweet" if anyone is familiar with that bit from the Jimmy Kimmel Live! late-night show.

 

Personally, my favorite little interlude might have been one I didn't even fully catch until I watched The Tweedy Show live stream afterward (and oh, how I wish I had been able to chat and hashtag live. Who even needs to go to live shows anymore, man? Just kidding. Kind of.) Anyway, it came after Lou Reed Was My Babysitter when Jeff put Susie on the spot and asked her directly if she had any requests. After a pause, she replied with a simple but firm "No," and of course that gave everyone in the room a good laugh. On the stream, you can hear Susie whisper, "What a dick!" while on stage Jeff was saying, "Good talk, honey." Priceless, and partly why we love TTS. #amirite

 

At any rate, Jeff closed out his main set with another crowd pleaser in Pecan Pie (and changed the lyrics to "just a piece of fuckin' pie" at the end in a nod, I'm sure, to his nephew Charles, who loves the swearing). Then he brought Sammy Tweedy on stage again for a couple of songs in the first encore. The previous night Jeff had joked that if he had ever been looking to double his voice with a younger and skinnier version of himself, he thinks he's found the guy. After Sammy reprised his version of Big Star's classic Thirteen that he did during at least one previous show at Largo, he and his dad sang together beautifully on A Robin Or A Wren, which seemed like it would be the end of the show and was where Susie's live stream ended.

 

But…..it wasn't over quite yet as those of us in the room were treated to a second encore with just Jeff coming back to sing Bill Fay's Be Not So Fearful and attempt to lead a crowd singalong on California Stars. It's debatable how successful the latter was, but what was clear as Jeff took his final bows was that it won't be the last time he performs on the Largo stage (if he and Flanny have anything to say about it — which they do). Jeff expressed gratitude to the audience for coming out and said there weren't many places in the world he could do something like what he had just done for the past week. Hopefully he got at least some measure of gratitude back from those in the audience, the vast majority of whom were surely smizing back at him pretty hard from behind their collective masks.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, on the fifth and final show at Largo for this run:

 

new song-Out For A Walk

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

new song-Tired Of Taking It

Either Way

Reservations

Gwendolyn

new song-Darkness Is Cheap

Sunken Treasure

Locator

new song-Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

You Are Not Alone

Ain't No Doubt About It

new song-Hints

We've Been Had

Family Ghost

Hate It Here (partially aborted)

Pecan Pie

------------------------------------------------

Thirteen [Big Star] (with Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)

A Robin Or A Wren (with Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals)

------------------------------------------------

Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]

California Stars

1 hour ago, Brian F. said:

 

For the record, although Largo is very close to West Hollywood (the city limit is just a half-block away), it is actually in the city of Los Angeles.

 

OK. 

2 hours ago, u2roolz said:

“All Across” and “Tired Of Taking It” do not ring any bells in my Tweedy Show memory of unreleased songs. The other ones he has played. In fact, he played “Hints” when John & Glenn showed up about a year ago. 

 

 

Oh! I just realized that "All Across" is almost certainly referring to the song we have been calling "In A Hurricane's Eye," which has the repeated line "All across the world" as part of the hook: "In a hurricane's eye/People get by/living their lives/all across the world..." and "It's combustible/Inarguable/It's dangerous all across the world..." (No offense, Jeff, but I think "In A Hurricane's Eye" is a better title. )

2 hours ago, u2roolz said:

“All Across” and “Tired Of Taking It” do not ring any bells in my Tweedy Show memory of unreleased songs. The other ones he has played. In fact, he played “Hints” when John & Glenn showed up about a year ago. 
 

If you’re interested in tracking those down, here they are: 

“Love My Country/Choir USA” Ep. 146

“Still My Mother/I Am My Mother” Ep 206

”Story To Tell” Episodes 176 & 196

“Hints” Episodes 156, 188, 193, & 195

 

All of that info is on Monty’s spreadsheet that he’s been maintaining on a regular basis. 

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRT_myMknrM_1yZ5GXAWGCcGxMQqBUqRMthiw-IMGmcaLCN6n1sH99lQo-SbTGSlTo50gYsTxnBJJKV/pubhtml?fbclid=IwAR2mQRg0It-EScwUV7_lEC52fcsNizPrPv6Kmu1Bj9vZoKT9CYuy2j45VbQ

 

 

2 hours ago, u2roolz said:

“Circumcised” sounded familiar to me, so it felt like a perfect time to check out Monty’s list and he did play it way back on episode 182 in June 2021. Spencer even sang backing vocals on it. My brief notes have “it’s easy beginning when it’s ending.” as a lyric. Not sure if it popped up again under a different name.

 

OK, will amend my not-yet-complete report from above. I thought I would have remembered "Circumcised," but I guess it was one of those songs that he played once after he had just written it. Those are the hardest to place off the top of my head. 

Well I'm not even sure where to go with this one, but somehow Jeff's 90-minute set tonight — his second of three solo outings at Largo during this five-show run — included a late discussion about buttplugs, splinters and the DeLorean from Back To The Future, a detailed explanation about his "main" guitar and why he hasn't used it as much lately, a new song that should probably be called "Circumcised" being played not once but twice, five more "new" songs in addition to that one and a Guided By Voices cover sung by a special guest vocalist. Oh, and before Jeff even took the stage, one of the most respected voices in modern comedy filmmaking — Judd Apatow — tried out material that he was thinking about using when hosting the upcoming Director's Guild Awards.

 

So yeah, just another Monday night in West Hollywood... 

 

I guess I'll just start at the start for once, and that meant — as expected — a "new" song. As I mentioned the other day, Jeff seems to be in the mood to play a lot of his more recent compositions and he acknowledged as much during the show. The song he opened with tonight, which I don't believe he played on The Tweedy Show (though I could be mistaken) [edit: he did play it at least once, in Episode 182 on 7 June 2021 and said it was called "Circumcised" back then], was an evocative one that opened with the lyrics:

 

I went out for a walk, looking for a light

Corner store closed early tonight

I had a funny feeling something's not right

I went out for a walk, and I needed a light

 

Thought I could see someone inside

Pressed my nose to the glass and shaded my eyes

So that's how I know he's circumcised

Standing naked in the buzz of a neon sign.

 

The song also had a chorus that went: "It's easy beginning/When it's ending, it's hard/I'm not a wise man/Even I understand when it's time/To get lost." Afterward Jeff quipped, "That's the kind of song I write when I'm not being careful. I didn't ask for that song, I didn't want that song...but I had to respond (to the thoughts I was having)." Someone asked him what the song was called and he said "Out For A Walk," but then admitted that it should probably be called "Circumcised," since that's the word that jumps out at you most from the lyrics. Whatever it's called, that "funny, sad song," as Jeff initially described it on The Tweedy Show must have been pretty prominent in his mind because about 20 minutes after opening his Largo set with it, while trying to decide what to play next, he sort of half-jokingly pondered aloud whether he should play it again. When an audience member encouraged that, saying he had been late arriving to the show, that's all it took for Jeff to reprise the tune.
 

Not surprisingly, it was the "new" songs that seemed to engage Jeff the most during tonight's set. I use quotation marks around new because some of these songs are almost a year old already, at least, judging by when he shared them on The Tweedy Show. It will be interesting to see which ones make the cut onto a record, but it's clear that Jeff has been incredibly prolific over the course of the pandemic. And there always seem to be more in the pipeline, including songs that have been played at other solo shows though not yet at Largo, such as Hints and Story To Tell.

 

Of course there were some deep cuts and old reliables, too. I would say One True Vine fell into the former category and saw Jeff use the full range of his voice to convey the message of the song that he wrote for Mavis Staples to sing. "That's a little high, (but I) thought I could do it," Jeff said afterward. "Mavis...she sings it a whole step down from there, which is smart." And I'm glad Jeff chose to play Passenger Side and Ashes Of American Flags back to back — what I call "The Inflation Suite" — because both have lines about the prices of things that probably need to be adjusted to fit the current reality. Judging by the eye-opening prices of gas displayed at the Mobil station just down the road from Largo, for example, "five dollars we can put in the tank" wouldn't get you very far. 

 

From the perspective of Banter Corner visits, there's just too much to fully summarize here. But we did get some insights and information about some of Jeff's guitars when someone inquired about them. There's always that dynamic, also present on The Tweedy Show I might add, where half the audience is probably super interested in the guitar talk and the other half doesn't really care all that much. I'm somewhere in between, I guess, but I did find it interesting when Jeff gave some explanation as to why he hasn't been playing a Kel Kroydon during these shows (a bridge apparently broke off one in San Francisco last week) or the rubber bridge model he had during the full-band shows (it went back to Chicago because he's only traveling with four guitars to his upcoming solo shows in Texas). And why he hasn't been playing what he called his "main" guitar, which I think is the 1930s 00-18 Martin that he's owned since Mermaid Avenue days (though don't quote me on that), as much lately (because the frets had worn down to the extent that they had to be replaced and the guitar hadn't felt quite the same since then). He later said he felt badly about saying some not-so-nice things about that guitar, which he ended up using on Jesus, etc. and California Stars in the latter portion of the set.

 

In the encore, which featured a surprise vocal appearance by Sammy Tweedy on Save It For Me and GBV's Smothered In Hugs (a Tweedy Show staple), Jeff responded to the sound of a clinking glass bottle that got knocked over — currently a no-no at Largo, where drinks aren't allowed in the main room — by bringing up glass buttplugs for some reason. When the discussion pivoted to wooden buttplugs (again, for some reason!), Jeff admitted that was a Nick Offerman bit. From there, there was a brief discussion of splinters when someone in the crowd pondered the hazards of a wooden buttplug and Jeff tried to make the argument that it was great to live in a world where someone, somewhere got turned on by getting a splinter. It didn't seem to be too convincing. 

 

A bit later, Jeff told a story about how he and Susie had gone over to his brother-in-law Danny's house during their stay in LA and just as they were getting out, a (the?) DeLorean from Back To The Future pulled up next door for someone's birthday party. I forget where exactly that story went, but I believe it ended with Jeff not sticking around to check it out because he didn't like being upstaged by a car. And earlier in the show, Jeff talked more than a little bit about the living-room show/charity benefit he had played locally on Sunday — on the "off day" of this Largo run — and had some pretty funny anecdotes about it, including the fact that normally the show is 30 songs but when the attendees were asked if they really wanted the full 30 songs, they apparently didn't (which, of course, Jeff joked made him want to play all 30) and that he was told by the hosts of the show that "most of us" are Wilco fans so that Jeff said during the show, he kept trying to figure out which people were there "against their will."

 

Jeff also took the opportunity to set the record straight about a story he had told the other night about someone who clearly recognized him at the Farmer's Market while he was having lunch but didn't approach him. He had joked that he was indignant that the person hadn't said anything to him, but tonight he clarified: "That is a bit. I don't want people to say anything to me. I thought I might have given the impression I like to be disturbed while I eat." 

 

Let's face it: These first two Largo solo shows have been weird. Delightful, but kind of weird. This is sort of why, as someone who is fortunate to see more than his fair share of shows, I find that I often enjoy Jeff's solo shows the best. They're certainly the most unpredictable, and I fully expect that to continue on the final night of the run. 

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played for Night 4 at Largo (song titles edited to reflect new info from below):

 

new song-Out For A Walk (aka Circumcised)

You And I

New Madrid

new song-I Am My Mother

new song- The Universe

new song-Choir USA (aka Love My Country)

new song-Out For A Walk (aka Circumcised) (yes, played again)

On And On And On

new song-All Across (aka In A Hurricane's Eye)

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

One True Vine

new song-Sunlight Ends

Passenger Side

Ashes Of American Flags

Jesus, etc.

------------------------------------------

Save It For Me (with Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals)

Smothered In Hugs [Guided By Voices] (with Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)

California Stars

Radio King

I'm The Man Who Loves You

On 2/27/2022 at 8:53 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta (despite the shortage of punage)

You want some punage, do you? Why you randy taffy…

16 hours ago, 82games said:

Thanks Paul. Interesting set, indeed. What time does the line begin forming for seating assignments? Will be my first time at the Largo (came to LA from Austin for Father John Misty, The War On Drugs, and now Jeff on Monday :))

 

Not that I'm a Largo insider, by any means, but you'll seem like more of a vet if you just say "Largo" and not "the Largo." 

 

Enjoy the show!

 

16 hours ago, knotgreen said:

I have not felt terribly disappointed having missed out on Wilco/Tweedy shows over the last two years (and have opted out of most of the shows going forward too), but missing out on Jeff's solo run at Largo does sting a bit! It is a special room and it's been clear to me the few times I've been fortunate enough to be there that that's felt by both the performers and audience members alike.
 

Paul - did Jeff make any indication that the new songs are on the forthcoming Wilco record, or did you get the sense that they are new songs are in their very early stages? I learned a lot about Jeff's writing practices from The Tweedy show, namely that he is always writing!

 

Hope you're having a nice time in LA!

 

Wish you could have made it here, man! It's been a nice week. And as has already been stated, Jeff hasn't said much about the development or eventual landing site for the new songs he's been playing. In fact, at this show he barely even acknowledged they're "new" songs! I do know that, as you said, he's constantly writing and, presumably refining, material. I think I made the comment during one of the Tweedy Show chats that I can't really remember him ever playing so many new songs at various stages of development before but I guess the pandemic changed all that. So we'll have to see how it all shakes out eventually...Wilco or solo or just into the wind.

 

Fwiw, I suspect that Lou Reed Is My Babysitter might end up on a 7-inch or something standalone, since the Wilco guys apparently don't really dig it and it's so different in feel than most of the other new songs Jeff has showcased. (Then again, maybe the rest of the Wilcos have come around...hope springs eternal! )

After seeing Jeff perform with both of his offspring and his other solo bandmates over the past few nights, crowding the relatively small Largo stage with a lot of people, instruments and gear, I have to admit it was a bit jarring to watch him walk on stage all by himself tonight with just an acoustic guitar in hand and not much else on stage with him besides two microphones, a small table and a spare guitar. He took note of the difference almost immediately, joking about how he had so much more space to wander around (which, of course, he barely used).

 

No, this was a true solo acoustic show — the first of three to close out this latest multi-night Largo run — and it featured an interesting mix of unreleased new songs (all of which I believe he has played in one form or another on The Tweedy Show), deep cuts and familiar standbys, not to mention more than a few visits to Banter Corner. Prior to Jeff taking the stage, there was once again a surprise comedian who opened the show with a short set. Tonight it was Naomi Ekperigin, a former Broad City writer whose recent half-hour special as part of Netflix's The Standups series has received strong reviews. 

 

From the start of his set, Jeff was pretty engaged with the audience, almost to the point I was afraid this might turn into one of those nights where he was more interested in talking than playing music. Then again, for some, I'm sure that wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing. One of these days at Largo, which after all has probably been as much or more focused on comedy than music in recent years, I wonder if Jeff will just surprise an audience by just doing a set of standup and not playing any songs at all. This wasn't the night for that, though Jeff did admit at one point that he didn't really feel like playing guitar because his fingers hurt (or something to that effect).

 

After his opening song, though, Jeff did tell a funny little story that would be a recurring subject for the remainder of the 90-minute show. The gist of the anecdote was that apparently he had been eating lunch earlier at the nearby Farmer's Market — some sort of jackfruit abomination (in this writer's opinion) at Trejo's Tacos, to be precise — when he noticed a guy walk past and sort of give a look of recognition. Then the guy walked back in the other direction, still trying to surreptitiously eyeball Jeff but not making any move to approach him. Jeff said he was pretty certain that the guy recognized him, but he ultimately never made a move. "I wanted to chase after him," Jeff said, with a tone of mock(?) annoyance in his voice. "I made it very clear that I'm ready to take the picture and everything."

 

The thing about Largo is that Jeff seems so comfortable on stage there and it's such an intimate setting that you almost feel like he's playing for a room full of close friends with whom he checks in regularly about anything and everything. So, for example, he dispelled the notion that whistling during a song — as he had just done during Hummingbird — deserved to be applauded as much as what he had overcome when a couple of his mustache hairs started irritating him during the subsequent Pieholden Suite. "Go home and have someone tickle your nose with a feather while you recite a poem from memory," Jeff said. "Whistling ain't shit." Another funny moment came at the end of Bull Black Nova when someone's cell phone went off perfectly in sync with the concluding notes of the song, which Jeff said were intended to sound like a phone off the hook. Jeff then joked about how that portion of the song "was originally supposed to be the Nokia theme" but they went in another direction.

 

Other visits to Banter Corner included a very earnest reply to a woman's question about the spider who inspired the song Opaline (though he didn't play it). There were also several re-visits, such as when a guy thanked him for playing Remember The Mountain Bed and Jeff replied you're welcome, suggested that he could leave since he had heard the song he wanted to hear and discussed the song request function on Wilco's web site. "Every single night every song I've ever written gets one request," Jeff said. "How am I supposed to work with that?" So he said he had taken to telling audience members that they should leave after they heard the song they wanted to hear, so he would know when the show was supposed to be over.

 

After an amusing exchange when Jeff said thank you following applause for a song, then an audience member said thank you in return and then Jeff said thank you again, Jeff reiterated the funny quip about how he knew he looked like someone who needed encouragement. "That is my brand," Jeff said. "Is he gonna be able to pull this off? Is he gonna be OK?" And he also re-told the story about how he almost always dedicates I'm The Man Who Loves You to his wife Susie and she told him he didn't have to, so one show he didn't and she gave him a hard time about it afterward. (He then theoretically dug himself out of that hole with a very sweet comment about how Susie is the center of his life and how he wouldn't be here without her and how he hoped everyone would find someone who they could be with who made life make sense — even when it really didn't seem to. Hopefully I got the gist of that right.)

 

As for the music (oh yeah!), Jeff clearly had some of his newest compositions at the forefront of his mind. Though, as I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure he has played some version of them all on The Tweedy Show, I'm pretty sure at least a couple of them had some additional or more fleshed-out lyrics than the earlier versions we had heard. Lou Reed Was My Babysitter was a request from someone in the front row, but Jeff granted it pretty readily and it was a fun way to wrap up the main set (even if Jeff struggled slightly with some of the lyrics).

 

I suppose it wasn't too surprising that following a series of Tweedy band shows, Jeff shied away from playing virtually any of his "solo" material at his actual solo show — with the exception of Having Been Is No Way To Be — but it remains to be seen if that will continue to be the case for the final two Largo shows. He also stuck to his more classic acoustic guitars at this show — no sign of the rubber-bridge "Rodeo" model he was using on some of the Love Is The King material during the band shows, nor any of his Kel Kroydons. Whether Jeff continues down the path of more songs featuring fingerpicking and/or delicate playing — which I thought was largely the case tonight — remains to be seen, but here's looking forward to two more nights of whatever he feels like giving us.

 

For now here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 at Largo:

 

new song-Ambulance

Remember The Mountain Bed

Shakin' Sugar (aka Alone)

new song-Say I Love You Again

Cars Can't Escape

Hummingbird

Pieholden Suite

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

new song-Please Be Wrong

Please Tell My Brother

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Dawned On Me

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

Bull Black Nova

Impossible Germany

new song-Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

--------------------------------------------------------------

I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Shot In The Arm

Before Jeff plays a few shows all by his lonesome here in Los Angeles and then in Texas, he bid farewell to his solo band — sadly, for who knows how long — with one more full set that once again demonstrated how talented each individual band member is and how well they have gelled as a unit. And once again, the band changed things up enough with the setlist to keep it interesting for those folks seeing more than one show, while also keeping the focus squarely on songs from Love Is The King and Jeff's other relatively recent solo work.
 

While Jeff's Largo shows have always traditionally featured an opening set by a surprise comedian, the identity of said comedian for Night 2 was perhaps the worst-kept secret of the day on this stretch of La Cienaga Boulevard — particularly after social media posts providing set times for the show listed "NO" with a slot at 8:10 p.m. before "JT" took the stage at 8:30. Of course anyone who hasn't been living under a rock in recent years would be able to deduce that the "NO" could only be Nick Offerman, and sure enough, the clean-shaven actor/author/woodworker/buddy of Jeff emerged on schedule with an acoustic guitar in hand and proceeded to regale the crowd with a couple of songs (including one he and Jeff wrote together for the audiobook version of Offerman's book Good Clean Fun; I believe it was American White Oak, but I'm not 100 percent sure) before concluding his mini-set with the Parks and Recreation fan favorite 5,000 Candles In The Wind (Bye, Bye L'il Sebastian) with special guest Jim O'Heir.

 

Once Jeff And Co. hit the stage, it didn't take long for him to acknowledge how happy he was that Nick was able to come be a part of tonight's show. It took exactly two songs, to be precise, for Jeff to mention his well-documented bromance with Offerman and author/professor George Saunders — which is chronicled in Offerman's most recent book, Where The Deer and the Antelope Play — and how he is "not bragging, but it's pretty fucking cool." Jeff added after playing A Robin Or A Wren that he had been thinking about how he wished Saunders could have been at the show tonight as well, but then he remembered that Saunders actually helped write some of the lyrics for AROAW, so he kind of was a very small part of the show in that way.

 

Unfortunately we did not get any more Offerman sightings, on stage or off, for the rest of the evening, not even for a little collab of some sort. Then again, there was a slightly more business-like feel to the pacing of the show tonight than Night 1. As Jeff sort of alluded to at one point, some of the Tweedy band members, including Liam Kazar, Spencer Tweedy and Sima Cunningham, had to catch a red-eye flight back to Chicago immediately after the show since Liam was due to headline his own show at Metro the following night and Spencer and Sima play in his band as well. Phew, no rest for the weary!

 

I should say that unless you had seen, say, three shows in a row, you almost certainly wouldn't have been able to detect anything out of the ordinary. It wasn't like Jeff or anyone else in the band seemed rushed in anyway, but they just moved through their set a little more expeditiously. Jeff certainly visited Banter Corner on more than a few occasions — including a little stretching session in which he demonstrated his flexibility before World Away,  a funny little bit about how he hasn't yet learned to introduce songs properly in 30 years of performing and a semi-dad joke about how Wait For Love was commissioned by George W. Bush as part of an abstinence campaign — but there was (thankfully) no mention of the anniversary of Spencer's "anal fissure" or too much (any?) back-and-forth with the crowd.

 

For the encore, which once again led off with Sammy Tweedy's excellent lead vocal on Neil Young's Helpless, the band shook things up a little bit with covers of It Must Be Love by Labi Siffre and Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You by Bob Dylan. After the former and prior to the latter, Jeff remarked, "Bet you didn't expect to hear that one." (To which I kind of wanted to say, well, for those of us who tuned into the short Tweedy Show episode streamed from backstage just before the show, during which they played It Must Be Love, well, we sort of did expect that maybe they would play it during the show as well...) But anyway, I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the harmonies by Sima and her Ohmme-mate Macie Stewart on It Must Be Love, though, which sounded absolutely killer on this song in particular.

 

For the final two songs of the show, Sima moved over to the "Jon Brion honorary piano bench" for the first time all show. The piano had seemed to be in play a bit more on Night 1, so perhaps that was another product of the slightly increased pace of Night 2. And perhaps it was because it hadn't been used much that when you could hear it, like during Sima's short solo on California Stars, there seemed to be a bit of static, at least at the outset. But this is the smallest of nits I'm picking in what was otherwise a great-sounding show and just a perfect setting to get to see this group of musicians enjoying each other's company so much.

 

As I mentioned earlier, if I had to quibble with anything, it would have been nice to see Offerman come out and do something with the band on their final night together for a while. Or, since friendship seemed to be a running theme throughout the course of the show — another joke that Jeff made a couple of times involved how someone was "in the running" to be his best friend, which he proclaimed about lead guitarist James Elkington while introducing the band; later on, while thanking Largo for hosting him, Jeff also joked that the venue's proprietor, Mark "Flanny" Flanagan, was a "dark horse" for best-friend status — it would have been fun to see the band close out their final show for a while with their great version of Pops Staples' Friendship.

 

Alas, we didn't get either of those things but it has been a lot of fun getting to see "Jeff Tweedy" (or the band called Jeff Tweedy or Jeff Tweedy and friends or whatever we're calling this unit nowadays) play these shows together over the last couple of months. It's always a treat, and after what seems like will be a pretty Wilco-intensive stretch upcoming, I look forward to the next time we can get Tweedy and Company all together on the same stage again.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 of this Largo run (there were no changes/omission from the printed setlist):

 

Love Is The King

A Robin Or A Wren

High As Hello

Opaline

Gwendolyn

Evergreen

Don't Forget

Orphan

Save It For Me

Guess Again

I Know What It's Like

Half-Asleep

Even I Can See

World Away

How Hard It Is For A Desert To Die

Some Birds

Wait For Love

Let's Go Rain

Family Ghost

The Red Brick>

Warm (When The Sun Has Died)

---------------------------------------------------

Helpless [Neil Young] (Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)

It Must Be Love [Labi Siffre]

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You [Bob Dylan]

California Stars

5 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Tweedy band not just JT? Where do they draw the line these days?

 

Yeah, I always struggle with what to title this band. Because it's no longer TWEEDY, but it also doesn't feel entirely accurate to just say "Jeff Tweedy," even if that's what the show is billed as...

If I'm not mistaken, it has been nearly a decade now since Jeff started playing shows at the intimate and beloved Largo at the Coronet Theatre in West Hollywood. And if it wasn't clear by now that it's one of his favorite rooms anywhere in which to perform, then he said as much toward the end of tonight's show when he talked about how great the room sounded, alluded to the fact that the audience there really listens (in part because of the venue's total intolerance of electronic devices) and shared that he loved being able to play "quiet and sad" music that could also make people smile at the same time.

 

I'd say that the vast majority of the 250 or so lucky folks who got to witness the opening night of another multi-night Largo run — rescheduled from the original dates that sandwiched New Year's 2022 — probably left with smiles on their faces. It would be hard not to after seeing the collective joy on the faces of not only Jeff but his six bandmates at getting to perform songs from the Tweedy solo repertoire all together. Tonight was the first of two full-band Tweedy shows, for the record, to be followed by three Jeff solo performances.

 

These full-band performances are indeed something to be cherished because, despite shows in Chicago, Mexico and San Francisco over the past few weeks and months, it's actually a relatively rare opportunity to get to see Jeff joined by not only his actual sons Spencer and Sammy but also his surrogate children in siblings Sima Cunningham and Liam Kazar (not to mention close friend James Elkington, who usually steals the show on electric guitar). And tonight it felt like the entire band was fully back together with the addition of Sima's bandmate in Ohmme, Macie Stewart, who had been absent from the two shows in San Francisco earlier in the week and who adds yet another dimension to the band with her violin playing.

 

At one point tonight, as the show was beginning to wind down, Jeff turned to his lead guitarist and you could hear him say, "We're cookin' now." And immediately afterward, realizing that the members of audience had probably heard him, Jeff turned to them and shared a similar sentiment: "We're just getting warmed up."

 

This was right around the time of Let's Go Rain, which to me was a little microcosm of the general sense of fun and camaraderie the band seemed to be having. For instance, with Sima having temporarily moved to the iconic Largo piano at stage right — which I will always think of as Jon Brion's perch, by the way — it left Jeff and Liam to do the little leg kick part midway through the song that always brings a smile to my face. And then tonight Jeff playfully drew out the ending to the song for an extra couple of bars, gently picking the closing chords in silly sort of way that even cracked himself up a bit. You probably had to be there, but hopefully I'm doing at least a decent job of conveying the on-stage vibes.

 

Likewise with most of Jeff's banter over the course of the show (which, as has been the tradition at the Largo gigs, also included a short, surprise opening set by a comedian — in this case, Pete Holmes), you probably had to be in the room to fully appreciate it. For instance, one little back-and-forth early on came after Jeff had basically told the audience it wouldn't be hearing any Wilco songs during this show because this was a chance for him to play some of the songs from his solo projects that he doesn't otherwise get to play all that often. Not to be deterred, one wiseguy in the audience promptly suggested that Jeff play the song No Depression. "I think you missed the point of what I was just saying," Jeff quipped, before adding, "Though technically, that's not a Wilco song, so I guess you're pretty sharp. Kudos." 

 

Jeff also took his time introducing all of his bandmates, even repeating the cringeworthy comment about Spencer "celebrating" the two-year anniversary of an "anal fissure he once had" that Jeff had made in San Francisco the previous night to the amusement and/or horror of everyone else in the band. When another audience member inquired about what was the traditional gift for such an anniversary, Spencer replied simply, "Underwear," before Jeff offered a more general, "Joy, or the general appreciation of life." It was all pretty silly, ultimately, but again showed the relaxed mood in the room.

 

That relaxation even extended to some good old-fashioned instrument swapping in the encore, which saw Sima take over on bass and Liam move over to the piano. That was a new configuration, at least as it relates to the Tweedy band, but the two siblings handled it without incident with each contributing both instrumentally and vocally to the songs that closed out the show. To cite one example, Sima and Liam — while on different instruments than they had played for most of the set — shared the second verse on California Stars as they usually do (along with Macie).

 

In the end, it's not difficult to understand why Jeff has enjoyed performing at Largo so often over the past decade. It's a listening room, first and foremost, and there is really nothing to distract from the performance — aside, I suppose, from the occasional wiseacre. What better place, then, to showcase a group that — while it hasn't been able to get together probably as often as Jeff would like on account of busy schedules and a global pandemic — has nevertheless come together beautifully since the release of Love Is The King. And, I might add, continues to get better with each performance.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 of this Largo run (Give Back The Key To My Heart was listed on the printed setlist as the final song of the show, but wasn't played):

 

Love Is The King

A Robin Or A Wren

Opaline

Flowering

Bombs Above>

Some Birds

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Gwendolyn

Guaranteed

Low Key

Save It For Me

Evergreen

Don't Forget

Half-Asleep

Even I Can See

I Know What It's Like

World Away

Natural Disaster

Let's Go Rain

Guess Again

Family Ghost

The Red Brick>

Warm (When The Sun Has Died)

-------------------------------------------------

Helpless [Neil Young] (Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)

You Are Not Alone

California Stars

2 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

 

Cpmbining a T and an a from two shows into a Ta.

 

Well, da then. You've got yer teatime reading for two. 

6 minutes ago, Pennyghael said:

The walking boot is peak Eitzel. He’s just recovered from a heart attack.

 

Oh, didn't realize! He said the first night that it was his first show in, like, more than two years.

 

Here’s a quick pic I snapped the first night:

 

11 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Top 3 in my pantheon of Barrys.

 

(1) Barry 'The King' John. Quite possibly the sexiest man ever to have graced this earth.

(2) Barry Cryer. (recently deceased unfortunately)

(3) Barry island.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tb5R_eLxzc

 

Some may question why Barry Gibb is not number 3, but then I've never eaten a choc-ice whilst sitting on Barry Gibb. So worthy runner up for him I'm afraid.

 

Whot, no Barry O'bama? 

10 hours ago, Pennyghael said:

How was Mark Eitzel?

 

A bit ramshackle, I'd say, though the walking boot he had on one foot didn't help his look. Better the second night than the first, though. He played in a duo, with a guy on keyboard whose name I didn't catch.

 

More highlights:

https://twitter.com/BastardMachine/status/1496345835575156736