Jeff Tweedy — 28 December 2017, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet Theatre) [Night One]

[bböp]

It's a little hard to believe that it has already been a little more than four years since Jeff last performed at the esteemed Largo at the Coronet Theatre, an intimate 300-capacity venue in West Hollywood that is a mainstay on the LA scene and favorite of many area music fans. And the last time he played there, during a four-night run in 2013, he seemed to keep getting progressively sicker each night — though he soldiered on through the shows and still managed to play an impressive variety of songs.

 

So when it was announced that he would return to Largo this month to perform two year-end solo shows, the tickets were snapped up immediately and it's probably fair to say that most of those in attendance tonight probably considered themselves pretty fortunate to get into the room. I know I did.

 

Opening act (and Tweedy pal) Nick Offerman performed a couple of comedic songs on acoustic guitar, one I think involving a Jesus-shaped flask of whiskey and the other a sort-of oddball ode to Siri. He also read an excerpt from the chapter about Jeff in his book Gumption, which profiled 20 or so Americans Offerman admires, and said it was an honor to finally get to open for Jeff at Largo. (Incidentally, famous faces spotted at one time or another included Offerman's wife Megan Mullally as well as Carrie Brownstein and Adam Scott.) 

 

Then Jeff took the stage with one of his Kel Kroydon guitars in hand, a harmonica already on and immediately went into Via Chicago, followed by another live performance of the new song Bombs Above (which he debuted at that NPR Music 10th Anniversary show in Washington, D.C., earlier this month and has played a few other times since). Another highlight of tonight's set was another new song — my first time hearing it — that Jeff said was about the biblical flood experienced by Noah and "how it should happen again." The folky song featured a singalong chorus that went something like "Let's go rain/Come on rain again," and also had a line about Scott McCaughey that I didn't fully catch.

 

It would be almost impossible, without the assistance of a recording device — which are strictly verboten at Largo — to recap verbatim (or even close to verbatim) Jeff's visits to Banter Corner tonight. But among the stories he discussed at some length included ones about:

—how he and his family are renting an Airbnb house while in town and, when their supply of toilet paper ran out, their hosts told them to go to the market and buy their own because they had already been provided with the standard amount normally given to guests and how that enraged his wife.

— a bad show relatively early in Wilco's career when they were playing an industry showcase in New York. Johnny Cash had been supposed to play after them but asked if he could play before instead, so most of the crowd left. They were also playing versions of songs that would be on Being There, but the record hadn't come out yet and the performances were pretty loose.

— playing a solo headlining set at the Pickathon festival in Oregon a couple of years ago right after a funk big band (Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, to be exact) had left a huge crowd chanting, "Everything's gonna be all right." And how Jeff wanted to tell the crowd that everything wasn't going to be all right...

 

At any rate, there was probably plenty more banter I'm forgetting about just now, including a funny exchange with an audience member whose seat squeaked a couple of times at an inopportune moment during a song. Hopefully some other folks will chime in and help fill in my memory.

 

The show, was in some sense, a fairly classic first night after Jeff hasn't played in a little while. He struggled to remember some lyrics and botched a few chords (though a request for a Chris Bell song and subsequent discussion of how it was Alex Chilton's birthday resulted in an always-lovely version of Big Star's Thirteen sung by Sammy Tweedy, who came out of the crowd to take the vocal reins). He also had a nice stretch of playing on a black Gibson (I think) that included Laminated Cat, Bull Black Nova and Someday, Some Morning, Sometime, showing off some different aspects to his guitar playing.

 

The single encore, meanwhile, attempted to get some more crowd singalongs going, to varying levels of success, on California Stars and Jesus, etc. And the night's final number ended up being almost a hybrid of Outtasite (Outta Mind) and Outta Mind (Outta Sight), but probably leaned most toward the latter — aka the "Sesame Street" version — so that's how I'm listing it. Just in case anybody cares...

 

Looking forward to one more fun evening on La Cienega Boulevard tonight. But first here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at Largo:

 

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

new song-Bombs Above

Passenger Side

We've Been Had

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hummingbird

Lost Love

new song-Let's Go Rain

Locator

A Shot in the Arm

Thirteen [big Star] (w/Sammy Tweedy on vocals)

A Magazine Called Sunset

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Bull Black Nova

Someday, Some Morning, Sometime

Impossible Germany

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

California Stars

Jesus, etc.

Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

[Magnetized]

I’m so glad you were there last night and will be again tonight, Paul. The first thing I wanted to do this morning was check Via Chicago and see if you had written a recap. It’s the highlight of my morning-after routine when I haven’t been to a show myself. I’m glad Jeff was in better health this year, although those shows when he had such a bad cold yielded some priceless banter.

 

Could you tell if other extended family members were in attendance? I know Jeff’s brother-in-law and family live out there. And the new song about the flood—was the tone more in the nature of a humorous ditty or apocalyptic warning?

[knotgreen]

I had a great first visit to Largo last night, lumpy, tiny seats and all. There really is a magic to that space.

 

As often is the case, I don’t have much to add to Paul’s very thorough recap. (Thanks for it, by the way! Hope to run into you this evening.) I will add a few stray observations:

 

Jeff made a very earnest comment about why he enjoys playing solo, which was something about how it requires that he look people in the eye and present them with a song in its simplest form. It was an endearing comment which I’m not remembering exactly.

 

I think that this was my first time seeing Jeff solo where he didn’t have a full printed set list. This definitely contributed to the overall lax vibe (and prompted the requests which he honored: IG, Magazine and Thirteen).

 

I know that Jeff always jokes that Impossible Germany isn’t best suited for a solo acoustic show, but every time I hear it that way I’m reminded how great it is in its stripped-down state. The “this is what love is for” lyric that he adds always gets me.

 

Anyway, looking forward to night 2 tonight!

[nalafej]

I know that Jeff always jokes that Impossible Germany isn’t best suited for a solo acoustic show, but every time I hear it that way I’m reminded how great it is in its stripped-down state. The “this is what love is for” lyric that he adds always gets me.

 

I was going to ask how that one sounded. Only the 10th time he's played it solo (if setlist.fm is to be trusted) in public.

[mdpoet]

Great recap, as always, for those who were not there to learn some of the details and vibe of the show, and setlist of course!

 

He played the "flood song" at the Bowery for the Hanukkah shows. This is how I remember it from that night: it was a funny delivery of a more serious time and that we need another flood to wipe everything out. The chorus included Let's hear it for the rain! I was wandering if the reference to Scott was actually written in the lyrics or he included him as a shout out for what he has been going thru. It was a nice surprise to hear his name belted out and I didn't catch the full verse, something to the effect -" then you don't know Scott McCaughey!"

[bböp]

Great recap, as always, for those who were not there to learn some of the details and vibe of the show, and setlist of course!

 

He played the "flood song" at the Bowery for the Hanukah shows. This is how I remember it from that night: it was a funny delivery of a more serious time and that we need another flood to wipe everything out. The chorus included Let's hear it for the rain! I was wandering if the reference to Scott was actually written in the lyrics or he included him as a shout out for what he has been going thru. It was a nice surprise to hear his name belted out and I didn't catch the full verse, something to the effect -" then you don't know Scott McCaughey!"

Oh, that’s funny! I saw a setlist posted on Brooklyn Vegan for Jeff’s opening set at Bowery Ballroom and didn’t see any mention of the flood song (or any new song on there, other than Bombs Above) so I figured Largo was the first time for it. Goes to show how much you can trust setlist.fm for true accuracy...

 

And yeah, reviewing my notes, I do see that I jotted down a similar line about “...then you don’t know Scott McCaughey.” Thanks for the correction/clarification!