Jeff Tweedy — 3 January 2019, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet Theatre) [Night 1 of 4]

[bböp]

With his hair newly trimmed (for the first time since the 2016 election!) and without his trademark Stetson, Jeff took the Largo stage once again to kick off the new year with the first of four shows over the next five days. Almost from the start, he tried to lower any expectations that the crowd of about 250 might have had by admitting he hadn't practiced very much recently and how he hoped some people were coming to other shows because this one would likely be kind of a warm-up gig.

 

Jeff was (half?) joking, of course, but he did more or less stick with his stated plan of playing songs he knew and remarked about the audience being mostly "the people who usually see me when I play solo in LA," which was probably true. So from a setlist perspective — by my count, 14 of the 18 songs he played tonight were also part of his last solo show in town at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in early October — there wasn't all that much that would have surprised anyone who has seen Jeff perform recently.

 

But every show has its unique energy and memorable moments, which can be difficult to fully convey to someone who wasn't in the room. If Jeff wasn't feeling especially confident in his playing at the start, his banter and interactions with the audience were often as hilarious as ever. For example he discussed his haircut, saying that he hadn't cut it since the election in 2016 as a form of "pointless protest" and derided it as "the stupidest idea ever" before joking that he had cut it because "we've made it, guys." Before playing Let's Go Rain, he talked about how he had been obsessed with the story of Noah's Ark for most of his life and went through his usual spiel about the song. After a successful singalong, he quipped that the crowd seemed to know the song better than the story and how there must be "a lot of goys" in the audience.

 

About halfway through his set, Jeff conducted a Q&A session as he is often wont to do during these Largo shows and, amid his amusing dismissals of various questions, someone — well, I know who it was — set him up perfectly by asking whether the AirBnB he and his family were staying in this time had sufficient toilet paper. That question enabled Jeff to recount the story about running out of toilet paper at the place they had stayed during his last Largo run at the end of 2017 and rail against the woman renting the property who had refused to provide more. This time, he said, they seemed to have plenty of TP (though he also acknowledged that their family was missing its female member, his wife Susie, who sadly hadn't been able to make the trip this time in part because of her father's health).

 

One noteworthy aspect of tonight's performance was that it was the first time in a long time (maybe ever?) that I've seen Jeff play a full solo show with just a single guitar, a 1930s Martin 0-17 model. When an audience member made it known that he was really interested in hearing more about said guitar during the Q&A, Jeff (after gently poking fun at him) wound up telling a pretty cool story about its history. Apparently it was the guitar on which he played Please Tell My Brother during a recording session in Minneapolis for Golden Smog's Weird Tales record. He had borrowed it from a friend there, and loved playing it so much that he told his friend that if she ever wanted to sell it, he would be interested. According to Jeff, some 20 years later, this person contacted him and asked if he was still interested in the guitar...and he obviously was.

 

Also worth noting was that the always-entertaining Nick Offerman turned up to perform a short unannounced opening set of comedy and music to open the show. Sporting a robust beard and a ukulele he had apparently made himself, he told a few stories about his college acting days and said he was working on material for a new stage show called All Rise that could be out later this year.

 

Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty more that I'm forgetting at this wee hour. But those were some of the things that immediately stuck out in my mind about this first show of 2019. Here's to the next few evenings! (Oh, and I have to say that those oohs at the end of I'm Always In Love were pretty dang fun. )

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (with a HUGE shoutout to a pal who deftly provided a pen when both of mine mysteriously went missing just before Jeff went on):

 

Bombs Above

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

New Madrid

I Know What It's Like

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Remember The Mountain Bed

Hummingbird

Passenger Side

Don't Forget

new song-Family Ghost

Impossible Germany

new song-Evergreen

Let's Go Rain

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

I'm Always In Love

Jesus, etc.

Acuff-Rose

[the_ashtray_says]

thanks for the review. looking forward to the next 3 nights!

[Magnetized]

Fantastic recap as always, Paul. It’s not quite like actually being there, but as close as most of us are going to get. Many thanks.

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta

[mirrorball]

LA Times take

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-jeff-tweedy-review-20190102-story.html