Jeff Tweedy — 6 January 2019, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet Theatre) [Night 3 of 4]

[bböp]

The third of Jeff's four shows at the West Hollywood institution Largo this first week of 2019 could probably be succinctly described in two words: Family Night. The definition of family, of course, extended beyond simply Jeff's blood relations to a wider circle of people comprising everyone from bandmates to other musical compatriots to support staff (and even their relations). But of course, it was some of the people closest to Jeff who played the biggest roles in helping to make this a unique show.

 

Certainly with Jeff's sons Spencer and Sammy both accompanying their dad on this trip, there was the hope that one or both would find their way on stage at some point. The last time Jeff played here, just over a year ago, one of the highlights was him watching proudly from the stage steps as his progeny performed Graham Nash's Military Madness as a duet. This time, all three Tweedy men took the stage together for the first song of the encore that Jeff said they had learned for his sister, Debbie, who was in attendance. So it was that Jeff with his guitar, flanked by Spencer on one side and Sammy on the other, beamed as the trio ran through a lovely cover of the title track from Lal and Mike Waterson's classic folk record Bright Phoebus.

 

There was little doubt that family was on Jeff's mind for just about the whole set. He dedicated the Warm tune Don't Forget to his sister, played an apropos new song presumably called Orphan (and that will be on the forthcoming Warmer album) and closed the show by once again dedicating I'm The Man Who Loves You to his wife Susie, who was supposed to come on this trip but couldn't for various reasons. As he had the first two nights, Jeff drily encouraged the audience to get in contact with Susie and let her know that he had played her song. In addition, he closed the main set with On and On and On, a song he wrote for his late father to try and help console him after his wife's (and Jeff's mother's) sudden passing.

 

The acknowledgement of Jeff's sister being in the audience also led to some of the funniest banter of the evening. It came after Hummingbird when Jeff recounted a long story involving a seedy bar that turned into a de facto strip club that he had apparently told his sister for the first time earlier in the day. (For what it's worth, there is a strip club right across the street from Largo with a prominently flashing "Live Nude Girls" sign, but I'm not sure if that precipitated the story or not). Anyway, to try and make a long story short, back when Jeff was in his drinking days, he would play a show in St. Louis and sometimes take a visiting band out for a post-show beverage and they would end up at a seedy place called Pop's Saloon in Sauget, IL, that apparently had a 24-hour liquor license. According to Jeff, this establishment would have a "Sexiest Chest in the West" contest in which they would try to "outsource nudity" by trying to pool enough money from patrons to encourage women to shed their tops (in essence becoming what Jeff called "civilian strippers") — the irony being that this place was surrounded by actual strip clubs. So one time Jeff took a band to Pop's and some of the band members threw some money into the pile and the MC of the contest who recognized Jeff, possibly from attending high school with him, announced that "there's $5 from Jeff Tweedy!"

 

Other visits to Banter Corner involved references to the Golden Globe Awards, which were being held not far from Largo at around the same time as Jeff's show. Early on, Jeff quipped, "Sorry none of you were nominated. You really marked yourselves as non-contenders by being here now. Get 'em next year, guys." Later he asked if anyone in the audience had even eligible to be nominated, but no one took the bait. Alas! (That brief bit of crowd work certainly paled in comparison with that of unannounced comedic opening act Tom Papa, who mercilessly interrogated a humble correspondent in the front row about his exercise habits and vehicular choices, among other things. )

 

Once again, Jeff decided to pause at one point to take some questions from the audience. He explained that the Q&A had gone pretty well at the first show, but not so much as the second and wondered aloud whether he had made it "seem too risky" to ask questions. (Sound familiar? ) Eventually, though, a few sincere questions arose and Jeff answered most, if not all, of them pretty thoughtfully. For instance, someone asked him about the titles of the bonus songs on the audiobook version of his book — he said the one without vocals was called Ultra-Orange Room and the other was called Life Story — and then briefly went into a lament about how even as the digital realm has enabled there to be virtually unlimited space for content, few releases seemed to be using that space to provide context to the work or additional information about it. “What happened to liner notes?" Jeff asked rhetorically. Another question concerned whether Jeff knew that One Sunday Morning would be a long song when he wrote the opening lyric, "This is how I tell it/Oh, and it's long..." and Jeff answered that he had basically written the melody and basically knew how he wanted the song to go before writing any lyrics, so he knew that it was going to be a long one.

 

Other questions included the subject of future deluxe reissues of albums (which he answered, in part, by joking that A.M. and Being There had been reissued because "those (records) could be improved upon" while the others were perfect) and whether he would sign copies of his book, to which Jeff remarked that he had already "signed all the books." "Not mine," the female questioner protested. To which Jeff replied that she should hang onto that one because it was rare and deadpanned that he had signed so many books that he needed to use CBD cream and that, in turn, was "really taking my guitar playing down a notch."

 

For the third straight show, Jeff used just one guitar throughout and it occurred to me that since he is also dressing identically each night (dark sport coat and T-shirt and dark jeans) and there have been a few video cameras quietly recording both outside before the show and inside during it that they might be considering creating some sort of video document of these shows, whether that's in the form of a DVD or streaming video or whatever. Or it could just be an opportunity to get some promotional video for future releases. At any rate, the cameras have been pretty subtle and non-intrusive. But the identical outfit and single guitar means they could easily edit together some of the best performances from each of the four nights...just a thought.

 

At any rate, here's to another enjoyable evening (and one more tonight) to cap off this latest Largo run. It was nice to see more than a few familiar faces, including Mikael Jorgensen and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius, among the folks gathered in the courtyard after the show. Friends and family were certainly out in full force on Night 3, and if that didn't exactly result in the most boisterous crowd I've ever seen at a Jeff solo show, then at least there was plenty of — pun intended — warmth to go around.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played:

 

Bombs Above>

Some Birds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Having Been Is No Way To Be

One Sunday Morning

Remember The Mountain Bed

new song-Evergreen

Lost Love

Hummingbird

I Know What It's Like

new song-Orphan

Locator

Don't Forget

Jesus, etc.

On and On and On

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

Bright Phoebus [Lal and Mike Waterson] (w/Spencer and Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals)

California Stars

Let's Go Rain

I'm The Man Who Loves You

[theashtraysays]

Well if there is a video of some sort, I sure hope they include a segment of the opening acts greatest “hits” on unsuspecting audience members. Now THAT’S entertainment!

Cheers and thanks as always for the reporting. Hey and since we’re getting close to the Grammys, maybe tonight you can ask what his favorite foo fighters song is...

[anthony]

Of all the JT/Wilco shows I have been to, this may have been my favorite. I can die happy now seeing Mountain Bed.

[dennis]

Aside from the audio book, is there any way to listen to the bonus stuff? I had no idea they were even out there. Might Life Story be on Warmer?