Jeff Tweedy — 1 March 2022, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet Theatre) [Night 5 of 5]

[bböp]

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

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

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

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Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]

California Stars

[Albert Tatlock]

35 minutes ago, bböp said:

Since anyone who cares can watch (most of) tonight's show on Instagram,

 

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

[bböp]

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! 🕺🏾 💃 🕺🏾 

[Lukestar]

The Liar Song (!) God she's funny.

 

Looking forward to watching the stream. Thanks for yer on-the-spot reporting, bböp!

[Brian F.]

Here's the menu for the March 1 show.