Jeff Tweedy — 6 January 2023, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet Theatre) [Night 2 of 4]

[bböp]

About halfway through the second of four sold-out shows at the venerable Largo at the Coronet Theatre — which, incidentally, is located at 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA; GPS coordinates: 34° 4' 40.548'' N, 118° 22' 34.032'' W — Jeff paid his longest visit to Banter Corner for the evening in response to an audience member's request for the song I'll Fight and a few other requests that were subsequently yelled out. At first, Jeff suggested — in a nod to the chaos that has transpired in the U.S. House of Representatives this week as it attempted to elect a new Speaker — that each person with a request should raise their hands, ask for some time, be given the floor and make a speech in defense of their request.

 

Then almost as quickly, he changed his mind, reconsidered his idea and decided to reclaim control of the show. "Let's face it," Jeff said, drily, "the only people who have a request loaded up and ready to go are people who have a need for a very specific song for a very specific reason and (this) is the only way to keep me from playing requests that are dogshit." He went on to try and reiterate a point that he had made the previous night, which is that during this point in a recording cycle when he has recently been in the studio working on new material, he often could not remember many of his older songs off the top of his head. "I have reached a threshold of songs that  I can remember, and it's a fucking lot. I think I have an aptitude for remembering songs," but want to be transparent about not playing certain requests or messing up some songs.

 

That dynamic made for an interesting show on Night 2, when nearly half the setlist (nine of 20 tunes) was comprised of either material from Wilco's most recent album, Cruel Country and new and/or unreleased songs. The upside was that apart from one of those new/unreleased songs, the wrenching Having A Hard Time, and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies that likely only came about because someone in the front row gave Jeff a 7-inch record with that song on it as a gift for his jukebox and Jeff decided to thank him by playing it again, the rest of the set featured no other repeated songs from Night 1.

 

Of the new/unreleased material, both the show-opening Say I Love You Again and Infinite Surprise were played more than once on The Tweedy Show and of course we heard the debut of Having A Hard Time the previous night, so the only new, new song — I'm pretty sure — was one that I'll call Evicted From Your Heart (though I'm usually terrible at guessing what actual song titles end up being). This was, to my ears, almost a power-poppish tune with a catchy chorus that featured the lyric "I'm evicted from your heart/I deserve it," and in which the narrator asks "Am I ever gonna see you again?"

 

Following the repeat performance of Having A Hard Time in the first encore, it wasn't immediately clear whether or not Jeff would even come back out for a second encore. After the main set, he had sort of peeked out from behind one of the stage curtains before returning to the stage and remarking, "Admit it, it would be pretty cool if I just didn't come back," before confessing, "I don't have that kind of fortitude." But a second encore was even less assured than the first. Fortunately for the audience, Jeff didn't take too long to re-emerge again and close out what had been a fairly sedate set with a couple of crowd pleasers to restore some proverbial balance to the Force. (During the show-closing I Got You (At The End Of The Century), I couldn't help but think how cool it would have been if the comedian/musician Fred Armisen, who performed an unannounced 20-minute opening set of musically inclined jokes with an electric guitar, suddenly burst through the doors at the side of the theater and started windmilling. Or something.)

 

Actually it was one of Armisen's bits about how guitar players were cheating by using capos, which he called a crutch, that provided a couple of other quick visits to Banter Corner by Jeff. In his first real comments of the show, five songs in, he noted how he had already "played a bunch of songs without a capo." And later, during his aforementioned lengthy chat with the audience, Jeff shared, "I told Fred I was gonna play the entire show without a capo just to fuck with his joke, but I need a crutch."

 

I'm no guitar player, but Jeff certainly didn't seem like he needed too much assistance on what were a couple of personal highlights of this Night 2 set. There was the unexpected and rarely played Venus Stopped The Train, a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot outtake that Jeff wrote about in detail on his Substack a few months back. After learning some of the real inspirations behind the song, which was always pretty devastating anyway, it made it even more intense to hear it played tonight. Also in that category was an almost equally rare solo performance of Everlasting Everything, which Jeff also discussed on his Substack a couple of months ago. That's another tune I don't expect to get tired of hearing anytime soon, even though it is not exactly a barn burner.

 

Of course, not everyone got what they wanted to hear during the just-shy-of-90-minutes duration of Jeff's set tonight. What, you might ask, ever became of the gentleman who had requested I'll Fight and kicked off what turned out to be a prolonged set of remarks by his troubadourial tormentor? Well, after an extended visit to Banter Corner by Jeff, the requester had the cojones (or was it simply determination?) to raise his voice and firmly ask for I'll Fight a second time.

 

An amused Jeff, after reclaiming the floor, asked if the man had been in attendance the previous night. He replied that he had been, and confirmed he had also requested I'll Fight then. Jeff continued, asking if he would be at the show the following night and the night after that. (Yes, and yes.) Finally, Jeff relented and conceded that, "I'll maybe play that song Sunday." Something tells me that the gentleman's persistence might eventually pay off. We shall see. If that doesn't keep you tuning in to these proceedings — and I know a certain A. Tatlock will surely be waiting with bated breath — then I don't know what else would.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at Largo (2023 edition):

 

new song-Say I Love You Again

I Know What It's Like

new song-Evicted From Your Heart

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Venus Stopped The Train

Ambulance

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

Even I Can See

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

Hearts Hard To Find

Please Be Wrong

Everlasting Everything

new song-Infinite Surprise

Falling Apart (Right Now)

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

Little Lies [Fleetwood Mac]

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

new song-Having A Hard Time

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

Pecan Pie

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[King oscar]

43 minutes ago, bböp said:

About halfway through the second of four sold-out shows at the venerable Largo at the Coronet Theatre — which, incidentally, is located at 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA; GPS coordinates: 34° 4' 40.548'' N, 118° 22' 34.032'' W — Jeff paid his longest visit to Banter Corner for the evening in response to an audience member's request for the song I'll Fight and a few other requests that were subsequently yelled out. At first, Jeff suggested — in a nod to the chaos that has transpired in the U.S. House of Representatives this week as it attempted to elect a new Speaker — that each person with a request should raise their hands, ask for some time, be given the floor and make a speech in defense of their request.

 

Then almost as quickly, he changed his mind, reconsidered his idea and decided to reclaim control of the show. "Let's face it," Jeff said, drily, "the only people who have a request loaded up and ready to go are people who have a need for a very specific song for a very specific reason and (this) is the only way to keep me from playing requests that are dogshit." He went on to try and reiterate a point that he had made the previous night, which is that during this point in a recording cycle when he has recently been in the studio working on new material, he often could not remember many of his older songs off the top of his head. "I have reached a threshold of songs that  I can remember, and it's a fucking lot. I think I have an aptitude for remembering songs," but want to be transparent about not playing certain requests or messing up some songs.

 

That dynamic made for an interesting show on Night 2, when nearly half the setlist (nine of 20 tunes) was comprised of either material from Wilco's most recent album, Cruel Country and new and/or unreleased songs. The upside was that apart from one of those new/unreleased songs, the wrenching Having A Hard Time, and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies that likely only came about because someone in the front row gave Jeff a 7-inch record with that song on it as a gift for his jukebox and Jeff decided to thank him by playing it again, the rest of the set featured no other repeated songs from Night 1.

 

Of the new/unreleased material, both the show-opening Say I Love You Again and Infinite Surprise were played more than once on The Tweedy Show and of course we heard the debut of Having A Hard Time the previous night, so the only new, new song — I'm pretty sure — was one that I'll call Evicted From Your Heart (though I'm usually terrible at guessing what actual song titles end up being). This was, to my ears, almost a power-poppish tune with a catchy chorus that featured the lyric "I'm evicted from your heart/I deserve it," and in which the narrator asks "Am I ever gonna see you again?"

 

Following the repeat performance of Having A Hard Time in the first encore, it wasn't immediately clear whether or not Jeff would even come back out for a second encore. After the main set, he had sort of peeked out from behind one of the stage curtains before returning to the stage and remarking, "Admit it, it would be pretty cool if I just didn't come back," before confessing, "I don't have that kind of fortitude." But a second encore was even less assured than the first. Fortunately for the audience, Jeff didn't take too long to re-emerge again and close out what had been a fairly sedate set with a couple of crowd pleasers to restore some proverbial balance to the Force. (During the show-closing I Got You (At The End Of The Century), I couldn't help but think how cool it would have been if the comedian/musician Fred Armisen, who performed an unannounced 20-minute opening set of musically inclined jokes with an electric guitar, suddenly burst through the doors at the side of the theater and started windmilling. Or something.)

 

Actually it was one of Armisen's bits about how guitar players were cheating by using capos, which he called a crutch, that provided a couple of other quick visits to Banter Corner by Jeff. In his first real comments of the show, five songs in, he noted how he had already "played a bunch of songs without a capo." And later, during his aforementioned lengthy chat with the audience, Jeff shared, "I told Fred I was gonna play the entire show without a capo just to fuck with his joke, but I need a crutch."

 

I'm no guitar player, but Jeff certainly didn't seem like he needed too much assistance on what were a couple of personal highlights of this Night 2 set. There was the unexpected and rarely played Venus Stopped The Train, a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot outtake that Jeff wrote about in detail on his Substack a few months back. After learning some of the real inspirations behind the song, which was always pretty devastating anyway, it made it even more intense to hear it played tonight. Also in that category was an almost equally rare solo performance of Everlasting Everything, which Jeff also discussed on his Substack a couple of months ago. That's another tune I don't expect to get tired of hearing anytime soon, even though it is not exactly a barn burner.

 

Of course, not everyone got what they wanted to hear during the just-shy-of-90-minutes duration of Jeff's set tonight. What, you might ask, ever became of the gentleman who had requested I'll Fight and kicked off what turned out to be a prolonged set of remarks by his troubadourial tormentor? Well, after an extended visit to Banter Corner by Jeff, the requester had the cojones (or was it simply determination?) to raise his voice and firmly ask for I'll Fight a second time.

 

An amused Jeff, after reclaiming the floor, asked if the man had been in attendance the previous night. He replied that he had been, and confirmed he had also requested I'll Fight then. Jeff continued, asking if he would be at the show the following night and the night after that. (Yes, and yes.) Finally, Jeff relented and conceded that, "I'll maybe play that song Sunday." Something tells me that the gentleman's persistence might eventually pay off. We shall see. If that doesn't keep you tuning in to these proceedings — and I know a certain A. Tatlock will surely be waiting with bated breath — then I don't know what else would.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at Largo (2023 edition):

 

new song-Say I Love You Again

I Know What It's Like

new song-Evicted From Your Heart

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Venus Stopped The Train

Ambulance

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

Even I Can See

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

Hearts Hard To Find

Please Be Wrong

Everlasting Everything

new song-Infinite Surprise

Falling Apart (Right Now)

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

Little Lies [Fleetwood Mac]

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

new song-Having A Hard Time

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

Pecan Pie

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Thank you for the entertaining summary.  

[Albert Tatlock]

5 hours ago, bböp said:

This was, to my ears, almost a power-poppish tune

 

This is good to hear. Hopeful for the next album being more upbeat.

Ta.

 

[Brian F.]

I'm nominating the first line of this writeup for this year's Pulitzer in Breaking News-- Surveying. Previous surveyor laureates include George Washington, George Gallup... and probably other people named George.

 

"Everlasting Everything" was indeed an especial and unexpected highlight.

 

An (I think) unintentionally comic moment occurred after the "I'll Fight" banter, when Jeff proceeded to play "Hearts Hard to Find" with the opening lyric "I don't mind/When certain people die...."  There were quite a few chuckles in the audience from people who perhaps thought Jeff was sending a message to the guy who requested "I'll Fight," although I suspect that was going to be the next song up "either way."  I love "I'll Fight" and hope to hear it before this run is over, but you have to admit that shouting "I'LL FIGHT!" is a provocative thing to do at a live performance. I wonder what folks in the audience who don't know the song must have been thinking when the request was first made-- "Wait, does this guy want to throw down with Jeff right now?" It makes me think of my reaction last year when coldasgasoline yelled out "LOU REED WAS MY BABYSITTER!," the title of a song with which I was not familiar at the time, causing me to think either "How has my friend never told me that Lou Reed was his babysitter?!" but also "Why is he shouting out complete sentences that are not true?," only for me to be further flabbergasted when Jeff instantly replied, "O.K., I'll play it."  I remember thinking, "What is happening here?!"

 

I was the guy who gave Jeff the "Little Lies" 7-inch.  A little back story: I bought that 45 back when the song was a hit in 1987 when I was 12 years old. That record, along with my entire childhood record collection, went missing some time after I left for college and I assumed my parents had either thrown it away or donated it to charity until last Christmas when I discovered the records hiding in plain sight in a crate under a table in my parents' basement in Brooklyn. I shipped the records to my home in L.A. and spent January listening to all of them systematically. The reality, though, is that I was probably only likely to ever play that 7-inch once or twice over the course of the rest of my life and, after Jeff did his beautiful cover of it on Thursday night (and after having previously shared a performance of it on Starship Casual), I thought that the record would probably be put to much better use in his jukebox. He's gifted me with so much music throughout his career that I figured the least I could do would be to gift a little music to him. I hope it ends up in the jukebox and that I'll get to visit it someday when Jeff becomes my friend and invites me over.

 

The B-side to "Little Lies" is a Lindsey Buckingham-sung track called "Ricky."  As much as I want it to be a Fleetwood Mac cover of the "Weird Al" Yankovic parody of Toni Basil's "Mickey," it's an original and I'm really hoping Jeff works up a cover of it by tomorrow night. I will walk home if that happens.

[knotgreen]

Venus Stopped The Train & Everlasting Everything. Geez!

I'm sad to be missing these shows but am happy for  you lucky attendees! Hope you're enjoying LA, Paul, and thanks as always for the recaps.