Jeff Tweedy — 3 January 2025, Los Angeles, CA (Largo at the Coronet) [Night 4 of 4]

[Brian F.]

Feel Free

A Lifetime to Find

Annihilation

Ashes of American Flags

Mine Forever

I Know What It's Like

On and On and On

Either Way

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

You're Not Gonna Win

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Cold Slope

King of You

Acuff-Rose

California Stars

Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

Jesus, Etc.

A Shot in the Arm

A Robin or a Wren (with Spencer and Sammy Tweedy)

 

The start was delayed slightly (to 8:43 p.m.) because of what Jeff implied was a throat issue, allowing for an extended opening set by special guest Patton Oswalt. Kicking off with the lengthy "Feel Free," Jeff joked, "Well, that's about all the time we have." He suggested that there's no better way to win over a crowd than with a "17- or 18-verse new song." (The song is so long that Jeff had the lyrics taped to his monitor.) Introducing "A Lifetime to Find," Jeff related that, after he played it for a 96-year-old friend who writes limericks but who was not previously familiar with Jeff's music, she complained that she just couldn't take "all those imperfect rhymes." When "Ashes of American Flags" was greeted with a "smattering" of applause, Jeff scoffed at the appreciation, saying, "Most people like it when people show enthusiasm for their performance; I don't. Your applause means nothing to me."

 

I'm not sure if "Mine Forever" has been performed before. (I don't think it has been performed publicly on stage, at least, but someone should correct me if I'm wrong about that. And they will.) Following "On and On and On," Jeff joked that this was his "Friday night set" of his "happiest songs." During "Either Way," Jeff humorously pantomimed listening to the solo from the studio version in his head while he performed the solo-less acoustic version. At this point, he remarked that, after three-plus nights of basically no-repeat sets, he was "down to the dregs" of his catalog and then launched into "One Sunday Morning (A Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" (perhaps hoping he could kill the rest of his allotted time with just that song).

 

For those who were not in attendance or who were unable to catch the livestream of Night 3, Jeff has expressed disappointment that no one had left any presents for him under the lighted Christmas tree at stage left, so a couple of fans (Jenny and an unknown second fan) decided to bring him gifts on Night 4. (Unfortunately, it did not occur to me until I was already in line for Night 4-- at 9:30 a.m.!-- that a gift card to Cafe Gratitude would have made a nice gift. Either that or candlesticks.) Collecting these gifts after performing the new song "You're Not Gonna Win," Jeff grumbled that he performed for four nights and got only "two crummy presents." There's no pleasing that guy. As already pointed out below, the set featured a rare performance of the back-to-back Star Wars tracks "Cold Slope" and "King of You" and, rarer still, this was a solo acoustic performance of Wilco's version of "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," at least if those Queen songs had inscrutable lyrics and were never played on any radio station ever. (I kid, of course-- the true Wilco analogue to "We Will/We Are" can only be "Red-Eyed and Blue"/"I Got You (At the End of the Century).")

 

After performing "California Stars," Jeff asked Susie if there was anything she'd like to hear. Her response was unprintable.

 

Choosing not to shuffle offstage for a compulsory encore break, Jeff remarked after "Jesus, Etc." that this was the point when he would usually do that. The noncore (my word) consisted of "A Shot in the Arm" and a reprise of "A Robin or a Wren" with Sammy and Spencer on backing vocals like Night 1. The latter song was dedicated to George (presumably co-writer Saunders, who was apparently in attendance this night) and, if I heard correctly, "Pablo"-- perhaps he said "Pedro" referring to his late father-in-law, though I'd swear I heard "Pablo" or possibly Paul; I suppose it could have been a shout-out to bbop. The show, and the four-night stand, ended at 10:13 p.m.

 

Thanks for another lovely time at Largo, Jeff. Thanks also to James, Julie, Jenny, Paige, Tom, Jason, Brooke, Allie, Sean, Arlene and Jordan for making the time in line fly by. And thanks especially to the city of Los Angeles for failing to fix the broken parking meter just before the BevMo driveway, allowing me to park for free for 20 hours on Nights 3 and 4 (and a couple of hours on Night 2). At a dollar an hour, it offset two nights' worth of See Tickets' fees.

 

 

[bböp]

18 hours ago, Brian F. said:

 

Cold Slope

King of You

Acuff-Rose

 
Quite a trifecta there (sadly followed by *both* Cali and Jesus…d’oh!)

 

I know a couple of people who were VERY excited by the acoustic Cold Slope>King Of You, which I imagine was interesting to hear. And it’s nice to see Acuff-Rose on the list again. I remember when he used to close a great many solo shows with that one at the edge of the stage, sans PA. Miss those days.

[Brian F.]

Just noting that I added a full writeup above.

[Albert Tatlock]

On 1/6/2025 at 7:38 PM, Brian F. said:

Just noting that I added a full writeup above.

Ta

[Freedy]

Thanks for the write-up. Such a fun night! I forget exactly what he said after Acuff-Rose, but it was something close to, “See? I did save some bananas for you.” And then played more beloved songs. (Or maybe it was before Acuff-Rose? Either way made me smile!)
 

Hope they release a Roadcase of the show!

[Albert Tatlock]

14 hours ago, Freedy said:

See? I did save some bananas for you

Was Gornok in attendance?

 

(That'll sort the men from the boys. Ha!)