Jeff Tweedy — 5 January 2026, Los Angeles, CA (Largo At The Coronet) [Night 2 of 4]

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Besides offering a sense of normalcy and an opportunity to connect with others in a time of isolation — which were no small things during a pandemic — The Tweedy Show also provided a glimpse into the dynamics of a family and a marriage that some people probably wished they had in their own lives or perhaps aspired to in some way. At the center of it, of course, was the interaction between Jeff and Susie. And though, in our parasocial age, we might never really know just how “real” their sweet-and-sour bickering truly was, or is, it certainly made for great theater every night for a while.

 

Some of that dynamic was on display during the second of Jeff’s four solo shows at Largo this week, which usually feature an unannounced comedian as the opening act. Tonight that happened to be Nikki Glaser who, as she has done in past years, was testing out her opening monologue as host of this weekend’s Golden Globe Awards.

 

It was Glaser, a St. Louis native and noted Wilco/Jeff fan, who got the proverbial ball rolling on Night 2 with Jeff joking that it was “in (her) contract” that he played both of her song requests — Don’t Forget and Having Been Is No Way To Be — right away because she had to leave for another engagement (though we heard she actually stayed far longer than the rest of her team). While Glaser got plenty of laughs during her set, she might not have realized that she would get to see some comedy herself before she had to take off.

 

The first back and forth between Jeff and Susie started just after he mentioned Glaser’s requests. “Were any of you here last night?” Jeff asked the audience. “My wife said (to me), ‘That audience was really nice…because you played a lot of slow, sad songs.’” Without missing a beat, Susie replied audibly from her seat in the back of the room, “I didn’t say slow; I said low energy and depressing.” Jeff responded, “I know that, but I didn’t want to make you sound like that much of a bitch so I (cleaned) it up for you.” Realizing he may have dug himself a hole, Jeff added, “I’m sorry, honey. Fuck. This is why I am the man who you see in front of you.” Then he proceeded to dedicate the next song, Sign Of Life, to her, and got a hearty chuckle from the crowd when he emphasized the end of the lyric, “You still love me…right?”

 

The bickering continued after the song when Jeff playfully asked, “We good now, Susie?” To which she replied, “It sounds like a divorce song.” Jeff then teased, “Do you want a mike?” and pushed back on her comment, saying, “That’s not a divorce song. It’s a ‘renew our vows’ song.” He also reiterated how the first line of that song — “I hover/Above/BUY IT NOW” — is the “truest lyric I’ve ever written,” lamenting that “the Internet knows I want this thing. That’s not good.”

 

Yet another mini episode of “The Jeff and Susie Show” (I Love Susie?) would ensue after the apropos Please Be Patient With Me when Jeff shared that he had forgotten to bring his cell phone on stage with him. “Sometimes Susie texts me during a show when I’m playing by myself,” he said. “Sometimes she gives me encouragement…by telling me my hair looks weird. Boy, I’m in trouble.” A bit later in the show, after telling another longish story, Jeff reached out to his wife once again, asking, “Susie, are you still here?” She replied, almost in a tone of mock annoyance, “Great job. You’re doing great.” To which Jeff, once again playing the role of hapless husband, sheepishly told the audience, “I must be doing terrible for her to say that. Oh, shit,” and started to play You And I (natch).

 

During the encore when Jeff was joined by Sammy and Spencer on backing vocals for a run of mostly Twilight Override tunes, Jeff remarked to his sons that he “should’ve brought you guys out sooner. The vibe has definitely shifted.” Then he quipped, in a line that became famous on The Tweedy Show, “My wife grew them inside her body,” which naturally drew a round of applause from the audience. He added, “And I raised them…” Pause. Then avoiding further trouble, “…like those children that get lost in the woods and raised by a wolf.”

 

There were a number of other funny moments during the 20-song, 90-minute performance, of course. One came before New Madrid when Jeff was trying to figure out what to play — he joked that it was intimate rooms like Largo where he tried “to do songs nobody wants to hear. It’s a small audience. How bad could it hurt my career? I wouldn’t play these songs at the Hollywood Bowl. I’d give them the good shit.” — and a guy yelled out a request for New Madrid almost at the precise second Jeff had placed his capo in position and decided he was going to play that song. “Wow,” he said, seeming genuinely surprised. “Now I can’t play it.” Of course he did, but after an initial “smattering” of applause, he stopped and started it two more times while having a little bit of fun doing an Elvis (or is it José Feliciano?) imitation with a deep-voiced “Thank you very much” when the audience would cheer. Maybe you just had to be there to appreciate the humor in that bit.

 

Two other highlights included Pecan Pie, which Jeff played for his nephew Charles who was in attendance and cheered wildly — both for the song itself and when Jeff changed the lyric to “…a piece of fuckin’ pie,” as he always does when his nephew is in the audience — and the main set-closing Dreamer In My Dreams, which Jeff introduced by saying that he heard from someone the original Largo location on Fairfax Ave. “only played Disc 2 of Being There.” It had been nearly seven years since Jeff played Dreamer at a public show (he may have done it at a living room show, but it appears the last public performance was at one of the Vic Theatre benefits in 2019 if my minimal research is to be believed), so it was definitely a treat to hear that one.

 

In the end, Jeff wound up not repeating a single song from Night 1. I had said to a friend before the show that it would be so typical of Jeff to announce the previous night that he wasn’t going to do the “no repeats” thing for this run of shows and then do just that. Then again, almost from the outset tonight, he mentioned that he had played “one song too few” on Night 1 so he intended to play one extra song on Night 2 and joked that he wanted us to tell the audience from the previous night that he had atoned for the error. So, really, who knows what to expect on Nights 3 and 4? Can Jeff’s word be trusted about these sorts of things? Will we get more comic gold? I guess we’ll have to tune in to find out. Same Susie time, same Susie channel?

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 of Largo 2026:

1. Don’t Forget

2. Having Been Is No Way To Be

3. Sign Of Life

4. Please Be Patient With Me

5. Passenger Side

6. Sunlight Ends

7. Love Is For Love

8. Ambulance

9. Remember The Mountain Bed

10. You And I

11. New Madrid

12. Pecan Pie

13. Dreamer In My Dreams

    ---

    Encore:

14. Forever Never Ends (w/Spencer and Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals)

15. Amar Bharati (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

16. Ain’t It A Shame (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

17. Evergreen (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

18. Mirror (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

19. Throwaway Lines (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

20. Enough (w/Spencer and Sammy on backing vocals)

[Brian F.]

Thanks again for another fine writeup. The harmonies in the encore really were gorgeous. "Ain't It a Shame" was actually Sammy's call. Jeff seemed to be of a mind to play something else, but Sammy whispered in his ear, and Jeff then said, "Oh, you wanna do that one?," put down the guitar he had initially grabbed and picked up a different one.

 

I also enjoyed Jeff's nipping the "I'll Fight" guy in the bud by immediately shouting down the gentleman's loud annual request to hear that (great) song before he could persist (although there are two nights to go and the guy is indefatigable). We were taking bets in the line on Night One as to when the "I'll Fight" guy would first make his presence known. If you're out there, I'll Fight Guy, I suggest that you take a new tack and start trying to get Jeff to play "Let's Fight."

 

The performance of "Dreamer in My Dreams" brought back fond memories of Jeff closing out his initial four-night run at Largo in 2013 by singing a spirited rendition of that tune without amplification from the lip of the stage while being pawed at by several people who shall remain semi-anonymous. Alas, on a personal note, that sweet moment sooned turned bitter when I arrived home after that show and realized that I had food poisoning as a result of dinner at Norms on La Cienega. (Fun fact: Norms, like Ralphs, takes no apostrophe; the former forgoes the possessive apostrophe for aesthetic reasons, I presume; the latter is actually the surname of its founders, the Ralphs brothers.) Anyway, I stayed away from Norms for just over twelve years before finally venturing back in before last night's show. I'm happy to report that I made it through the night none the worse for wear.

[Albert Tatlock]

Another nice one. A two cuppa morning. Ta.

 

I'm a-talkin' 'bout the inane rambler
Everybody got to read
Well I'm a-talkin' 'bout the keyboard gambler
The one you spied in vids before
I'm readin' down the post so sadly
A-listen and you'll hear me groan
Well I'm a talkin' 'bout those US spellings
That stuff has really got to go
(Yeah c'mon)

 

Talkin' 'bout the inane rambler
The one you spied in vids before
I'm talkin' 'bout the grammar mangler
Did you see him not drop a 'u' at all
He don't give Jeff a hoot of warning
A-picking up those lyric woes
Flubs all in black and white next morning
As I split my time 'tween tea and prose

I'm tellin' 'bout the inane rambler
Documenting every rock 'n' roll show
Well, I'm a-talkin' 'bout the keyboard gambler
For everyone who didn't get to go
Oh, didn't go

 

Well, you heard about the Boston Global
He's freelance, he's not one of those
Talkin' 'bout VC's lead typist, shit!
Did you see him rush the gig queue door
He's called the setlist pedant, in anger
Or just a pencil sharpened, jotting Joe
Or just a note it all, banter recordist
But everybody really want to know

 

If you ever meet the inane rambler
As he's prowlin' round your concert hall
As he's movin' like a humble hack shambler
You should say, I told you so
If you lookout for the posted ramblings
Read them easy, easy, as you go
Or he'll smash up all your deluxe box sets
Put his fist through your bootleg store

 

Well I'm a-talkin' bout the inane rambler
The one you spied in vids before
Well I'm a-talkin' bout the keyboard gambler
D'you see him snatch a setlist off the floor
And if you ever catch the inane rambler
Steal your front row spot from under your nose
Go easy with your self entitled anger
He'll stick his pen right down your throat baby, and it hurts

 

(Three cups after my self imposed little writing exercise)