Albert Tatlock Posted 21 hours ago Share Posted 21 hours ago As an aspiring Bbop minion, I hope his Supreme Majesty will delight in this entry made on his behalf - faithfully pasted from https://paulsuwan.substack.com/p/jeff-tweedy-7-january-2026-largo Any formatting mess-ups are mine. If his Holiness doesn't want potential future interference (no guarantees I will do it again mind after VC had another wobble) then please shout. And lo it came to pass that Bbop spake unto the VC community:- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I realize about a dozen people regularly read these little dispatches of mine and I feel quite confident in saying that none of them work at Largo, much less anyone who has a say in the pre-show music. But if I had any sway to make a cheeky suggestion, especially after tonight’s show, I think Scott Joplin’s ragtime classic The Entertainer would be a perfect choice to cue up just before Jeff takes the stage. (As an unabashed Billy Joel fan, I think an instrumental version of his song The Entertainer could work as well…but that’s another thought for another day.) On the third night of this four-night solo run, after a day off, Jeff put many of his skills as a song-and-story man on display — with some help from Spencer and Sammy — to regale an intimate audience of about 200. I think if you asked him, and he suggested as much, he would say that he is finally hitting his stride not only from a performance standpoint but also in terms of comfort level. Not that Jeff wasn’t comfortable the first two nights — or at any point in that room — but I think it does take him a couple of shows to really find his footing. Tonight, not even the surprising sound of a ringing cell phone (phones, cameras and other “electronic doodads” are strictly verboten inside the theater at Largo during performances, as the staff makes clear during the nightly pre-show announcements) could distract Jeff from demonstrating just how much he had been working on his playing of late. This all became apparent about halfway through the set, after Jesus, etc., when Jeff started showing off a few fancy runs up and down the fretboard on his guitar (and also adopting some goofy poses while doing said runs). I forget exactly how it started, but I think he was just kind of stalling a bit, trying to figure out what song to play next and it went from there. “I’ve been practicing…can you tell?” Jeff asked the audience, which began to laugh in part because of the exaggerated poses and faces Jeff was making. “I don’t know what you’re laughing at. That’s all I want to do now.” He continued, joking that the reaction to his fancy playing “is not how I pictured all this practicing paying off. Back to the woodshed. Fuck you guys.” Then he started to field a flurry of requests, including I’ll Fight Guy annoyingly making his presence known yet again, before a certain Largo and Tweedy regular — and ahem, longtime Via Chicago contributor…note: I’m not referring to myself — in the front row got through with a perfect suggestion in Acuff-Rose. (Amusingly, Jeff looked over to the side of the stage where one of his Kel Kroydon guitars was sitting and asked guitar tech Ashwin if it was in open G tuning. Ashwin dutifully brought the guitar to him and Jeff tested it out before joking that he “just wanted to make sure.” Ashwin started to come back over to take the guitar away again, but Jeff waved him off.) After once again showing off his considerable finger-picking chops on the outro of Acuff, Jeff pridefully proclaimed himself “Jeffy Strings,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to the bluegrass wunderkind Billy Strings. Then after a second Jeff added, seriously, “That guy’s amazing.” He then continued with the Kel Kroydon for one more song, Dreamer In My Dreams, despite some initial hesitation about playing it. And so it was that we got the first repeated song of the run so far. Personally, I never tire of hearing Dreamer, especially since it’s been performed so rarely in recent years. Another indication, perhaps, of Jeff’s comfort level on this night was that he seemed to forget (or just didn’t care about) the ritual of an encore entirely. Whereas he had waited until going off stage and returning to bring out Spencer and Sammy to sing with him during the first two shows of this run, tonight Jeff never left the stage, instead announcing that he was going to “play some songs with my kids, if they’re still around.” The Tweedy trio subsequently launched into an extended batch of tunes from Jeff’s most recent two solo albums, Love Is The King and Twilight Override. Two of them were repeats from previous nights, Amar Bharati and the show-closing Lou Reed Was My Babysitter, though we also got plenty of “fresh” material, including New Orleans and the gorgeous title track of the current record. “We’ve got so many songs that we know,” Jeff told the crowd. Then it was just a matter of figuring out what to play next, which Jeff said must be “painful” for the audience to have to endure. But Spencer consoled his dad, saying, “I think they come for the indecision.” While this was going on, Jeff continued to play around with different guitar riffs, while Spencer even did a little routine that harkened back to the “hambone” dance that he demonstrated a little earlier when there wasn’t really a harmony part for him to sing on Save It For Me. It was all very funny, though you probably had to be there to fully appreciate it. As always with these Largo shows, there are far too many little moments and visits to Banter Corner to fully recount here. But I will just say that from the outset of Night 3, Jeff seemed to be pretty focused on putting on a good show. He even joked that he felt badly for the audiences at the first two shows because “this one’s already off to a way better start,” and wondered if this crowd would remain engaged even as he started to play another very long, slow song (One Sunday Morning) after having opened with one (Feel Free). The answer was yes, and even stayed that way after he played “a sad song” (Everlasting Everything) that had people chuckling at the sheer bleakness of lyrics such as “Everything alive must die” and “Every building built to the sky must fall.” “I’ve played a lot of parties; I know how to entertain,” Jeff deadpanned after Everlasting. “I dunno, as one guy with an acoustic guitar, I’ve been put in front of a lot of audiences I shouldn’t have been in front of.” Jeff then asked the audience members if they knew who Sierra Ferrell is (for those who don’t, I liken her to sort of the Chappell Roan of bluegrass) and told a funny anecdote about having to play solo after her at a Canadian folk festival. Standing off to the side of the stage with his friend Scott McCaughey watching Ferrell’s set, which apparently included some crazy costume changes and people going wild, Jeff said he remarked to Scott, “I don’t know how I’m gonna follow this.” To which Scott replied, according to Jeff: “Not gonna lie, it looks pretty grim.” Jeff concluded the story by sarcastically declaring, “I blew her off the stage,” before adding, “(There were) a lot of confused people.” By my count, Jeff uttered the phrase “I know how to entertain” at least three separate times during tonight’s show. And I’d say he accomplished that and then some during his 19-song, 93-minute set, which also included anecdotes about the apartment he once shared with his bandmates in Uncle Tupelo, adventures at the nearby Farmer’s Market and a nonagenarian limerick-writing family friend, among other subjects, that I don’t even have the wherewithal to get into here. Combined with director/comedian Judd Apatow’s very amusing opening set, I’d say the vast majority of those in the room tonight probably went home with an affirmative response to that famous rhetorical movie line from Gladiator, “Are you not entertained?” Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 at Largo 2026: Feel Free Better Song I Am My Mother Gwendolyn One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) Everlasting Everything A Lifetime To Find Jesus, etc. Acuff-Rose Dreamer In My Dreams You Are Not Alone Half-Asleep (w/Spencer and Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals) Amar Bharati (w/Spencer and Sammy) New Orleans (w/Spencer and Sammy) A Robin Or A Wren (w/Spencer and Sammy) Save It For Me (w/Spencer and Sammy) Cry Baby Cry (w/Spencer and Sammy) Twilight Override (w/Spencer and Sammy) Lou Reed Was My Babysitter (w/Spencer and Sammy) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And mighty is his word. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bböp Posted 16 hours ago Share Posted 16 hours ago 4 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said: As an aspiring Bbop minion, I hope his Supreme Majesty will delight in this entry made on his behalf - faithfully pasted from https://paulsuwan.substack.com/p/jeff-tweedy-7-january-2026-largo Any formatting mess-ups are mine. If his Holiness doesn't want potential future interference (no guarantees I will do it again mind after VC had another wobble) then please shout. And lo it came to pass that Bbop spake unto the VC community:- Is this what AI Tatlock looks like? And if so, what is AI Tatlock’s general disposition? Better than that Hal, I hope… Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Albert Tatlock Posted 15 hours ago Author Share Posted 15 hours ago I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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