Review: Jeff Tweedy shares songs, Oreos at first of four Largo gigs

Near the end of the first of Jeff Tweedy’s four-night residency at Largo in Los Angeles, the Wilco founder started discussing the set like he was doing a post-game interview.

“There wasn’t anything left to give,” he wryly observed, phlegmy and on the verge of a cold with a throat that over the evening had started to break. “I feel like I left my best stuff out there on the field,” he added.

He was kidding, but the Chicago-based rock/folk/country guitarist and songwriter had a point. Through a set of solo acoustic versions of some of his most admired songs -- including “Via Chicago,” “Heavy Metal Drummer,” “Passenger Side” and “California Stars” (his adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s lyric) -- the singer on Sunday burned the best of his energy before an intimate and wonderfully respectful crowd of 130.

“I am an American aquarium drinker, I assassin down the avenue,” sang Tweedy to open “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” his and Wilco’s career-defining kickoff to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Working one of a few acoustic guitars that he juggled throughout the performance, Tweedy offered a skeletal adaptation of a song that on record contains instrumental multitudes and shifting time signatures.

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Early on he noted the challenges of such adaptation. Tweedy, after all, over his nearly 20 years in Wilco has built a thrilling collection of instrumentalists who can maneuver, add depth and soar through an impressive catalog. “Some of these songs don’t sound very good like this,” he observed while introducing “Pot Kettle Black.” “You’ll see what I mean.”

He was sort of right. The bigger songs in his arsenal -- “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” and “Dawned on Me” among them -- were well-performed but at times their parts seemed to be fashioned together with crisscrossed thread.

More revealing were some of Tweedy’s earlier songs, from his time spent in the influential country rock band Uncle Tupelo and in later pickup groups Golden Smog and Loose Fur.

In his early performances of “Wait Up,” one of his first stabs at center stage as he was shifting from bass to guitar in Uncle Tupelo, he used to deliver the meditative acoustic line as though he might get bucked off at any moment. Many years and thousands of miles later, Tweedy moved through it with the fluid grace of a musician fully connected to his instrument, precisely attuned and able to maneuver unimpeded.

Largo at the Coronet is a perfect venue to absorb such nuance. Its strict rules -- cellphones off, no photos, no talking -- fosters an intimate intensity far removed from the chaotic, attention-deficient venues that have become the norm. It’s the difference between seeing a movie in a theater and in a playroom while toddlers are fighting over toys. Minus clanking glasses, rude mumbles and intrusive screens, the songs filled the room: a man and his music, no more, no less.

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Such intimacy fostered a relaxed vibe that suggested Tweedy had internalized Largo’s standing as a favorite for stand-up comics as well. As the singer dipped through his repertoire -- pared-down takes on “Jesus, Etc.,” “She’s a Jar,” “Someday Soon” -- he offered banter that included lighthearted complaints about earlier crowds.

He called out one Santa Barbara fan’s annoying one-clap mid-song reactions and recalled shoving Cheez-Its into another’s mouth to make her shut up (it worked). He intimated that during his San Francisco gigs, the crowd let it be known how much they disliked Los Angeles -- then told us we were a much better group.

Tweedy took his fond feelings further during an encore that highlighted the evolution of his voice from the early “Misunderstood” to “California Stars” and “Passenger Side” by acknowledging the blossoming of true love that had occurred over the evening. Despite his cold, this had been a transformative experience, he said.

“How am I ever going to feel this close to anyone again?” Then, waving through the ovation, Tweedy added an exclamation point: He cracked open a package of Oreo cookies, handed them to his fans and said farewell.

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