Jeff Tweedy was taken aback by something innocuous, precisely because of how innocuous it was. During a lull between songs at The Belasco in downtown Los Angeles on Friday night, a fan in the crowd at the Wilco frontman’s show shouted, simply, “Music!”
“Did you just say ‘music’?” Tweedy asked, lightly incredulous, with a laugh.
Little did that fan know, his innocuous shout would become a meme—really, the meme of the evening—for how plainly true it was. Indeed, this particular Tweedy bird would unwittingly turn the 1,500-capacity room into a pandemonium of parrots because, well, they were all there for exactly that.
And music is exactly what Tweedy and his close-knit band provided at the outset of the California leg of the Twilight Override Tour. With his sons, Sammy and Spencer Tweedy, by his side—along with neighborhood kids-turned-bandmates in Macie Stewart, Sima Cunningham, and Liam Kazar—the 58-year-old Illinois boy guided the audience through his latest solo album, 2025’s Twilight Override, along with select songs from both his solo catalogue and that of his band Tweedy, whose core consists of Jeff and Spencer.
After Macie’s sweet opening set, Tweedy and his full band began their proceedings with the opening quartet of songs off the latest release. From the natural spirit of “One Tiny Flower” and the wistful L.A. memories of “Caught Up In The Past”, to the spoken-word internal musings of “Parking Lot”, Tweedy didn’t waste any time bringing his core artistic self to bear on the performance.
Come “Forever Never Ends”, he invoked something of a younger self, when Andy briefly left his multi-instrumental post to sing the chorus at center stage.
From that point on, Tweedy seemed to loosen, letting his dry wit and self-effacing personality shine under a dim spotlight. He laid to rest any hopes of Wilco songs seeping into the setlist when he teased older material “but not as old as some of you probably hoped” en route to “Low Key” and “World Away”, from the 2014 Tweedy album Sukierae. He shared a silly story about his struggles with Sharpies—a peek at his “inner dialogue”—and warned the crowd that there would be a “quiet” song incoming, and that they should hush themselves accordingly, before strolling into “Stray Cats in Spain”. Tweedy gave the audience a similar heads-up prior to “New Orleans”, facetiously hoping that a slower moment wouldn’t give attendees an excuse to raid the bar.
Though he quipped about being the same combined age as the bandmates he’d known since their respective childhoods, Tweedy seemed to have the most fun of anyone playing with his various guitar-shaped toys. Between his Gibson Signature SG electric, Jolana Iris, a selection of Fenders, and his many acoustics (Gibson and Martin alike), he kept his guitar tech plenty busy. But no piece of equipment appeared to bring Tweedy as much joy—or draw as much of a reaction from the crowd—as his blue Kawai Moonsault, which he busted out for the Tweedy song “Flowering”.
Along the way, Tweedy and his band seamlessly dipped in and out of his freshest material, as if it had been woven into his catalogue for years. The vibe shift from “Mirrors” to “Western Clear Skies” was no more pronounced than that which ensued into “Having Been Is No Way To Be”, from 2018’s WARM, or between the electrified “Gwendolyn” and sweetly acoustic “Love Is The King”, off the 2020 album named after the latter.
For all that Tweedy did to nod to his extensive non-Wilco discography—including the drum-heavy psychedelia of “Diamond Light, Pt. 1”—Twilight Override dominated the night, and rightfully so. With its 30 tracks spread across three discs, it offered no shortage of splendid material for the band to bring to life. Even their best efforts managed to lend life to only half of the album, with “No One’s Moving On” joining with the quotable “Feel Free” and the lively “Lou Reed Was My Babysitter”, with its catchy refrain of “The dead don’t die,” at end of the main set.
The encore occasioned the return of “Music!” as a full-blown, Belasco-wide chant to draw the band back onstage. Once the evening’s main meme subsided, Tweedy and company settled back in with “Family Ghost”, which they dedicated to the entire crowd after using it to honor stray Americans at their most recent European shows.
From there, the band launched into its nightly ritual (at least on this tour) of one-time-only covers from artists local to the venue’s city. In the case of L.A., Tweedy and company chose Beck’s “Loser”—led by Sammy on the classic hip-hop-style vocals—and Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into The Fire”, with Jeff rocking out back in the lead.
The show then ended in the same way as the album it was billed to promote: with the song “Enough”, in all of its abrupt glory. The band walked offstage to cheers, with some members hoping for more chants of “Music!” to see them off.
Not that they were in for much of a post-performance trek. Tweedy and his group would be back in downtown L.A. the next night, for much the same show (except the encore) at the United Theater. Come Sunday, they will head up Interstate 101 to entertain more fans by the beach at the Majestic Ventura Theater, before continuing on to Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Napa, and Redding, with dates in the Pacific Northwest bridging March and April.
Wherever he goes, one thing is certain: Jeff Tweedy will bring plenty of music with him.
And now, perhaps, even some such chants to boot.
Jeff Tweedy – “Loser” (Beck) – 3/20/26
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(Video: fernando perdomo)
Jeff Tweedy – “Jump Into The Fire” (Harry Nilson) – 3/20/26
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(Video: fernando perdomo)
