Cass McCombs - Saturday, April 11, 2026 - The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA (West Hollywood)

Priestess 

Miss mabee

Asphodel 

Dogie

Home at last (Cass on acoustic, Sasha Vine accompanying on violin)

Missionary Bell (Cass on acoustic)

Peace (Cass on acoustic)

Juvenile (Cass on keys)

Trains (Cass on keys)

Dawn (Cass on keys, Sasha Vine on violin and Meg Duffy on Stratocaster accompanying)

Big wheel 

Nature

Opium flower 

Comedian 

Bum bum bum 

Dream girl

Sleeping volcanoes 

Encore:

County line

Bobby

Setlist courtesy of me, via Paddy Dale, who got one for both of us! This one was Bones’s. Paddy got Betancourt’s.

It was so nice to be back at the Troubadour - I don’t think I had been there since I was in high school! It’s such a small venue, and well kept, with character and a nice balcony.

Bones again busted a string during this set, but he took Cass’s Telecaster to play while Meg swooped in to take restring Bones’s Gibson SG. I guess Cass was on keys or acoustic when this happened — details tba!

I sat in the front row of the balcony and the band sounded AWESOME up there. I kept seeing Paddy down in the front having a ball and while part of me wanted to be down there, it just sounded too good and was too chill in the balcony to descend. I hope they knew I was still there. Every time Cass played an oldie, Paddy turned around and gestured to me and I gestured back. I almost felt like Cass was playing Nature FOR Paddy, since he had yelled it out the night before. I remember Nature from the 2019 tour, where I think CM played it at Seattle if not elsewhere, and I probably wrote about it on this blog — how he could hit those high notes so well all these years after A first came out.

Almost every tune people yelled out the night before, Cass played this night - Nature, Comedian, Dreams come true girl. What am I going to yell out next time? Name Writ in Water? Better cheat death than fool love? Wheel of Fortune?

We walked back to our rental dancing the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, buzzing with the electricity of the show but also feeling that familiar comedown… What do you do when the four nights you can finagle away from work come to an end? Make a life worth writing a song about…

Cass McCombs - Friday, April 10, 2026 - The Lodge Room, Los Angeles, CA (Highland Park)

Priestess 

Miss Mabee

Asphodel 

Dogie

Home at last (Cass on acoustic and Sasha Vine accompanying on violin)

Missionary Bell (Cass on acoustic)

Harmonia (Cass on acoustic)

Juvenile (Cass on keys)

I Never Dream About Trains (Cass on keys)

Dawn (Cass on keys and Meg Duffy accompanying on guitar with the pill bottle slide)

Big wheel 

Music is blue

I am not ashamed 

Bum bum bum 

Volcanoes

Encore:

County line

Sacred heart 

Setlist courtesy of Paddy Dale! Who got it from the drummer, Austin Vaughn. He waited patiently at the front of the stage long after the show concluded and finally asked, to which Austin responded “I guess” and handed it to him. It’s very cool to see Vaughn’s annotations for how to play each song.

Well this show was awesome because my superfan equal Paddy Dale was there and we were texting and getting amped up about it all day while I drove down from SF with Chris. Also Christie came! I was in the second line of front-row people which was cool —took some pressure off being right in the front but I could still give face. However, the next night… I def wanted to hear the fuller sound of being further back. It’s so rad to be in the front and bring the energy, dance, holler, give face… but it also distorts the sound. We heard Cass’s amp and didn’t hear Bones’s guitar as much. We loved Harmonia and Sacred Heart of course! Which I am listening to on vinyl this very moment.

Cass McCombs - Thursday, April 9, 2026 - The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

The above setlist is incorrect because Mike Bones busted a string shredding so hard on Dogie, he had to exit the stage to go restring. Cass and Betancourt did Missionary Bell then Bones and Vaughn rejoined on stage to carry on with Home At Last.

Priestess 

Miss Mabee

Asphodel 

Dogie

Missionary bell (Cass acoustic with bass accompaniment)

Home at last (Cass acoustic)

Peace (Cass acoustic)

Juvenile (Cass on keys)

Trains (Cass on keys)

Mother and father (Cass on keys)

Meet me here at dawn (Cass on keys, accompaniment with Meg Duffy on guitar with pill bottle slide)

Big wheel 

Music is blue 

Opium flower 

Bum bum bum

Sleeping volcanoes

Encore:

County line

That's That

Setlist courtesy of me! It was Betancourt’s. I grabbed it off the stage at the conclusion of the encore. Early in the show I could tell it said That’s That would be the last song of the encore and I was beside myself with excitement — every song is my favorite song but that one is really one of my favorites. I also really, really appreciated Mother and Father… that one reminds me of late 2009 when my mom came to live with me in San Francisco and I was working on the poems in my MFA thesis. I would stay up late to grab the only alone time I could, listening to that song on my headphone over and over in the dark living room. Unlike the speaker of the song, I still had my mom and what a heavy burden to accept her into my home at age 26 after being estranged from her most of my teenage years. Library doors are locked… I could relate to this when I lived in Amsterdam and had no where to go, and now I see it every day at my work.

Speaking of my work, I had made about 15 earthday poetry zines at my bimonthly zine social the evening of the show, and I had brought them to give to the band. I successfully handed them off to Meg from Hand Habits at the merch table and they said they would make sure they got distributed around! The next night in Los Angeles Meg said they’d loved the zines. After Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Humble Bee and by me! Kelci M. Kelci.

Cass McCombs - Tuesday, April 7, 2026 - The Mystic Theater, Petaluma, CA

Priestess 

Miss Mabee

Asphodel 

Dogie

Home at last (Cass on acoustic)

Missionary Bells (Cass on acoustic)

Peace (Cass acoustic)

Juvenile (Cass on keys)

Never Dream About Trains (Cass on keys)

Big Wheel

Music is blue 

I am not ashamed 

Bum bum bum 

Rounder (jam out into —> )

Sleeping volcanoes

Encore:

County line (Sasami on french horn)

Bobby king of boys town.

Setlist courtesy of some other fans that grabbed it off the stage! It was from the bassist, Betancourt.

A friend of the guy who got the setlist was a chick who fancied herself a superfan like me, yet she was not making it to the SF show the next night because her kids were “cramping her style.” She wanted CM and band to take up some Grateful Dead inspired touring, replete with deadhead-esque followers so she could do the groupie thing… I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d done that in 2019 (or that I’d been listening for nearly 20 years to her 8). Endearingly she said she wanted to take me with her when she was leaving.

At this show we also met CM’s Uncle Bob and Aunt Julie! Who were sitting at a table in front of us in the seating area, and who were invited backstage by CM before the show started. A hometown show in that regard.

I kept my seat at that table until Big Wheel, at which point I absolutely could not resist going down to the front to dance—thankfully there was plenty of space!

A great way to kick off four nights of the GOAT…