Father John Misty has covered The Who, Neil Young, The Magnetic Fields and others at a benefit show in California – watch below.
The singer-songwriter – real name Josh Tillman – played a pair of shows at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel-By-The-Sea as a benefit for the Big Sur Park School on Thursday and Friday (December 18 and 19), something he has done for the last three years.
The Friday show saw Tillman play a run of six covers – namely Dory Previn’s ‘The Lady With The Braid’, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s ‘I See A Darkness’, Gillian Welch’s ‘April The 14th Part 1’, The Who’s ‘Blue, Red And Grey’, Neil Young’s ‘Ambulance Blues’ and The Magnetic Fields’ ‘Epitaph For My Heart’.
He also played a new song to open the encore, which is reportedly inspired by his daughter’s love of The Beatles and the moment that she learned that John Lennon and George Harrison had died. He also played ‘Leaving LA’ for the first time since 2019.
Watch footage here:
Father John Misty’s set on December 19:
‘I Love You, Honeybear’
‘Nancy From Now On’
‘Only Son Of The Ladiesman’
‘Chateau Lobby #4 (In C For Two Virgins)’
‘Mr. Tillman’
‘Funny Girl’
‘Tee Pees 1-12′
‘Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose’
‘In Twenty Years Or So’
‘Mahashmashana’
‘The Lady With The Braid’
‘I See A Darkness’
‘April The 14th Part 1’
‘Blue, Red And Grey’
‘Ambulance Blues’
‘Epitaph For My Heart’
[new song]
‘Leaving LA’
‘I’m Writing A Novel’
Father John Misty has also been announced for LIDO Festival in London next summer, joining a bill also including CMAT, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory and Katy J Pearson. Find tickets for that event here.
His sixth album ‘Mahashmashana’ was released in November 2024 and scored a four-star review from NME, which stated: “As a result, the lush ‘Mahashmashana’ doesn’t quite mainline the zeitgeist in the same way that ‘Honeybear’ and ‘Pure Comedy’ did. Then again, there’s something to be said, in 2024, for logging off in favour of self-reflection. On the swooning ‘Mental Health’, Misty rejects the hive mind, concluding that his own particular “insanity” is “indispensable”. Whoever the folk he is underneath that beard, the good Father can’t help but share words of wisdom.”
