tblair
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Posts posted by tblair
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amazing, as ever.....
but!!!.........
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought it was too loud
some of the 'heavy' bits, where Nils and Jeff go off into one, were painful. I've always thought it was amazing how Wilco manage to create the dynamics, without overbearing levels of sound. We were sitting about half-way back, slightly to the side, in direct line of the pa, and it was just too loud. Even the quiter songs were really loud too. As that review says, it's a credit to the system that it never even got close to distorting, and Jeffs voacals sounded fantastic (and Glenns harmonies are ever improving).
I thought the pattern of quiet bit, very loud bit, bit of chaos thrown in for good measure was way overdone. I like the songs too.... Company In My Back, Hummingbird, they've never played On & On & On in London...
and Synthesiser Patel..?? what's that about? was it supposed to be funny?
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I had no problem at all with the pa, the quality was about as perfect as I could have hoped for really. A solo show is a good reminder of how great Jeff's voice is, and how good the songs are.
I'd only been back from Glastonbury for a couple of days (whch usually takes a few days to 'get over'), where 'no rules' is the only rule, so it was odd to take normality back in... ie, no (alcoholic) drinks in the venue. Not that I was intending to get rat-arsed for the show, far from it, but it's nice to have a beer while you're watching.
I wondered whether it was deliberate that he started with Someone Else's Song, as it was the last song he played (sans pa) at The Forum. Fantastic evening all round, just what my mind and body needed... already looking forward to the Festival Hall show
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Yeah, sad but true... European shows seem to be shorter and more usual with not so many seldom played songs, but I think London is different in some kind (and it's already sold out, isn't it?)
yes, Festival Hall has sold out with no advertising and months still to go!!... is something happening?
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They're not doing the super long, with acoustic mid-section, shows any more..???
Is it permanent? I was hoping for a long show at the Festival Hall.....
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Well I might have some sort of an explanation.
In recent years, I think they never played outside Paris. Most of the shows were excellent, one (at a venue called the Maroquinerie) was absolutely outstanding. One of the issues might be that a large part of the audience consisted in american people. Each time, Jeff did a little chatter routine like "hey, are there americans here tonight" and the response was always very loud, by far out-staging the 'local's' response. It might well be that the band thought "oh well, we like to play for americans, but isn't it what we do every other night of the year ? ».
Secondly, Jeff once said that it was kind of hard for them not to lose money when they play in France, because of some tax regulation. Seems like most of the time, the venues are not so big, and the deals they get from promoters aren't good enough to balance this tax problem.
Finally, the fact is they just DON'T SELL shit in France, no matter how hard they try (or maybe they should try and go all around the country to 'work' the crowds, but they would lose even more money, wouldn't they ?). I don't know why it is so, but it is : even when they got good press, it didn't change anything, they never broke through over here. Nobody seems to care, except for a bunch of us. You have to remember that the whole 'americana' movement had a hard time in this country back in the nineties. Bands like the Jayhawks, Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown, Steve Earle et all never made much of an impression. We prefered britpop, what are you gonna do ? It changed recently, but a little too late, and the result is that Wilco only has the reputation of being this "indy, quirky, post rock experimental krautrock weird sounding proto-prog band", which, I believe, DOES NOT seem very appealing to french record buyers.
Last november, they had a date in London and, two day later, a date in Brussels, Belgium. Between the two shows, they had a night off. Well, you need to know that the Eurostar brings you from London to Paris in two hours time. Then, Paris-Brussels by train is like 1h30. I'm sure they left this date free to try and secure a deal to play in Paris. Ultimately, nothing happened.
They must have taken a direct plane from London to Brussels…
the band I'm in played the Maroquinerie once. It was almost sold out, a fantastic place to play, but an absolute rip off. By the time we'd paid for the venue (!), and commissions, and travel costs (which were minimal), we ended up losing money....
in fact, Paris has always been a bastard to play. Some weird politics between agents, or some such, has meant we never made any money in Paris.
Is the New Morning still going? A couple of nights there would suit Wilco, I would have thought
(PS... aside from the politics, we've had some of our best shows ever in Paris, and France in general.
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Did anyone else not receive an email about this? I'm pretty sure I've subscribed to the Wilco and Nonesuch mailing lists on two email accounts and heard nothing. I only found out about the new dates because I made a post on a Glastonbury forum where you put your mp3 player on random, took the first ten artists and assessed their chances of playing there. Wilco were my 10th selection so I checked the site to see if it'd be probable. As far as I remember, I bought tickets for London X2 and Leeds last year from a pre-sale linked by an email from the mailing list. So to hear nothing and then see front row seats on ebay for stupid money is really annoying!
that's the same place I found out from... (efestivals?).. they're doing Non Such's job for them...
I haven't recieved an email yet, and I subscribed too
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soooo...
let's see
the pre-sale tickets on Sandbag (the ones at the front) were sold out before the link was up and running (how did that happen?). Then there's priority for members (of the South Bank) for 2 or 3 days, meaning the moment they're available to the general public all the best seats have already gone..?!!?
a bit annoying really...
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I've just booked tickets. I've gone for a balcony seat to get a nice view. I assume, on a first come first served basis, that this will be at the front of the balcony. Sometimes its preferable to be further back in terms of sound etc.
Bit pricy though. I thought they were gonna be about £20.
seen some of my favourite shows at the Festival Hall, and I can honestly say that I don't think the sound has ever been less than perfect
now I think about it, I don't think I've ever been upstairs though
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I'm sure there will be plenty of tickets available on the fifth. Its quite a big venue. Really looking forward to this show.
me too...
slightly disappointed about it being a seated venue... they don't seem to bring the best out of Jeff
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went in through google under search 'sandbag wilco tickets' and got in first time
Pricey though 37 quid plus fees etc.
???
that's mad...
how's anyone supposd to know that? I googled 'sandbag tickets'... obviously not good enough
still, I'm sure there'll be good seats left on the 5th
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How did anyone get any tickets then? Sandbag Tickets has had the same thing (ie: nothing..!) on it's site all morning
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"Talk amongst the internets the day after this sold-out Wilco show at The Forum was that it was one of their best AND worst performances…"
really...? i din't see anything anywhere negative about the show at all... where was this?...
and why on earth could it have concievably been described as the the worst??
very nice pics though...
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of all the Wilco shows I've been to, Sunken Treasure was THE best opener....
tears...
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I just knew that if there was a review, it would be 4 stars...
what's a 5 star show if that wasn't one?
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How many bands can go from pretty acoustic folk to Krautrock wig outs to gospel tinged bluesy rock to straight-ahead rock or pop and remain incredibly on and unified throughout the whole show? Amazing musicians, fantastically varied and melodic songs and a great dolefully funny front man in Jeff Tweedy.
I think the variety of styles is part of why they're not so well known in the uk... no journalist or dj can work without having a neat category to put an act in!
They've done Glastonbury a couple of times, and it's the same there.... they opened the Pyramid stage one Saturday to a very sparse audience... and when I talk to people about how amazing they are, they ask "what sort of music do they play?"...
it's Wilco music
saw tham last night in London, and they were as amazing as ever... we were talking on the way home about the kind of venues they play, and being selfish, it's quite good that they're not more famous, as we get the chance to see them in good sized venues with no problem getting tickets. I can't really imagine their subtleties getting over to an audience in an arena ....?
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there's 2 acts in the world who are head and shoulders above all the others... Bruce and Wilco
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Hi Tony! looks like you & the wife had a great view from up there!
Looking at the after shots, where you can see the surrounding city, has me craving a return trip to London.
yep, a perfect view. I don't usually like going upstairs, but I guessed there wouldn't be that cut-off feeling you get at some venues, and wasn't too sure how the view would be downstairs (unless you're at the barrier...)
I'll be downstairs for the Forum in November
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Canon G10.
Although quite a lot of my pictures were rubbish (blurred) due to :
- the lighting system was quite unusual. No front light, only from the ceiling. The band was mainly in the shade. Tough for the camera, even at high iso.
- it's nearly impossible to shoot a sharp picture of Nels (with a compact/bridge camera), he's always moving/shaking like he's got fleas running under his shirt
.Sam
those are great shots, especially given the lighting conditions...Jeff was pretty much in the shade for large chunks of the show. What were the lighting people doing??,.... were there any lighting people?
just noticed, me and my wife are in a couple of those shots of the upstairs after the show... in the blue t-shirt with my wife in black... -
Damn fine show last night. Really looking forward to tonights show.
I taped and it came out pretty good only with one major problem. When I got home I realised I had a loose mic cable so the right channel drops out quite a few times during the show. If anyone has the means and knowledge to repair this let me know.
I've sorted the problem with the mic cable so hopefully tonights recording will be more successful.
not sure if you can repair it very successfully. The best thing would be to patch the channel that has recorded into the 'vacant' channel where it's missing. If it's a stereo recording, it'll mean going into mono for those sections, but it'll be better than a whole channel going dead for those periods, and might not even be noticed without paying much attention.
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The guy who wrote the piece used to work for Wilco-loving Uncut magazine (was there from the start I believe - I met him once or twice) and before that was at Melody Maker.
I get irritrated by the 40-something men tag, there were many 20 somethings and up and a large female presence too.
I can understand the band 'identity' thing to a degree. Eclectic bands like Wilco are hard to pigeonhole and IMO the wider the swing in styles the more you'll suffer for it (in terms of reaching a wider audience) . Walken for example is far from being alt-rock and a million miles from Spiders or Deeper Down.
indeed...
I get the identity 'problem' too, up to a point. The people who have the biggest problem with it though are journalists (it makes them have to think about what they're actually writing
) and record companies who can't figure out which category to sell them as... thank god they found Nonesuch (and vice-versa). Artists shouldn't be wasting time worrying about how they could or should be categorised.I was also slightly surprised at how mixed the audience was, both in age and gender... what's he on about?
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Why does everything in life have to have two sides to it
?!the real problems come with not realising that there are (at least) 2 sides to everything..
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The Spice Girls dancing naked/Oasis not turning up?
I don't know and I don't care. This was one of the absolutely best Wilco shows I've seen, the guys seemed to burst with joy playing their surprise-packed set, the sound was good even in the front row, everything else was perfect too, so just ignore complete music illiterates like this guy.
I don't really care either. It always comes with mixed feelings when a band you like gets very popular. It's disappointing that it gets harder to get tickets, and the venues (usually) get bigger and less friendly, but I do like to see people who I think deserve it, get the recognition.
I think where Wilco is at the moment, in many ways, is pretty good. I'm sure they're making enough money to gey by (
), yet they still have the freedom (artistically and personally) that acts like U2 probably can't enjoy as much. I imagine a day when people ask me who I really like, and I answer "Wilco", that they won't say "who?"
Wilco -- 14/9/10, London, UK
in After The Show
Posted
as I said, the quality was great. Maybe it was just the position of my seat. But overall, I thought it was overly 'heavy'...
and I like heavy