melkveg

I was at the show in MKE and the sound at The Rave generally is terrible. If you think it was bad for Wilco, think of how bad it will be when hard rock/metal bands play there. However, the sound guy can only do so much. Since there's so much stuff for the sound to bounce off of in that place, it's almost impossible to get the vocals in that place clear or have a quality mix. It's oval, the roof has two separate ovals in it, there are marble columns all over, there's a balcony with chairs and tables, the floor is wood, the walls are masonry, etc., etc.

Now despite the crap, and coming from a guy who's been to every Wilco show at the Rave (upstairs in the ballroom and downstairs in the smaller equally crappy sounding venue) this was by far the best sound mix I've heard and the tightest I've ever seen the band. They were white hot at points. I scored the set list, which was deviated from only in the second encore where Casino Queen was substituted for What Light. Probably given the frenzy the crowd was in, it was a good decision. This would be a fantastic show to have on disk. A great start to this segment of the fall tour.

They need to play in the Riverside. I saw Ryan Adams there in Sept. and the sound quality was fantastic and his band was equally as white hot.

Face

Heart

Pot Kettle

War

Handshake

Seeds

Shot

Impossible

Sky

Too Far Apart

Jesus

Hate it Here

Walken

I'm the Man

Hummingbird

1st Encore

Hesitating

HMD

Cali Stars

2nd Encore

Casino Queen instead of What Light

Red Eyed/I Got You

Outtasite

3rd Encore

Someone Elses Song (solo acoustic no mic)

Spiders

-30-

Wilco was ALWAYS the Jeff Tweedy Band, the same as Son Volt is the Jay Farrar band. At least Wilco still has John. Wilco and Son Volt are both the reflection of and the creation of their leaders.

 

LouieB

You make a good point, although I think that Jay Bennett had more of a creative role in writing lyrics and music in Wilco before he was booted. Jay Farrar wrote all the lyrics and music for Son Volt.

I was at the Summerfest show a week or so ago and thought that the band was in pretty fine form for the version that it's in now. I've seen about 10 Wilco shows over the years spanning most of their output, including Summerfest, The Rave in Milwaukee and various venues in Madison, Chicago, Amsterdam when I was there for work purposes (last European show of the YHF tour, and it was awesome), and Minneapolis, and I must say that I just am not into them in this new version as much anymore. And that doesn't mean that Wilco isn't good, it's just different. Glenn's a great drummer/percussionist, although Kenny was good too, just not as diverse. Wilco has evolved so much that to me, it really isn't the same band I've enjoyed all these years. I have a great live CD from one of their European tours called "She's a German" and that era, to me, is the most enjoyable era all the way up to YHF. I really liked the Billy Bragg collaboration as well. They do miss Jay Bennett (who is doing his own thing and has a site on myspace.com for those that are interested), and I'm sorry, while Nels sounds fine and is a quality guitarist on the new electronica that they seem to be putting out now, he really can't cut it on the pre-Ghost stuff. The guy they really miss as well is Leroy Bach. There always seem to be some shots taken here at Jay Farrar as well, for no good reason. He and Jeff Tweedy are two guys with a common past who now have divergently different musical viewpoints. Son Volt is now a guitar driven alt-country rocker. I've seen Farrar four different times alone, with Canyon as his backing band, and the old and new Son Volt. He's just not a chatter box like Tweedy is, but that doesn't make him or his music any less impactful. Farrar just doesn't seem to give a crap about whether there are 1000 people or 10 people at the show. He plays the music he wants to play and if you like it, fine, if you don't, he really doesn't care. As far as popularity, Wilco really isn't Wilco anymore. You have two original members, Jeff and John. To me, Wilco now is basically the Jeff Tweedy band. See what kind of crowd there'd be at the shows if this was called what it actually is, The Jeff Tweedy band. Wilco's musical style is hard to define now. I guess all the rambling here leads to my conclusion that I like the band enough to be a member of this site but after the Summerfest 06 show, I don't know if the recent past and the future of the band is something that I'll follow anywhere near as closely as I once did.