Rusty Shackleford

I had a great time at the show last night.  There was some crowd silliness but not too much.  After Jeff remarked that the crowd seemed to want a singalong, he deliberately played Passenger Side and Jesus Etc because both are singalong songs.

But he also pivoted from those to Ashes and Muzzle of Bees, neither of which is particularly singalong-friendly.  I think it was his subtle way of taking back the direction of the show, and it worked.

It was also funny when someone shouted a couple of requests.  I didn’t hear all of them but one was California Stars.  Jeff said something to the effect of, “I’m not going to play those tonight.  I think a lot of folks here have heard me play those a bunch, so I’m going to play some different stuff.”  I for one appreciated his response there.  I don’t need all B-sides or anything, but variety is great.  

I wonder if part of it is about being easier on the crew.  This tour seems to be pretty rough on them, and maybe a static set list is easier to prep for?  I too hope they get more varied the next time out.

I tried playing mine last night.   The Wilco side sounds great.  The S-K side has a visible flaw in the vinyl so it skips horribly.  I don’t want to play it any more or it could get further damaged.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Any ideas about getting an exchange?

Yes, Merriweather is one of the few shed-type venues not owned by LiveNation, and has wisely (IMHO) avoided diluting the brand with sponsorships.  IMP does a great job with all their venues.

Thanks as always for the full recap.  I’ve been to Merriweather several times and always liked it even though it’s a pretty basic shed.  This was my first time there since the new construction and I was pretty impressed by the whole setup.  Parking was easy, restrooms clean and plentiful, what more can one ask?

It helped that the weather was gorgeous.  The forecast had been for yet more rain but by show time it was perfectly clear and yet miraculously not hot either.

I was about 5 rows behind the pit, dead center.  The sound was really muddy for S-K’s set, partly because the place was still at most half-full.  I put my fancy earplugs in and got much clearer sound that way.  I was disappointed for S-K having to play to a much-less-than-full house, but they put on a great show for those who showed up to see them.

Wilco seemed to be in good spirits.  No big surprises on the set list, but it was cool to see them power through as many hits at the end as they could squeeze in.  I had a direct view of the big red digital clock just off stage and kept an eye on it as curfew approached.  The band took their guitars off at the end of California Stars, exactly 11 seconds before 11 pm.  That, my friends, is a well-oiled rock and roll machine.  
 

Thanks for posting the S-K set lists.  I’m seeing the show at Merriweather next week and never seen Sleater-Kinney.  I like the new record but hope they keep adding some old classics.

It came as a download with the Ashes of American Flags DVD. I was lucky enough to be at this show.

It's tough to argue against your choices, but I'm going to go out on a limb by putting KT somewhere towards the middle of the ranking. I hope I'm not flamed for that, what with me being foreign and all and therefore perhaps with a different musical heritage and take on things. 

KT does not belong anywhere on this list. 

And even though I've only heard a few songs, Ode to Joy belongs at the very bottom.

Was that the tour they were doing those Glen Campbell songs?

Yes, they played Wichita Lineman a few times.  They released one of the live versions as a B-side, or maybe a Christmas single.

Don't get your hopes up, Tom said they only mixed these 3 songs and specifically for the demo, there are no plans to release them.

Dang.

I didn't get to the installation at Solid Sound, but it makes me hopeful that they'll include 5.1 mixes on future "deluxe" editions of Summerteeth and YHF (and everything else for that matter).

The official store just put Summerteeth CDs/LPs on sale for the 20th anniversary.  I take it this means no deluxe edition?

I'll hold out hope for the full-album set at Solid Sound.

Cell service hasn't been a problem, although if I'm going on a long trip I may download a few albums before I go, or bring the big ipod.

I used Google Play music for awhile, but found it was glitchy on Mac/iOS.  Actual playback worked well, but the navigation/interface was difficult.  It kept putting duplicates of albums in my account, and would do annoying stuff like combining the Beatles' and Replacements' "Let It Be" into one album, or swapping album artwork.  And reissues seemed to blow its mind.  Hard to complain when it's free, though.

I've been using iTunes Match for a year now and I really like it.  It's $25 a year, so much less expensive than most streaming services.  It keeps my entire iTunes music library in the cloud, including live shows etc., and I can organize it however I want.  The downsides compared to a big iPod are that it uses cellular data if not on WiFi, and it limits quality to 256 kbps, but those are okay tradeoffs for $25 a year.

More details, courtesy of Bull Moose Records.

http://www.bullmoose.com/p/26044477/wilco-being-there-5cd

http://www.bullmoose.com/p/26044475/wilco-am-deluxe-edition

A.M. looks like the original record plus 8 bonus tracks.

BT is as described above.

Color me excited for both.

Yep. That was a kick-ass rock show. Those guys were on fire tonight.

Saw the show at Lincoln Theatre in DC last weekend and thought it was terrific.  They played almost all of the new album, plus half of Rainy Day Music, and then a song or two off every other album since Hollywood Town Hall (except Mockingbird Time, which Gary has disowned and nobody missed).  They sounded great, especially Gary's guitar. He's not Nels Cline, but he can still shred pretty good.

The opener Folk Uke was also worth showing up early for, if anyone has tix to the next few shows.  Folk Uke is Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson, daughters of Arlo and Willie, playing ukelele and guitar.  They sing simple, beautiful folk harmonies with really raunchy lyrics--think Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch singing songs from a South Park episode.  It was better than it probably sounds on paper.  Plus, they covered California Stars, which Cathy introduced as written by her grandfather and Wilco. 

I like it a lot so far.  As some reviewers have said, it has a couple of great R.E.M.-like songs on it--better than most of R.E.M.'s last few records for sure.  I love the songs with Buck's guitar and/or Mills's backing vocals.  Looking forward to seeing these songs live next month.

I have my whole library--probably around 20,000 songs--on Google Play, too.  I'm not wild about the Google Play interface, and I'm also not a huge fan of streaming on the go due to network performance and stinginess on data, but it's real convenient when I'm on wifi and it sounds just fine.  And of course, the price is right.

I still have a 160GB iPod classic as well, but I pretty much only use it on long road trips.

Dark Neon - a head shop that specializes in black lights.

I Must Be High - Dark Neon's fiercest competitor across town

We're Just Friends - We break up with your significant other, so you don't have to!

Why Would You Wanna Live - World's worst suicide-prevention hotline

How to Fight Loneliness - a dating service

I was wondering whatever happened to that video project.  Glad to hear it will be out soon.

I have it on CD, and the remaster is fine.  It doesn't sound much different from the original, but at least it's not offensive like some others.  The demos are interesting early takes on some of the Trace songs, but the live show is what makes the package really worthwhile.  It's a much better sounding show than the other live material he's put out lately from the same period (Artifacts and Son Volt 1999).  I think it's worth getting, but I'm a sucker for these things.

In fairness to Jay, the interview was about the recording of Trace, which was over 20 years ago.  In revisiting that time, it would be weird *not* to talk about how the breakup of Uncle Tupelo affected him personally and professionally.

If anyone has a chance to see the current "Trace" tour, BTW, I highly recommend it. I saw the first show last night at the Birchmere and it was outstanding.  Love that pedal steel.

I was bummed cause I tried via the Ticketmaster app which I usually have great luck with and when I logged on at 11 on the dot, I was informed that they weren't selling via the app - so I missed my shot at good seats.  bummer!

I got that message for DC at first on the app, but then it started working a minute or two later, and I ended up with better seats on the app than the web site.  Clearly they're still working out the kinks.

I found the Ticketmaster web site to be unhelpful.  The default screen was to select my own seats, but (surprise!) every time I selected a pair they were already gone.  Obviously it would have been better to do the "best available" route, but that was not immediately available, or at least I couldn't find it easily.

I had better luck using the Ticketmaster iOS app, which defaults to best available and seemed more responsive/fast in general.  Certainly it worked better during the presales (I pulled tickets in both presales but didn't buy them because they weren't good seats).

So in the future I plan to use the app.  It appears to have worked OK, and certainly better than the web site.