eckythump

The only other thing I can think of is Love Police booked the Opera House for the shortest possible time due to the cost of hiring the venue. Hamer Hall could be a similar story - Counting Crows played there on the weekend and started their show at 8:30pm (with a support act too starting at 7:30pm). If that's the case, then I'm really annoyed. If it's because of Carmen, I'm really annoyed. Despite the iconic nature of playing the Opera House, it seems it's proved to be a terrible choice. I wonder if given the amount of Bluesfest sideshows happening that other venues where they could have played were already booked?

Regardless, very annoyed that I've flown to Sydney for these shows to see shortened shows. Love Police have some explaining to do.

Mostly seated, although thats also an Australian thing - if theres seats people will mainly sit. The band didn't seem to mind too much, until the lights came on they seemed to be enjoying themselves, no one seemed sick or anything. The printed set only had two more songs on it, so the short set seems to have been planned from the start.

 

 

Someone I met at the show said he'd posted something on the Opera House's facebook page asking about a curfew and they said there wasn't one and the band could play as long as they wanted to.

That someone is me To quote the Sydney Opera House facebook page, someone wrote "Can I please ask a favour of the Opera House...? Wilco normally put together a fabulous setlist which certainly, in Melbourne at least, was tragically cut short due to certain unenlightened venues imposing ridiculously early curfew times... Hopefully the Opera House will extend Wilco the courtesy of letting them play a FULL and COMPLETE set...? Many thanks in advance for webcasting this! Hopefully we'll get to hear the songs Wilco wanted to play us in Melbourne but weren't allowed to... 'I'm a Wheel' and 'Via Chicago' anyone?"

And the official reply was "Don't worry Harry, we have no reason to cut any of our events short. We also can't remember the last time we have ever had a noise complaint, so you'll get to hear the full setlist planned by Wilco. We hope you enjoy it!"

Now if you consider 90 minutes a full and complete set then sure we got what we came to see. This is Wilco though, they don't play 90 minute sets at non festival shows. I'm seeing a lot of confused and angry posts start to appear on their facebook page too. Very confused. 

On the positive side, I got to meet a lot of great people who travelled from Melbourne for this. Fingers crossed for something better tonight, but I'm not holding my breath

Great news! Tomorrow nights show from the Opera House will be streamed live on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvzqRBw-s63GzEaI4q4Y8dg?sub_confirmation=1&feature=etp-pd-soh

They have so far done Sarah Blasko and Neil Finn and Paul Kelly shows, and the quality is superb. I watched the Neil Finn and Paul Kelly one live, hooked up to my tv and it was like I was watching a dvd the quality was so good.

It starts at 9:30pm Sydney time tomorrow night. I suggest you use http://www.timeanddate.com/ for what time it will be in your part of the world. If you're in the US, I suggest you set your alarm.

I'll wave to you all from the crowd.

Wilco aren't on until 9:30pm with no support, so plenty of time for a pre show drink. I'll probably get there around 8pm (have to make sure I get a poster!). Look for a tall guy, probably wearing a blue checked short sleeve shirt tonight

I land in Sydney at 3pm, so barring any weather/plane mechanical issues I'm easy too

Count me in! I'm not an expert on the area and this will be my first Opera House show, but I believe there's a bar there which would work? 

I'm travelling solo from Melbourne for these shows, and then on to Wellington and Auckland after. So excited!

I can't sleep either, but that might be something to do with my upstairs neighbours banging around loudly and talking (who does that at 6am on Good Friday!?!?).

And yes I think it was notorious fan too.

Well I can't say they don't pay attention to the requests, I Must Be High is now ticked on the list of Wilco songs I've wanted to see live!

Now for Sydney...

Oh, and you missed Hummingbird as the last song of the main set. I'm pretty sure I didn't dream them playing that

I was actually discussing with my friend trying to work out where you might be sitting lol, we didn't reach a consensus though. I am very keen for pre/post drinks in Sydney. Maybe start a new thread for anyone who wants to meet up?

Can't wait to hear your recordings of these shows!

What a great show! And my request of I Must Be High got played tonight, so happy! I think I actually requested Say You Miss Me too. 

Paul Dempsey was in the second row in front of me. I thought I was tall,but he eclipses me! He was well into it, and was one of the first to stand up to applaud Nels after Impossible Germany.

Very excited for Sydney next week!

Last night alone in Melbourne you had the choice of Wilco, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Bruce Springsteen, and Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples. Paul Simon replaces Bruce at Rod Laver tonight. I can't recall a time we've been so spoilt for choice.

Of course, Wilco takes precedence over all!

Acoustic arrangement of Spiders.

I can't recall a time where there's been so many concerts on over summer in Melbourne. Our strong dollar must be helping things a lot. It's certainly not helping keep the cost of tickets down.

Well they played 2 AM songs, just not the one I requested lol. Love both of of those songs though.

The Perthling didn't get her song played either

I believe Hamer Hall has a curfew of 11pm on weeknights (or they just don't want to pay their staff any overtime), which was really unfortunate, that would have been a great double encore. In fairness to Springsteen, he started at 8pm and also finished at 11pm. Hopefully tonight they start earlier.

Jeff's story about being blocked by police while going for a walk because they thought he was part of the Ellen crowd was hilarious, though I saw him mouth 'I just made that up' to Nels during Shouldn't Be Ashamed. Still, was a damn funny made up story!

Great show though, 1 show down, 5 to go!

Nice. Anyone who wants to say hi I'll be in stalls row C seats 15 and 16 tonight, tall guy wearing a Billy Bragg shirt. Not sure what I'll be wearing tomorrow yet, but I'm in row BB tomorrow

I would love to hear both - I didn't go to the Sunday night show but the setlist looked amazing. I actually just bought tickets to see him at Hanging Rock on Saturday based on last nights show (luckily found 2 tickets at face value on ebay).

I haven't, but I'm presuming Boomgates are on at 8pm, and Wilco will be 9pm or so. My friend I'm going with highly recommends Boomgates so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

I'm still recovering from Bruce Springsteen's 3 hour epic last night!

I requested I Got You for the Auckland show - and also requested Neil Finn play on it! Fingers crossed for that.

For Melbourne I've requested I Must Be High, don't think they've played that one in Australia before to my knowledge

For anyone addicted to the Songpop app, you can buy a category dedicated to Wilco. There's some pretty obscure songs in there too (eg. Just A Kid, Any Major Dude Will Tell You, rarely played live tracks), I think I know their catalog pretty well but I've still been getting some wrong! 

If you're after some easy wins against people not as enlightened in the Wilco catalog it's worth spending the 399 coins

Semt you a private message, hopefully you get it in time..

I'm going to see Bob Mould that night, otherwise I would be. Hope it doesn't go to waste!

Long time Wilco fan, seen them many times on their previous Aussie tours, but never posted here before. I was just going to both Melbourne shows, but as I'm now going to be between jobs while the tour is on, I've now bought tickets to both shows in Sydney, and flying over to Wellington and Auckland as well. I'm going solo to the Sydney and NZ shows, so would be happy to meet up for a pre show drink with anyone else attending!

So excited for this tour!