Preferred B

These are pretty much all songs I loved as a kid. Good choices! I'll put in a plug for my very favorite song when I was three (your son may not be too old for it!): "Help Me, Rhonda" by the Beach Boys. I also fell in love with "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King when I was six. Still love it, actually.

U2 at the United Center in ... 2005? ... Bono pulled a friend of mine up on stage to play guitar on "Party Girl." We couldn't believe it. Wilco - there's a lot I could pick from since I've seen a million shows over the years. When I turned 30 in Eindhoven last November, Jeff led the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday" before the encore. In other highlights that aren't self-centered, the first shows with the new lineup in Dekalb were both very memorable. Decemberists - Halloween 2008, saw them in a chapel at one of the most Christian colleges in the country. The band dressed up as charact

Don't forget one of the most terrifying children's movies of all time, Return to Oz. Heh. Whoo.

"Still Be Around" is one of my favorites, and I saw Jay do it years ago in Madison. I remember he switched around some of the pronouns, which seemed weird at the time. "If it breaks in two will you put it back together?" etc.

Orpheum in Madison on September 28th. Woohoo!

But I live in Madison. If the concert locales were switched around it would be no contest. This requires a bit more thought.

I don't own the album (yet) and have never really listened to The National. But I caught the Letterman performance last night, and daaaaamn, that was something. Why are they playing Milwaukee the same weeknight the New Pornographers are in Madison?

Wow! You know I'm on the same page in terms of LMLYFM, Ms. Napalm, but I love "Reservations," especially the lyrics. Anyway ... people have different opinions, it's not news, etc. On topic, also a fan of HMD.

I was almost late to a show once - we got to our seats about two minutes before the main set - because of an intense living room Rock Band session. In 2008 I was on sabbatical in New Zealand and saw Wilco on Easter Sunday. Spent the morning and afternoon on the Coromandel Peninsula hiking to Cathedral Cove and exploring the hot water beach, then drove to Auckland for the show. That was a memorable day.

I remember listening to those three shows (I attended the last one, and it's probably what made me a big fan of Wilco) and thinking, "Wow, maybe I should learn the words to Mountain Bed in case my assistance is ever required." Which was pretty ridiculous, right? Because it would be important for me to know the words? Well, a few months later I saw a solo show at Martyr's and Jeff actually had lyric sheets printed out for Mountain Bed. He handed them to a friend and me (after asking if we could read) and said that if he looked down during the song, it meant he needed help. He only needed i

Just saw this, sorry! I saw them at the Territorios Festival in Sevilla.

Well, there we go.

...except for the fact that "Another Man's Done Gone" was only played on 5/5/05, for instance.

This may sound crazy on a couple of fronts, but I also attended all four and wrote detailed notes about each show in an email to a friend. That being said, I have the box set but don't have a functional turntable at the moment, so I haven't been able to listen to any of the bonus tracks. Is there any banter? If not, I don't know how we could ever determine what was what.

Holy shit indeed. WOW. If anybody wonders why people travel for concerts, this is why. You never know what you might never hear anywhere else. I can only hope these stick around until August. (It's only May 2nd?)

Screening tomorrow (4/30) at 5 p.m. in Der Rathskellar at Memorial Union in Madison. I'd check it out if I were in town.

The two extra percussion beats in the "Shake it Off" chorus. Believe it or not, they are a really big part of why I like that song.

Thanks for the setlist and info, Clint! And californiastar as well. Welly definitely wins for best reportage so far on this tour. I'm glad they played "Thank You Friends!" How well-known is Big Star in New Zealand?

Sure. Your daughter did it. Kidding! I'm still alternately cringing on your behalf and cracking up about this.

That's not what they did when I saw them in Spain last summer. However, that wasn't three hometown shows in a row.

And Columbus, OH on July 17th: http://www.wexarts.org/pa/index.php?eventid=4713

Seconded. Wish I were there!

Some new California shows (Oakland and SF) for next month are up on Nels' website. I wish his various projects came to Wisconsin more often. (More often than once, two years ago.) http://www.nelscline.com/calendar.html

Nels will also be playing with Yuka Honda on May 14th at the Sacramento Jazz Festival.

Nice seeing you, Lou! I'm glad I happened to be in Chicago this weekend so I could support Laurie's on RSD! And then today I picked up the items I had on hold at Strictly Discs here in town. An expensive, but satisfying, couple of days.