Wise Enough

Set list... A couple of songs may be missing

wilco the song

I am trying to break your heart

one wing

passenger side (not sure on order)

bull black nova

you are my face

muzzle of bees

shot in the arm

radio cure

deeper down

handshake drugs

impossible Germany

via Chicago

poor places

spiders

hummingbird

Jesus

can't stand it

you never know

heavy metal drummer

hate it here

walken

man who loves you

---------

misunderstood - 32 nothings again

-------

the late greats

I'm a wheel

I took a pic of somones set list and was working off that. Band long gone and security chick still tried to stop me! Anyway on the set list and not played was California stars, sonny feeling, and hoodoo voodoo.

Waiting for wilco again. Liam just finished, much better than last night no unfortunate pants. EJ joined him on stage and so did Glenn for second chance, awesome version, totally went off!!

 

How was Liam? EJ was with him, I assume. New songs?

No EJ! I'm a big Liam fan, have seen him many time and I didn't realise how much EJ added till she wasn't there. He was still good but he only did electric guitar, no drums which I really missed during Second chance. He was wearing the most unfortunate pair of pants... I mean they were really tight in certain places. I would rather not know which side he dresses to, but it's now seared into my brain. Still laughing at the guy behind me who said "if I had a daughter she could totally have sex with Liam Finn". Odd odd crowd.

Just hot back, feet killing me but awesome show! I had a list of songs I wanted to hear this tour (I'm doing all five shows) and they picked most of them off tonight.

Setlist

Price is right intro

Wilco the song

bull black nova

I am your face

I am trying to break your heart

one wing

shot in the arm

muzzle of bees

misunderstood

I'll fight

handshake drugs

deeper down

impossible Germany

don't forget the flowers

California stars

poor places

spiders

hummingbird

Jesus

you never know

heavy metal drummer

theologians

walken

red eyed/ I got you

I'm the man who loves you

-------

hate it here

kingpin

I'm a wheel

Jeff not very chatty but that's probably because everytime he tried the crowd would just yell out stuff he couldn't understand. We did "respectable" on Jesus etc. No swinging mike after hitting John the other night. Hummingbird dance very cute. Highlights for me were I got you (I love that song, I sing it to my baby niece minus the crazy dancing. I also loved kingpin, which I had requested on wilcoworld. Flowers also another highlight.

Apparently in Auckland they did three cheers for wilco and that carried over to tonight with us giving matrix the guitar tech some for having the band over for a BBQ last night. Some guy yelled out "how was Tokyo... I missed you". Jeff then said hello in Japanese before launching into the next song, which I had to have explained to me by my Japanese speaking cousin. They were "wilco virgins" and had a great time. I also have a fellow vcer friend dancing around the hotel room in her jammies to hoodo voodo... Was 27 songs not enough for her???

Oh and there were 32 nothings!!!

Come-on, anybody get to the Auckland gig last night? Still working off your hang-overs? Let me kick-start the conversation:

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10641395

I didn't go, and I'm waiting to hear from my friends that did. But what I do know is that there was no Finn jam, though they were backstage...

http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/23460/Wilco.htm

Wilco are one of those rare bands these days that are content to work a gentle arc into their career. There is no massive media blitz with their releases or tours, just a solid workmanlike approach to writing, recording and touring. The impression is also of a band with little inner turmoil now that the line-up has solidified over the last couple of albums and primary songwriter Jeff Tweedy’s frame of mind has grown more optimistic.

Ahead of their Australian tour, bassist John Stirratt chats about how he is very much aware of the unified spirit in the Wilco ranks. “We have a really nice on and off stage camaraderie, everyone is very generous. I try not to take it for granted but it really is a nice collection of people with a great musical synergy going on.”

Touring has always been a big part of Wilco’s success and their regular tours of large and small venues and an eagerness to put on special events like retrospective shows has contributed to their rabid fan base. “I’ve never come to terms with recording albums just for a reason to tour. I don’t think we’d ever get to that point but the live thing has taken on a life of its own for sure, its the way the band stays alive frankly, the way we keep going as a band. It’s a big aspect of what we do but the recording is the primary focus of the band, to make a great record. It has been obscured a bit by the amount of touring recently, in the last few years, but we always think our best record’s ahead of us,” says Stirratt optimistically.

During the upcoming Australian tour Wilco will be treating Sydney fans to a special extra show at the more intimate Factory Theatre, something they have been incorporating into their current USA tour of the eastern seaboard. “On this tour it is billed as ‘An Evening With Wilco’ and we are doing a 40-55 minute full rock set and then in the middle of the show we’re bringing out smaller setup in front of the back-line and doing an acoustic show, much like the way we play in our space and also backstage before a show, stripped down. Its fun and something we’re used to and I think we do pretty well. I’d imagine we’ll try to do something like that at the venue. It is a good meeting between Jeff’s acoustic solo stuff and the band,” Stirratt explains.

2009 saw the release of the band’s seventh album, Wilco (The Album), which, though generally well received, did attract accusations of sounding like a stop gap album or stylistically a greatest hits collection. Stirratt acknowledges that subconsciously the album may have been a pause before they embark on the next phase of their career. “I think its an extension of the band mastering a lot of styles that we’ve taken on over the years. We never intended it to be anything other than a nice album that just stands on its own. In years past we would have made a record that was very linear sounding, like if we did chamber pop like Summerteeth, the whole record would evoke that. We’re a lot more open to the shape being different and having a lot more space in a song and then having a more dense song after that. It just comes down to a pleasing listen and having space in the right places.”

“To me, Sky Blue Sky had to be kind of what it was, a resetting. I think there was something bold in it and we hadn’t done that kind of tone before. That record was different and this one was maybe a point that we could stop and say we feel comfortable as a unit and its time to go in a different direction. I thought the last record might have been more abrasive but I’d imagine our next one is going to be a lot more jarring I would say.”

Wilco are already working on new songs for their next album and intend to enter the studio over the northern hemisphere summer. “We are in writing mode and we start that and the demos in our space which is sounding better and better as a studio. We are going to record quite a bit over the summer. We’ll do it in Chicago and maybe towards the end we might get to another locale, hopefully in some warm weather environment a la New Zealand in January. I like that game plan. A lot of people accused us of the last record sounding comfortable because we were in this beautiful place but we’ve recorded in warm weather places quite a bit – in Memphis and Austin and places like that, it doesn’t really matter,” says Stirratt.

Behind the scenes of all successful bands are a strong team of managers and support people and Wilco have long considered manager Tony Margherita an extended member of the band, having been with them since the days of Stirratt and Tweedy’s previous band Uncle Tupelo. “Jeff has had a team for a long time that he trusts and they’re really loyal. Tony is a really rare sort of guy, someone who has foresight and always understood the long run aspect of it. He, like Jeff, was never tempted by short term gains that were questionable. He was a big part of streaming Yankee Hotel Foxtrot which was a huge thing along with Jim Wagner who was the webmaster, another integral part of the team. It’s really a case of having people who understand the gradual aspect, not going for the easy score. We really do consider him the archetypal homegrown manager. He started with the artist and has grown with the band,” Stirratt enthuses.

Looking back at those pre-Wilco days Stirratt confesses that the dreams of himself and Tweedy have long been exceeded. “We both had a desire to make music that we cared about and were excited about and all that we hoped for was to make a few records together so this is beyond our wildest expectations. There wasn’t anything beyond making music that was exciting to us. Every once in a while there will be some milestone release or time or something like the New York gig we did that and you think ‘wow, I can’t fucking believe it’. We’ve worked hard and there have been a lot of different factors involved – Jeff’s talent and everyone else’s talent in the band. It’s been beyond our wildest dreams.”

With Wilco seemingly about to change gears once more, the description of them as the “American Radiohead’ becomes more applicable. Both bands have a hunger to explore and extend their music without sacrificing their ideals and chasing the dollar. For Wilco, success genuinely appears to be a result of the quality of their music and its onstage delivery to the fans and we should be thankful that there are landmark bands like Wilco still carving out their own niche in the ever changing musical landscape.

 

Why accept friend requests from people who you would actually cross the street to avoid in real life?

So you can find out gossip without having to talk to people you would cross the street to avoid... That best friend you had the falling out with in high school? Now you can see she that she really lost her looks as she aged. Whats not to love?

I ADORE facebook. Yeah, it can be boring if your friends with boring people, but luckily I have funny friends who crack me up. It also helps new friendships grow. Many people I've stood next to at concerts and we've become friends on facebook, then great friends in real life. Without facebook we would have never spoken again.

Not to mention the 45 comment status updates that have degraded into scrag fights. Pays to be friends with scrags, they are so entertaining.

Good to hear this.....

I agree.. in principle. In real life I was hoping to hear some new songs.

Saw this in Herald Sun 25/4/10 (Melbourne paper).

Triumph of the Wilco

The last time Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was in this part of the world was on a trip to New Zealand to collaborate with a rich array of musical talent as part of Neil Finns Seven Worlds Collide project. Tweedy, 42, says that working alongside the Finn brothers, members of Radiohead, KT Tunstall, Johnny Marr and a host of others made the experience one of the best of his life.

It was so positive that Tweedy and band mates John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone, stayed on to record most of what would become the acclaimed Wilco (the Album) in Finns Auckland studio, naturally roping in the Crowded House singer for background vocals.

"Neil is an incedibly generous and sweet guy and he took such good care of us," Tweedy says. "You shouldn't have Neil Finn hanging around without taking advantage of it."

Over seven often wildly contrasting albums, the band has survived a shifting line-up, record label disputes and Tweedys addiction to painkillers to emerge as in one of the most respected, diverse, and unpredictable bands of the past two decades.

As the singer and chief songwriter, Tweedys thirst for experimentation and new experiences remains undiminshed. The Chicago-based sextet invited Canadian singer Feist for a duet on its most recent album and Tweedy guested on Rosanne Cash's recent album as well as taking his first stint in the producers chair for gospel great Mavis Staples coming album.

"You get more confident as you grow older that you can create experiences and whether they turn out great or not, the process of making music has always been much more important than anything else," Tweedy says.

"So when you can add new experiences to that process, I think it's really good for you as a musician and as an artist".

Wilco (the Album) and its Grammy nominated predecessor Sky Blue Sky are the first two albums made with the same line up, but Tweedy says that stability certaintly doesn't equate with complacency. The relatively straight forward alt-rock "song based" approach of those two albums contrasted with earlier, more experimental releases such as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

But Tweedy says the band is likely to head off into less safe territory for its next release.

"I think the last two records have focused on more basic song structure and are presenting the band in a more crystallised and digestible way," he says. "But I'm sure that, after having two records under our belt of doing things we are pretty confident we are good at, next time I bet we will try something that we are not sure we are good at."

But don't expect to hear anything new when the band arrives for its Australian tour this week. With a passionate on-line following, Tweedy has found the internet has its advantages and disadvantages. After it was rejected by the band's then-record label, Wilco famously streamed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot free on the internet in 2001 and did it again with last year's Wilco (the Album) after it was leaked online.

But Tweedy has found that shared live recordings can make teh album release anti-climatic.

"When Sky Blue Sky came out I think there were only two songs on it that people didn't have a live version of if they were really big fans," he says. "That's unacceptable to me as a guy who really used to look forward to going and getting records when they first came out and being surprised with what's on them."

Wilco, The Forum May 5 (on sale) and May 6 (sold out).

Totally off topic, but whoever first mentioned priceline and betterbidding sites THANK YOU!!! I'm planning my trip at the moment and had never heard of those websites, I've saved heaps. My trip is working out much cheaper than I thought, which are words I have never uttered in conjuction together in my life.

I note that Crowded House will be touring the US and appears to have a week or so open around the time of the festival...

I currently have a bet with another VC member who shall remain nameless. I betting it will be Neil solo, she's betting Crowdies, don't think anyone will bet on no Finn involvment. I would be happy with either. Going to see Crowdies on west coast for a few shows after the festival. Bring on August!

We still may get a "Evening with Wilco" The only way to get tickets to the Factory Theatre was with a purchase to the night before at the State Theatre. There is no way Wilco are going to do the same show to a audience that they know were ALL at the previous night.

You know I hadn't really thought of that. Compulsory rare gems... I like it! Can't wait!

Would have loved an "evening with Wilco", but as a consolation prize Liam Finn is a pretty good one. Of course that means stupid Auckland will definately get a Neil jam. Stupid Auckland.

Notice the second Melbourne show has now sold out. I'm also going to the Nels and Glenn show, though I'm not really sure what I'm expecting, but I guess you can't go too far wrong with those guys involved.

Not only is Carla beautiful and talented, I can speak personally for how kind and sweet she is. Back in November 2004, when I took my daughter Alissa to her first concert (in L.A. at the Wiltern) it was Carla & band she saw first, opening for Wilco. I remember watching Alissa's face then, and thinking to myself how glad I was that she was getting to see a woman rocking out so gloriously! I want my girl to know that the world is open to her & whatever dreams she has, you know? So that was satisfying. Alissa's evening went from exciting to thrilling when, two songs into Wilco's set, Jeff came over to where she was at stage edge, knelt down, and sang her part of Hummingbird. She was beyond dazzled.

 

After the show, a roadie brought Alissa a clutch of aftershow passes for herself and her family (lucky us!) and when we went downstairs, Alissa was bored with the crush of grownups and wandered over to a room where Carla & her band were relaxing. Carla immediately called her in, and sat her in a chair beside herself, and then handed her guitar to Alissa (who went shyer than I'd ever seen her! )! She showed Alissa the right way to hold it, and then spent several minutes showing her some basic chords, carefully guiding Alissa's fingers into place. I stood in the doorway watching, and snapped a couple of quick (& bad & blurry) photos, but my best memories are captured inside my head, remembering how kind she was to my little girl.

 

Alissa is 14 now, and has puttered with a guitar for years. Just the other day, she played me a pretty song she had just written.

 

And just to steer this back on topic, may I add that Nels is every bit as kind and adorable as Carla.

Awesomely cool story!

Only a couple of weeks to go now!

 

Has anyone heard word of a support band yet?

 

I'm hoping there won't be one.. and that they'll continue with their super long sets

I was wondering/hoping the same thing. No mention of a support on the website. I really want to see John on an upright bass.

I take exception to this being referred to as W(TF).

 

Seeing that it's on the Aug.15th weekend and not that far from Yasgur's farm - how about Wilcostock?

I think Wilcostock definately has a ring to it. Its what I'm calling it anyway. I'm stoked as I now have a friend from San Francisco coming accross for it. There's company in my ... side?

All good here too, didn't need a US address which is good, fell into the dubious "other" category. Now I can go to bed!

Since you have some Aussies going, its now an "International festival". Very posh. Anyone else travelling alone, rest assured, I will talk your ear off. I mean you'll be faking an urgent phone call just to get away from me.

Just checking I have worked it out right.. tickets go on sale in 6 hours?

I'll be trying to get tickets online from Australia (yes!)... any idea whether they usually post out tickets for this kind of thing, or whether they'll just do e-tickets.

 

A little worried that if the former occurs that I'm gonna need some sorta North American address, or something equally kooky. Fingers crossed!

Ha, can't believe there's two of us! Hadn't thought about the address issue... might have to quickly text a friend who has a sister over there. Pretty sure that makes it midnight tonight they go on sale here.

I'm not letting a lack of interested friends stop me. I'm travelling with a friend who wouldn't even come when I offered to pay for her ticket, so she's flying home earlier and I'm relying on Wilco fans being friendly for company.

Yes, it's Eastern time.

Thanks! I notice theres a big arse gap between May and September in terms of touring, so I'm hoping some more shows get announced around then that I can pick up as I sight see (multitasking...)

Just reserved accomodation at the Holiday Inn too. No one talked me out of it in time. Just doing time conversions to work out when the tickets go on sale, would Massachusetts be Easterm time? Thinking that makes it on sale here about midnight. Can't even pronounce the place!

This is from another article:

 

 

 

"Additional music by Wilco?" Dear God, how?

Oohh where's that article? I'm pretty sure Neil Finn is in the US then.. just wild speculation. Would it be horribly indulgant of me to come from Aus and do a Wilco/Crowded House tour of the US?? Talk me out of this people...

Hell even I'm thinking about that festival and I'm in Australia. Where is it exactly? Nearest major airport?

Caved and downloaded quicktime, work will get over it. But I still can't get it to work, it says connecting then disconnecting. Tried pushing play, still disconnects me. Sorry to be that whiney "mine isn't working" person...