Infinite Jest

Jealous of you for getting Magazine and Shouldn't Be Ashamed (which I had requested for Stuttgart ), and especially When You Wake Up Feeling Old...

Here's the setlist from the official site. Looks correct to me. I saw a printed setlist, and it had I'm A Wheel listed after Hoodoo Voodoo.

I felt that the gig got better as the night went on. Early on, it seemed a bit....mechanical, I guess. Like I was watching Wilco rehearsing, or doing a TV filming without an audience. It felt like the band maybe weren't totally into it, other than Nels who was thrashing around on his guitar like normal. It definitely improved though, and by the end everyone seemed to be having a good time and the crowd were much more into it.

Not much stage banter. After Jeff first spoke to the crowd (in English) he apologised that he didn't know any more German, and then had to explain that it was a joke. At one point, trying to get the crowd to clap along, he reminded them that they were in Scorpions territory. For the Jesus, Etc singalong he said that he'd take over if we didn't sing well enough - then had to apologise afterwards when he started singing at the end of the first verse ("the people singing were great, it's just that there weren't many singing and there's a lot of you here - you can sing on the next one if you like"). Glenn's intro to ITMWLY was especially good, I thought. The support act were indeed dire (I have seen some absolutely terrible bands supporting Wilco).

Not much else to say. Was weird to be standing in front of Pat (I'm normally on Nels' side for some reason) - I was close enough that I could hear his guitar through his amp (either that or the band was mixed appallingly) so his parts really stood out over Nels'.

01 - One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

02 - Art of Almost

03 - I Might

04 - At Least That's What You Said

05 - Spiders (Kidsmoke)

06 - Impossible Germany

07 - Born Alone

08 - Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

09 - Sky Blue Sky

10 - California Stars

11 - Handshake Drugs

12 - Whole Love

13 - What Light

14 - Heavy Metal Drummer

15 - I'm the Man Who Loves You

16 - Dawned On Me

17 - Hummingbird

18 - Shot in the Arm

Encore:

19 - Via Chicago

20 - Jesus, Etc.

21 - Hate It Here

22 - Monday

23 - Outtasite (Outta Mind)

24 - Hoodoo Voodoo

Dawned On Me.

Hummingbird into

Shot In The Arm

I'm sure she's a very nice person, but I'd really rather listen to Jeff talking to the crowd.

Weird, I was just copying and pasting that exact same list

There's a bunch of other videos on Youtube. Jeff also sang on Kizza Me and Blue Moon.

The way they handled the guests was great. They didn't announce them or anything. Just at the end 'Jeff Tweedy on vocals'. Not making a big deal out of who they were. A lot of people recognised Jeff and some of the others, of course.

This rates as one of my favourite Wilco shows, mainly for the exceptional crowd response.

Set:

01 - Poor Places

02 - Art of Almost

03 - I Might

04 - At Least That's What You Said

05 - Spiders (acoustic)

06 - Impossible Germany

07 - Born Alone

08 - Laminated Cat

09 - How to Fight Loneliness

10 - Whole Love

11 - Too Far Apart

12 - I'm Always In Love

13 - Jesus, Etc.

14 - I'm the Man Who Loves You

15 - Dawned On Me

16 - Shot in the Arm

Not a lot of banter. Jeff mentioned that HtFL was a request. After Impossible Germany when everyone was applauding Nels, Jeff introduced him "ladies and gentlemen, Mr Nels Cline" and Nels did a little bow. Jeff also said that Primavera was one of their favourite places to play because the audience was so good. Which isn't something I've heard him say before. The crowd really were good: they recognised every song from the first notes, they sang along, they sang along to the guitar part on Impossible Germany, they chanted "ole ole ole" at the end. It was really a lot of fun.

Show highlights: hearing HtFL and Too Far Apart for the first time. The acoustic Spiders.

Personal highlight: I ran into Nels the next day and told him I enjoyed the show, and he was very gracious in response, and confirmed that Spanish crowds really are great.

Even better highlights: the next day Big Star played their tribute to Alex Chilton, with guest vocalists. Jeff, John and Pat played on some of the songs.

Here's Thank You Friends with Jeff and Pat among many others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3nfhVKwF74

At Primavera Sound in Barcelona a few days ago they played How to Fight Loneliness, which Jeff said was a request.

At a show in London I requested Laminated Cat and they played it (but maybe a coincidence?).

When Jeff played London solo most of the set was requests, taken by his wife and children going round the audience before the show. I don't know if that's common practice for his solo shows?

I have one spare standing for this show. Can't use as I'm out of the country.

Ticket is in hand, my girlfriend can meet you in London (ideally central) this week, or probably before the show.

I have one, if Preferred B's is unavailable for any reason.

Bump

I have one ticket for each of the London shows (tickets not yet in hand). I'm unable to attend as I'll be out of the country.

Total cost was £37.10 each, including all fees. Will accept reasonable offers.

email: infinitejest@gmail.com

(As I'm a newbie here, check my Songkick and last.fm profiles if you want to see that I'm a genuine Wilco fan ).

Man, Poor Places > Reservations > Misunderstood alone would have made my night, plus REB > I Got You for good measure.

I was ecstatic by the time they'd played '...Loneliness', 'Someday...' and Laminated Cat. And then they just kept playing the classics. It was wonderful. A perfect companion set to the End of the Road show two days earlier, very little overlap. They played my website request (Laminated Cat) and I also begged them to mix the set up a bit, so whether they were listening to me or not, it was great to see. The sound was great, as bbop said. I don't like seeing Wilco in seated venues, but after hearing that show, I can understand the advantages of playing there.

Jeff seemed in a very good mood. Some good banter:

'welcome to the representatives of the galactic senate. We have much to discuss' (while gesturing to the crowd in the boxes, seen at the sides of this pic: http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_info/concert_hall_acoustics/images/hall.jpg)

[crowd shouts] Jeff: "you *still* love us? Why still? What did we do?" [crowd shouts] "Oh, you love *me*? [pause] Why is it always guys who shout that?"

"This is the third time in a year that we've played London. So I don't want to hear anyone ever say again that we hate London. [pause] Unless it's one of us"

He then convinces the crowd to stand up "I don't want to tell you to stand up, because that's what got me into trouble last time. But if you *want* to stand up...." [shouts from the crowd that we need someone to tell us to stand up] "Oh, you can't just organise yourselves? Senators? What shall we do?" - people eventually stand up [Can someone explain this? I'm not English and haven't lived here long - what's the Wilco/London issue?].

(And then after saying Wilco don't hate London, the next song is 'Hate it Here' )

Towards the end he told people to stop shouting out song titles, because it was wasting time and they didn't have much left.

A good festival show, with a great crowd reaction.

End of the Road is a small (5000 or so) capacity festival that has been running for five years near Salisbury (about two hours south of London). It features a mix of pure folk, Americana, indie-pop/rock and post-rock (Along with Wilco, other headliners were Modest Mouse and Yo La Tengo on the main stage, and Caribou and New Pornographers on the second stage). I highly recommended it.

Wilco followed an energetic set from the Felice Brothers, and a reverentially hushed, well-received set from the Low Anthem. With an hour between TLA and Wilco the crowd was getting impatient (most set breaks were 30-40 minutes max).

Setlist (not at all perfect):

Sunken Treasure

Bull Black Nova

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

Forget the Flowers

A Shot in the Arm

I'll Fight

You Are My Face

One Wing

Side with the Seeds

Muzzle of Bees (?)

Impossible Germany

Jesus Etc

Theologians

Walken

Hummingbird

Handshake Drugs

I'm the Man Who Loves You

The Late Greats

Order broadly correct but not 100% for first and last few, and I'm missing one or two. [Edited to add Muzzle of Bees, Hummingbird and You Are My Face]

Great show: they only had 90 minutes, and it was obvious they wanted to power through the songs with little banter etc, so that they could play more. They seemed pleased to be there, Pat and Glenn were grinning a fair bit and Jeff seemed happy as well, though he didn't talk much.

Lots of calls for more as they left the stage. Jeff held up a clock showing 11:00pm, to show that it was curfew time and they had to go. (Which looked like they planned the set perfectly to fit everything in). Still more calls for more, but no luck.

Little banter, but:

*Jeff: "is that woman over there OK? Cos she looks like she's really really high on drugs."

*Shout from Crowd after Shot in the Arm: "you're just too damn good!". Jeff: "thanks" Crowd: "he wasn't talking to you"

*Crowd shout praise/approval. Jeff pretends to mishear: "What? The singing sucks?" [does really sad face]

Thanks for that, will have to look through these over the next few days.

Wasn't my favourite ever Wilco show, but was still fun (and the first time I've heard Misunderstood live, which was nice )

You really didn't recognise Simple Twist of Fate and New Madrid? Get yourself a copy of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Uncle Tupelo's final album Anodyne immediately. The Ruling Class is from the second Loose Fur LP, Born Again in the USA.

I'm afraid not . I'm only really familiar with Dylan's 60s stuff, and even though I've been listening to Wilco for 10 years, I haven't really listened to Uncle Tupelo or Loose Fur.

As mentioned above the opening 'comedian' was a bit poor, whichvwas compounding by him referrng to Jeff as Jack Tweedy. Most of his jokes were very bad, Scouser impressions etc. I was one of the unlucky few with whom he engaged in conversation (I was third row cente). Anyway.....

Oh, you were the planner (or something like that)? I was second row on the left, behind the student guy that he wanted to support him when he crowd-surfed. I managed to sneak out before he talked to me...

This is the first Tweedy solo show I have seen and it was so good. His wife, Sue, and his two boys came round before the show taking requests and also taking a few items back stage for Jeff to sign.

Likewise, and I agree it was wonderful: Union Chapel tends to get good crowds who know and respect the music/ians. I've seen some great shows there. Nice to see Sue and the boys taking requests, but I wish I'd noticed they were collecting things for Jeff to sign, though.....

Thanks for that - have to admit he played a few I didn't recognise (New Madrid, Ruling Class, the Dylan cover).

I fully agree with "After the last few Wilco shows in the past couple of years have left me feeling a bit uninspired, this fully recharged the batteries. Ta!". I've seen Wilco 6 or 7 times in the last two years, and it's getting a bit formulaic. It was so great to hear some older songs that I've never heard before. Loved the acoustic Spiders and Muzzle of Bees.

Only downside was the support: some "comedian" with basically no jokes other than taking the piss out of the front few rows.

Set order. I'm pretty sure this is right for the start:

Someone Else's Song

Remember The Mountain Bed

Be Not So Fearful [bill Fay] with Bill Fay brought up on stage for a duet

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

I'm Always In Love

Laminated Cat (requested by two people, I called it 'Not for the Season' because that's what it's called on the '...Break your Heart' DVD. He took the piss out of me)

Someday Some Morning Sometime (?? I think)

Via Chicago [request: he asked the woman if she was depressed)

Simple Twist of Fate [bob Dylan] (request "some asshole called David asked for "any Bob Dylan song"")

Bob Dylan's Beard

Just remembered a nice bit of audience/Jeff banter. About eight songs in, after a couple of quieter, newish ones, someone yells out "play the hits!". Jeff replies "Play the hits? Where have you been man? These are the hits!".

Dude: they also played the Green Man festival in the UK, just before the Troxy. But of course there are 60 million people in the UK....

As you say, lot of Americans there last night, normal though, I guess, as this is London. Amazing too how much Jeff has changed his onstage persona playing here. Used to be very uptight for some reason (possibly because London crowds are hard to please).

Yes, I wasn't surprised to see them (most Wilco shows I've been to seem to have a large number of Americans, even in Portugal there were some who'd come over specially for the tour). It seemed like Jeff was surprised though.

Interesting (and good) to hear about the change in his persona. I'd noticed the same sort of thing in other shows (Australia: lots of banter with the audience, seemed like some were trying to wind him up; New Zealand: didn't speak for 13 songs, then wouldn't stop talking ).

Oh, the handclapping along while he remonstrated with us for not clapping as loud as we would for Queen...or Queensryche...or (who were the other bands?): "you probably saw those bands...you were probably in those bands".

keeprighton2 sums up my feelings exactly. That's the 8th time I've seen them and definitely the most relaxed they've been. Felt like they were having a lot of fun, and it transmitted to the crowd.

Highlights: Jeff trying to start a rivalry between the London and Leeds crowds to get us to sing louder: "they said you guys wouldn't sing loudly" or something like that (and then admitting that he knew that we knew that he was lying); Jeff explaining that American crowds sang (and then appearing surprised that a large percentage of the crowd were Americans); Opening with Ashes (!); the unamplified SES, with everyone basically silent until we sangalong on the last chorus (helped that I was down the front, don't know how well his voice would have carried to the back rows); Glenn's showboating with the entire crowd chanting for him; Nels and his roadie keeping it together when his guitar kept distorting; crowd participation on Jesus Etc.

Only a few lowlights: everyone around me got a setlist and I didn't; and we didn't get Monday or Outtasight (which I'd requested, too).

If you're still looking I have one spare, seated. See 'got tickets' forum.

Face value is £25, with fees it's £30. Girlfriend doesn't want to come with me as she's coming to the 4 November show instead.

simon.chamberlain@gmail.com

Need 1 or 2 tickets for the Porto or Lisbon shows.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

infinitejest@gmail.com