knotgreen

Things seem to be on schedule in the US. My copy was shipped yesterday via FedEx and is due to arrive tomorrow. 

6 hours ago, SarahC said:

Getting tickets for the shows this tour was the easiest process I think I've ever had for any show... I don't know if it's cos it was through the tixr service, or what the difference was, but it took all of 30 seconds to buy for both shows we're going to on this run. 

If I had to guess it’s because a) they announced a ton of shows b) Tweedy band isn’t the same draw as a Wilco show and c) there are a lot of bands touring in the fall, and I can say personally that my Oct was already full by the time these shows were announced. 
 

But not having to deal with TM is a win. I bought through AXS which was also very easy, though I was annoyed to see a “Fast Pass” (aka skip the line) ticket upgrade option. Unsure who I should be directing that disappointment to but it’s lame. 

19 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

Cool. I didn't see anything on Wilcoworld and there was no email. What's that from?

Facebook. They posted on IG too. 

35 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

How come John and Pat don't get to use Wilco channels to announce their release?

3 minutes ago, nalafej said:

Lots of merch available with this release. More/better than the last few Wilco album cycles even?!

 

Y'all really needing a frisbee with Jeff's picture on it?

C’mon, Crystal, make this happen!

We made it, guys and gals. What. A. Day. 

Trying to figure out which of these new shows I'm going to hit!

I know that a lot of this could be chalked up to my boredom and anticipation, but this seems a pretty strange rollout!

The Wilcoworld splash page just changed from a SBS advert to info about the summer tour... "Additional North American tour dates have been added to Wilco’s 2025 line up. There’s a lot of fun to come. Join us, take your mind off the eggs!" What?

From Mojo: "I think this one is special, though, a really beautiful evolution. I'm not holding back or protecting myself, and I don't care if people think a triple record's too long. I mean, Fuck you!" he laughs. "You don't have to listen to it.."

I will say, I'm excited for a studio cut of Lou Reed Was My Babysitter, a song I think is one of the most interesting new Tweedy songs in years, as well as a 7 minute Feel Free. The latter feels like a song only Jeff could write, in the best possible way. Having seen him play it live, I recall the lyrics/delivery feeling special. 

Anyway, maybe today's the day?

3 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

This guy might be too prolific.

A much nicer way of saying what I’m thinking. 
 

In any case, I like the cover and I’ll obviously pre-order it the second it’s available. Probably through Kung-Fu, as I’m a glutton for punishment. 

Jeff mentioned on his Substack yesterday that there will be some "big announcements coming up soon." Standby...

43 minutes ago, bböp said:

For anyone interested, here was Waxahatchee's 45-minute opening set as played:

 

Six O'Clock News [Kathleen Edwards]

I can’t get over this!

He’s back! 

I definitely didn’t have Quiet Amplifier on my bingo card for the first night of this tour. A good sign, I think! 
 

Thanks, as always, for the reporting, Bbop. I look forward to following along for these southern shows. 

On 2/4/2025 at 3:00 AM, bböp said:

 

Seems kinda odd to me that they're just doing the three dates, but who knows why? Also, if I'm not mistaken, they still could do Newport Folk, correct? I believe Newport Jazz is scheduled for Aug. 1-3 (with the folk fest taking place the weekend before).

You called it (kinda!). Jeff (solo) was the first NFF announcement today for Sunday, 7/27. 

So frustrating to order these things the second they go on sale and then to not even have it ship by release date. Anyone else waiting on tracking from KungFu? Wonder if it’s because got the poster too. 

Boy did the band seem like they were having fun last night. I feel like Jeff has intimated, or maybe even said explicitly, that these no-repeat runs are a lot of work for the band. It seemed to me, however, that they were really enjoying stretching out, playing a wide breadth of songs, and rearranging others (Kingpin?!). While you have some sense of what will likely get played, there is also a sense of unpredictability that’s more typical of a JT solo show than a Wilco show. 
 

The no-opener, no-repeat model is a fan’s dream. I am looking forward to the next run wherever that may be. 
 

Oh, and so good to be back in St Paul and to reconnect with friends!

13 hours ago, nalafej said:

What a band, what a show. I could use a dose of that rock block on a weekly basis.

 

Nice meeting some message board folks Friday/Saturday. Wish I could catch the finale, but alas...

Good chatting with you! 

By my count we heard 9 Wilco songs of the 22 played. I am rooting for that number to be even lower tonight!

Let’s not forget that this is the band that chose this. 

18 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

 

This is so much better than the one they chose. I guess I'm in the minority here, but I think the one they chose is hideous. And it's going to look even more chaotic on the CD.

Brian, a child designed it with unicorn stickers. Hideous is a strong critique! 

Wasn’t planning on buying another copy, but here we are. Congrats to Clementine from another sticker enthusiast. 

4 minutes ago, summerdai said:

Multiple nights, 2 hr ish shows. I see no reason to expect anything else.

Except the data point that they’ve billed shows “An Evening With” and have, indeed, done something else. 

I recall that the band used the "Evening With" designation for those marathon shows they did 10 ish years ago. Have they used it since? I wonder if that's what we're in for, or if it's to signify that there won't be an opener. Or perhaps none of the above!

6 hours ago, jff said:

 

This is a good way to put it.  I recall some years back Tweedy had a bee in his bonnet about people's reaction to the production on YHF and AGIB, and he was insistent that his songs could be played by him alone with an acoustic guitar.  And he proved it by going on solo tours and doing exactly that.  

 

But I think that statement has painted him into a corner.  I'm not particularly interested in hearing what one guy from a six piece band can do on his own.  I want to hear what six incredible artists can do when they work together to create pieces of music that none of them could perform on their own.  The idea that every song, no matter what the other five people play on it, can be stripped down to an acoustic guitar and one voice seems like such a self-limiting concept. 

I agree with all of this and you've both put to words a lot of what I've been feeling about most Wilco records post- Star Wars. 

Jeff's proven what a prolific songwriter he is and I just wonder if too much of that writing is done in isolation. That is, by the time the band is involved they're not fleshing out a song anymore but filling in holes. 

And while I don't want Wilco to remake YHF or AGIB ad nauseam, I do miss the rewards of obsessive studio-tinkering. Those songs have a "layered" quality that I find absent on a lot of Jeff's recent output. 

But FWIW I really like this EP, especially Hot Sun.

39 minutes ago, DiamondClaw said:

I would think the next thing we hear about would have to be the AGIB deluxe box set, right? Maybe they'll play a few special shows for that like they did for the YHF one a couple of years ago. In addition to the new Tweedy album late this year/early next year, I think the Autumn Defense has a new album in the can as well that hopefully comes out soon. Maybe they'll support that one with a little run of shows.

I thought Wilco communicated somewhere that after the few post-SSF dates, which have now passed, they would be done touring for 2024. I could be wrong. 
 

Also there’s been no indication of an AGIB anniversary reissue. For YHF we got some teasers. Outside of an April fools joke, there’s been nothing re AGIB. 

14 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

Mine has some dark streaks on it, but it plays fine.

 

The record vendors at Solid Sound really took advantage of their exclusive with that $30-plus-tax price point for a six-song, 17-minute EP in a plain brown sleeve. Wilcoworld is selling it for $20. I got it as part of my Friend of the Festival package, so depending on how you account for the value of the other items that came as part of it, I arguably paid about $150 for it. I think the premium for a FotF package over a regular three-day pass was $200, but the only other thing in the package that I definitely would have purchased was Jeff's book, which costs about $25, and I had dinner in the lounge one night, which probably also saved me about $25. The signed poster is cool, but I wouldn't have bought a poster if one hadn't been given to me, and the same goes for the deck of Wilco-themed playing cards, the SSF stickers and the YHF keychain.

 

It's ironic, because I definitely would not have paid $30 for the EP at SSF if it hadn't been included in the FotF package, but one of the things that spurred me to purchase the package was the promise of an "exclusive" Wilco release (that turned out not to be exclusive in the way I thought) that I effectively paid a multiple of $30 for.

 
Not to veer too off topic, but were there any FotF-exclusive performances? Was the poster different from those on offer at the merch stand? We did FotF the first year it was available and didn’t feel like we got the most out of it and so we’ve not done it since. 
 

(Also hi, Brian, it’s Tyler. I don’t think most VCers know this as my forum handle 😉)