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sleapman

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    Wilco — 30 October 2023, Chicago, IL (Metro)

    in After The Show

    Posted

    Fwiw, it looked to me that the band's guitar techs were defintiely setting up for a second encore during Spiders (at least on Nel's side), and the house lights took a few beats to come on after the first encore. I walked by the soundbooth on the way out and it also looked like everybody working back there was ready for more music. Feels like it was an audible from the band to end it. 

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    What did Wilco play on The Tonight Show in 1999?

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    In the somewhat-related-but-not-really department, I was living in LA at this time and had tickets to Wilco's second night at the House of Blues on the tour (i think they taped the tonight show appearance before night one).

     

    I think there was a death in the Tweedy/Miller family in between shows and the second night was cancelled.  I know the band rarely cancels shows, and was bummed to have missed them on this tour (obviously family comes first).  Just figured i'd drop this anecdote in.

     

     

    Mini Tweedy Concert - 5/1/2016

    in After The Show

    Posted

    I was fortunate enough to attend an event today at Temple Emanuel in Chicago for the retirement of Rabbi Michael Zedek. In addition to a touching ceremony and some great comedy from Pete Grosz and his wife Deb, Jeff and Spencer performed three songs for the attendees.

     

    1. A Simple Twist of Fate (Bob Dylan cover)

    2. You are Not Alone

    3. Hesitating Beauty

     

    Was very cool to see them perform in this setting (and to hear A Simple Twist of Fate live).

    Good news for U2 fans..

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Great points above, U2roolz.

     

     I've seen U2 17 times (not bragging, just establishing a baseline) starting in 1987 and by far my biggest disappointment with them as a live act is their complete lack of spontaneity.  While their shows make look stunning visually, they are so programmed down to the minute that it rarely, if ever, allows the band to call an audible. And this has been the case since the Zoo TV tour.   I know U2 has to balance playing the hits/pushing their new album but they completely ignore entire albums/eras from their catalog.  Obviously this is their right, but after hearing some of the rumors of them changing their sets drastically, I am not too encouraged by the early returns on their setlists - i'd also argue the only reason they are playing When Loves to Comes to Town is to honor the dearly departed BB King - which is a nice gesture - but I am sure it will drop off the setlist soon.  Hopefully the longer runs in certain cities will unearth some rarely played tunes.

     

    Every fan wants to hear "their" songs and it's all subjective - but if performers like Pearl Jam or Bruce can play 50-60 songs on a tour, I guess U2 could too.  I just don't think they want to.  

    Bands you wish that you had seen, but missed the chance

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Paul Simon - Graceland Tour & Talking Heads - pretty much any tour. Was just too young at the time to convince the parents to let me go....

     

    Not that i am a big fan, but just as Oasis was starting to blow up (early-to-mid 90s), i was in line to buy tickets in DC to see them (at Radio Music Hall, before it became the "new" 9:30 club) and the people in front of me bought the last two tickets. Never saw them...

    Published Wilco (the album) articles and reviews

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    Double whammy in today's NY Times, first the longer article in the Arts & Leisure section, and this interview from the Magazine...

     

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05fob-q4-t.html?ref=magazine

     

     

    Questions for Jeff Tweedy

    Rock of Ages

    By DEBORAH SOLOMON

     

    Some of us think of your music as mom-and-dad rock, probably because it appeals with equal magnetism to aging boomers and our teenage kids. Wilco is the only current band on which there is any consensus in my household.

    That seems to happen quite a bit with this band, which is flattering. I’m not a big believer in the predestined hatred of generations.

     

    Although “Wilco (The Album)” was released on Tuesday, you streamed the songs free online in May after they surfaced illegally on the Internet.

    As a musician, I don’t want to expend any energy whatsoever preventing people from hearing our music. I think that’s antithetical to the idea of making it. Yes, we streamed it. Basically we set it up so people who felt guilty about stealing our music could donate some money to our favorite charity.

     

    Your Chicago-based band strikes me as fundamentally Midwestern in spirit, with its earnest artistry and catchy, country-inflected sound. Do you see yourself as Midwestern?

    It never meant anything to me until I traveled to the coasts and realized there are people there who don’t have any idea that anybody lives in between.

     

    “Bull Black Nova,” the darkest song on your new album, is a kind of musical panic attack.

    It sounds like a phone off the hook.

     

    Why is the band called Wilco, which puts me in mind of an insurance company?

    It means “will comply” in radio signaling and struck me as an ironic name for a rock band, which is historically responsible for not complying.

     

    As a musician who has talked openly about his history of migraines and clinical depression, what can you tell us about your childhood in Belleville, Ill.?

    I learned how to play solitaire when I was a little kid, and it always struck me that my mom would teach me how to play as opposed to telling me to go call somebody and get out of the house and hang out with my friends. I was very comfortable with being alone. I also think that my mother maybe just didn’t want me to be too far away.

     

    You went to college in Belleville.

    I went for three years, and I don’t think I have enough credits to claim myself as a first-semester freshman.

     

    Did you consider a future in anything besides music?

    I worked in a record store when I was growing up, and I could have seen myself doing that if I wasn’t able to make a living playing music. But, no, I really rolled the dice. I did not have a fallback position. I had one egg in my basket.

     

    Your former band mate Jay Bennett died in May of an accidental overdose, just a few weeks after suing you for royalties he claimed he was owed. Do you think his claim has merit?

    Jay sued me for breaching a contract we never had and for failing to pay royalties on a movie I did not produce and for which I have no financial responsibility. Jay has been paid his fair share of royalties on the songs he co-wrote — not by me, but through his own publishing, which is the way it works. So, no, I don’t believe his claim has merit.

     

    I hear your older son had a bar mitzvah this year. What did you think of the process, as a non-Jew with a Jewish wife?

    I was just so proud of my son — he really nailed it. I sang “Forever Young,” by Bob Dylan, and everybody cried. We have a very liberal congregation, and there’s a lot of acoustic-guitar strumming.

     

    Let’s talk about your fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama, an old acquaintance of yours. Does he have any taste in music?

    We had a little run-in with him on the campaign trail at a fund-raiser because he had just given a list of his favorite iPod tracks to Rolling Stone, and Wilco wasn’t on it after all of the work we’d done for him. It was iPodgate, I guess.

     

    How would you describe your singing voice, in general?

    Somewhere between Gordon Lightfoot and a tea kettle. I would not get past the first round of “American Idol.”

     

    INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.

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