PeterD

I spoke to Jeff at Wellington airport today, and discussed this brief for Wilco standards show. It turns out the band thought there was an 11pm curfew and had to get off, no one had told them otherwise. He felt quite bad about it, and said to make up for it, everyone who bought tickets will receive an email with a link to some free downloads of Wilco songs. That's a pretty cool thing to do. So those of you were there, check your inboxes over the coming while.

Thanks for the good news. I'll keep in eye on my e-mail! And I second Wise Enough's proposal for more shows more often ...

That's pretty much what happened at the second show - Jeff apologised for the short set the previous night and said it was due to a 'miscommunication'. Said the only thing they thought they could do to make up for it was to play a longer set the second night (although in the end they played the same length as Melbourne and cut some songs from the setlist).

Thanks, I'm glad to hear it. I need to keep in mind the great Wilco concerts I've attended over the years -- in the scheme of things their batting average is still very good!

I was at the Tuesday show with some friends and we all felt let down by the abrupt ending. The entire crowd was on their feet calling for more, and it felt like the band would come back for another encore. Then the lights went up and it was just ... over. Wilco was great, as usual, but the dynamic of the whole show felt off. The slow build of the first 5-6 song suddenly shifted to the high-energy ending of a longer set, with no back-and-forth between quieter and more upbeat songs (other than One by One, which was as gorgeous as ever).

Afterward, we concluded that there must have been time restrictions imposed by the Opera House. It was very aggravating to see that they played a full-length set on Wednesday. Jeff apparently said that they didn't play long enough on Tuesday, but that isn't much comfort to those of us who didn't attend the Wednesday show.

My guess is that things were mishandled somewhere along the line. Maybe the band thought there were time restrictions where none existed. It would be nice if Jeff (or someone from the organisation) acknowledged what happened, and maybe apologised. I still love Wilco and will see them whenever they return to Sydney, but this show left a bitter taste.