HeavyMetalDrummist

I really want to go but need a roommate. If anyone else is a single and looking for a plus one, let me know. 

Caveat: I'm a little weird and require another person who's also a little weird. Not too weird, though.

I didn't hear Wilco, but I saw them.

Air Chicago magazine.

13 minutes ago, kidsmoke said:

 

You lost me...

Oh crap I thought I was replying to a different post! I'm so sorry 😳🥺

5 hours ago, kidsmoke said:

 

Lucky you. I'm jealous!

Oh no don't be jealous. Be glad you didn't have to sit through that shit show of a game!

1 minute ago, uncool2pillow said:

Random Name Generator on Thursday Night Football just now 

Beat me to it!

I knew Jay. He was a great guy and a veritable polymath.

That's insane. 

$50.30 in fees?

I went to two of the YHF anniversary shows, this being my second. Both were spectacular. Hard to pick out any one moment, but one that really stuck out to me was Poor Places. I loved the way Jeff conducted the ending of it ... reminded me of how Misunderstood ends. 

Also, I may be turning into the old man who yells at kids at kids on his lawn. There was a younger guy, early 30s, probably, who was singing his head off and yelled out his love for Jeff at several points during the concert. I didn't come there to hear the guy behind me sing along to Wilco songs. I came there to see and hear Wilco perform YHF. As distracting as he was, I still enjoyed myself, as did my son, who was at is third or fourth Wilco show with me. 

I walked into the venue right before Chicago Farmer started to play. I really enjoyed them and was especially impressed with the drummer's ability to play the drums while also playing the keys or mandolin. I've been playing drums for 40 years and I can't fathom the coordination that requires. 

Backyard Tire Fire were good, but I enjoyed Chicago Farmer more, probably because I'm a little more on the country side of alt-country. 

Wilco can't really be pegged in that particular genre and probably hasn't been easy to peg into any genre since Summerteeth. The best, yet still far-off comparison I've heard of Wilco is to The Beatles. The ingenuity and uniqueness of their discography is comparable, but that's where the comparisons should end. Tweedy's ability to come up with something new for every album and even each song within each album is nearly unmatched.

Anyway, I decided to stay where I was when Chicago Farmer neared the end of their set, which was pretty close to the stage. As various people left to get beers or wherever else they went, I inched my way up to a spot right behind the first row of people. I've never been so close to the stage at a Wilco show, and this was a treat. It was totally worth the sore legs and feet that accompanied the four hours of standing in one spot that it took. Tweedy was in good spirits, had good banter and was pretty animated throughout the show. I think the 18 month break has made many appreciate the blessing of live music, and that extends to performers as well as the crowds that pack places to see them. This was my 9th Wilco show and by far my favorite, probably because I was so close to the stage. Nels' solo in Impossible Germany was the best I've seen. It was a more lively show than the one they put on at Millennium Park. That show seemed brief, although the venue's view of the surrounding city sort of made up for the brevity. 

Can't wait to see them again. Vive Le Wilco!

Chicago Theater is a fantastic venue. I sat in the first row of the main balcony and was not bothered by anyone around me. LOVED the song selection. This was my sixth Wilco show and second at Chicago Theater and both of those shows have been outstanding. The room sounds great, the band seems energetic. Was also happy that they didn't play as many OTJ songs as they did when I saw them in Indy and St. Louis. The album is still growing on me and even though I really enjoy those songs live I still really enjoyed their older stuff.

Anyone know how to obtain one of these magazines at this point? The Newsstand website no longer has it available.

I'm trying. I'm really trying. And I'll keep trying.

But I still haven't warmed up to Ode to Joy. 

This and Schmilco are such a huge departure from anything that's been done previously. 

I realize we're never going to have another Summerteeth or Being There but I miss the roots-rock-Americana sound that made Wilco famous. 

Saw them in Indy on 11/12 and am seeing them again tonight in St. Louis. Also have tickets for one night of the Chicago shows.

I will say that I enjoyed the songs more live than I do on the album, but there were a total of 8 songs from OTJ and I expect there'll be about that many tonight. 
 

Currently on the 15th or so play through of OTJ. I'm becoming more familiar with the songs. 

My parents were fond of telling me the story of how I used to try to force myself to like watermelon because my dad really liked it. Apparently I would force myself to eat it and, while suppressing the gag reflex, would declare my love for it. I really wanted to like watermelon because I wanted to be like my dad. 

I really want to like OTJ because it's by my favorite band, but so far it's all effort and little reward.

Ode to Joy?  Wilco should have just named it Sky Blue Sky II.  When I first got on VC in 2008 SBS was still taking a beating from many hardcore VC'ers, I didn't get the criticism then, and I don't get it now.  Wilco is band that been around the block, lyrically, sonically and personellwise,  and they can make any album they want to, hell they own the damn label.  I guess folks expected light-hearted poppy tunes with lots of hooks and clever lyrics given the title "Ode to Joy", but no, the band goes and throws out a curve ball maybe hoping the fans can rise to the occasion and appreciate the fact that they're not sitting back on their laurels rehashing the familiar.  I trust Tweedy and the boys to know what they're doing, and Ode grows on me with every new listen.  If you're not into it, that's cool, just think of it was as an experimental album of deep cuts.  

SBS was the first album I really listened to after A.M. I experienced a regrettably long period where I almost completely stopped listening to new music of any kind. It could have had something to do with the birth of my first son. In fact I'm just going with that.

The most regrettable thing for me today is that I knew Jay Bennett and was really excited for him after joining the band. I didn't find out until after he had passed away that he and Wilco had parted ways ... that's how out of the loop I was.

This sounds like Warmest to me.

I'm not saying it's bad, and I'm going to continue to put the work in to warm up to it, but it's not what I was hoping for.

That's OK for sure. I'm not the artist here. I'm the consumer. And hey ... after all, this is still Wilco. I'm going to listen to it and become familiar with the songs.

Also of note: I'm currently battling a sinus infection that's made me nearly (hopefully temporarily) deaf in my right ear, so my listening experience has been accompanied by a frustration that I know I probably can't really hear everything I need to.

I'm cool with there being no shows near me for now. They are obviously doing Midwest/West another time. Can't be everywhere always. 

 

I also think the password for these presales is interesting: Casino Queen. Not referencing a new album. In fact referencing their oldest material. 

I get it. But I really want to see a Wilco show!

I use MusicBee and love it.

WTF Wilco! Nothing in Chicago or St. Louis?

So far there are only dates in October. Maybe November will be added soon? December? Maybe a 4 date run at Chicago Theater in February again?

I use Visualping. It's a chrome extension. I'll start monitoring the tour dates page.

Visualping ... nice. Will it send a notification if the page changes?

I have a good feeling the North American tour will be announced this week. If this doesn't happen you can all blame me. 

Does anyone have a good script that will spam the "Shows" page with F5?

Also, where are the shows usually announced first? Wilcoworld.net?

Glad to find other people who love Wilco and Jeff Tweedy as much as (and probably more than) I do.

I was at the show at Virginia Theater and was thoroughly enjoying myself. Bought tickets for my oldest son and myself. We were one of a hundred or so in the balcony.

I was appalled by the behavior of several fans. I won't go so far as to say they ruined the experience for me, but they did for Jeff and what started as a personal, intimate show ended as something where you could tell he just wanted to GTFO of Champaign. It really sucked that the banter reached that level of disrespect.

In my younger days I was one of those guys on the fringe of Jay's awareness. Like ... I saw him at a gas station once shortly after he joined Wilco and he remembered my name. And I think that was actually the last time I ever saw him. My son, the one who was at the show with me, was born about a year after running into Jay.

Anyway, I kind of knew him and the rest of his old band Titanic Love Affair. Bought my first drumset from TLA's drummer, Mike Hazelrigg. Ran into their old bassist last night at a grocery store and we stopped and talked for about 10 minutes. He recalled my fascination with Jay's guitar work on one of their albums and said he'd just been thinking about that conversation, which is wild, because it must have happened about 30 years ago!

I brought up the Virginia show to him and he didn't really want to talk about Wilco or Jeff Tweedy. That's pretty much the same sentiment that many around here have. There's respect for Tweedy but still a lot of hurt feelings and even some blame for reasons I don't really understand. There are still, after all these years, some really hard feelings.

Fortunately / unfortunately I have the luxury of having missed all of that as I was relatively unaware of anything Wilco and/or Jay Bennett was doing from, like 1996 through about 2009, when I "discovered" Sky Blue Sky and it quickly became one of my favorite records. Of course I had heard about Jay's passing prior to that but I never sought out his or Wilco's stuff until I happened across a friend's mp3 library and started listening. Since then they've been my go-to music. I haven't watched the documentary and I don't think I want to. Maybe I will someday. I don't know. 

I always had very fond memories of Jay and the rest of TLA. And Wilco has become my favorite band and Tweedy my favorite song-writer / performer. I wish things hadn't ended the way they did and that Jeff and Jay could have found a way to continue to work together. I really think they made each other better. Being There and Summerteeth are true gems and I think they're that way because of the work Tweedy and Bennett did together.

Also, for what's it's worth, having known and been familiar with Jay's guitar playing and some of the melodies he came up with, you can still hear his fingerprints all over A Ghost Is Born, specifically At Least That's What You Said and Spiders. In fact, both of those songs have the most Bennett-like sounds of anything I've heard from Bennett's playing on their 3 previous albums and Mermaid Avenue.

Check out the After The Show forum for discussion about this show. And too bad you missed James Elkington, because he was excellent.

I know. I really like him but it didn't work out that we were able to get there in time. My son is a junior at ISU and he had a class that ended at 7:00, so we were really cutting it close to get there by the time Tweedy started.

Thanks for the tip on finding other discussions about this show. I wasn't sure where to look / post about it.

We showed up right before Tweedy came on stage. I didn't really know what to expect in terms of other players, but it was just him and his guitar. And a harmonica.

It was a fantastic show and he had this great rapport with the crowd. Funny, endearing, a little self deprecating. He really seemed like he was having a good time and it showed in the way he put his heart into his performance...

Until...

Some dude in the audience yelled out "play something for Jay Bennett!" Or something like that. I don't know. But it really caught Tweedy off guard. Hurt him and it stuck with him. He shot back and there was this awkward banter that ensued and then he started California Stars because he and Jay had written it together.

Even after California Stars, Tweedy was visibly disturbed at what must have seemed to him to be a hostile crowd. But it was anything but that. A couple of dickheads in the crowd for sure, but the overwhelming majority of those in attendance were there because we love Jeff Tweedy and Wilco. Being Bennett's home town, there were many in the crowd who knew Jay well and knew more than most did about what went down between Jeff and Jay, but we were there anyway and still love them both.

He played one more song after California Stars then came out for a two song encore. Everything from California Stars and after still sounded good, but it had all gone from this intimate, close performance to something else. He was no longer having fun and just wanted to go back home.

So there's gonna be a US tour, right?

RIGHT????

The neck of Jeff's main guitar is actually the midsection of an old Graphics bong (not the newer, cheaper Graffix bongs.)

Also, the backdrop for their recent Schmilco tour was composed of ABV (Already Been Vaped) cannabis. 

At their Saturday night show at the Chicago Theater in February 2017, someone in the front row asked Tweedy what his shirt said.

His reply: "...what does my shirt say? It says We're All In This Together. Except Trump. He's a dick."