kidsmoke

Thanks Wilcos! 

Trying to start a new art trend, here. 

...my son & his wife have decided they want to come. But of course waited til now. 

Just don't want to pay those nasty scalpers.

WOW, Charles! As usual they are magnificent! Love the one of Wild Rock Mikael with his Rock Pillow! 

On 10/7/2023 at 11:20 AM, lost highway said:

I've decided "Sunlight Ends" has a melancholic sweetness that hits me in the heart like nothing since "Wishful Thinking".

What a nice way of expressing it! 

I should add that part of my non-complete-hatred of occasional sitting in a seated venue is the simple fact that I have foot & leg problems myself. So long standing is hard for me. Nonetheless, if we are in certain songs I don't even care if my feet are numb or screaming, I'll be on them for the duration of the song or encore. A sacrifice to the rock godz.

1 hour ago, DiamondClaw said:

Total sidetrack but, this is why I am puzzled why bands want to go out on tour immediately after releasing a new album. I always thought it would be better to let an album get out there for a bit, settle in and have fans make some connections to the songs. Maybe play a few late night shows, promote the new material a bit, whatever. Then, a few months later, start the tour with the new stuff feeling more familiar. Probably doesn't work with the business and/or logistics sides of things I'd guess. And of course you're never going to make connections comparable to classic, nostalgic, emotional reactions to older stuff. But I always thought it would at least help give the new stuff at least bit of a boost.

I hear what you're saying. The release was so close to the shows I'd be seeing that I was tempted not to listen to the album until after the shows. Learn the live versions of the songs first, since I often prefer the live versions that evolve. But in the end I HAD to listen, of course, and I'm glad I did because you need that baseline, that template given by the studio version, to really appreciate then where the band departs from it, swirls off into a version that may be specific to that night, never repeated....in a word, LIVE. It's good to hear both and love their differences, for me. 
As to touring so soon, I think it's likely 2 things: Mainly, they've held this music close to their chests for a loooooonnng while now, and are anxious to give it to the world & hear the reaction! 
And secondarily, they may be scheduling ahead of Jeff's impending hip surgeries. And may I say BRAVO to our captain for his Real Life Courage, out there being the fantastic, talented & funny front man that he is, all the while likely hurting, certainly by show's end. The man's a trouper. 

Ha! I must respond to this! I don't completely agree on the standing/sitting assessment. I thought when Jeff called us the Goldilocks audience, he was saying we got it "just right". Not "too cold"...night one & all the sitters, not "too hot"...night two and nobody ever sitting down...but "just right". Standing for the rockers, sitting for the slower "listeners". Nothing wrong with an audience sitting to listen respectfully to a slower, more introspective song! 

Of course there was unfamiliarity in the audience with the Cousin material. We can't expect that the audience is made up entirely of passionate diehard fans. So there was a dropoff when a new song began, but as the musicianship built to a swell, even the new songs had many on their feet in appreciation. I thought it was a fine audience for a seated venue. And a happy one...people leaving looked elevated & happy. The crowd mood after says a lot about how a concert went.

As for choosing a favorite of these shows, I had to give the 2nd a miss so I may have missed the best. I heard rave reviews. But no problem...I adored Night One (Wednesday) despite the shy audience being slow to stand. The folks around me were plenty enthusiastic that night and I was in pure Wilco heaven. It was great! Last night the audience was more committed and confident which of course feeds the band's energy, so that was better. But in the end I'd have to call it about a draw between the two, balancing my more preferred setlist (Night One) against a more involved audience on Night 3.

All in all, another set of stellar, satisfying Wilco shows. Bring on the Bellwether!!! Where Brian is far more likely to get that standing audience he craves! 

Very cool! I'm a big Brinsleys fan.

So how's life, PopTodd?

A little commentary on some silliness last night...when Jeff forgot the lyrics to "Love is Everywhere" and had to stop, he commented wryly, laughing at himself, that that's what he got for having just thought to himself "Well, this is going well!"  And it had been! Going fabulously in fact. Anyway after a bit of embarrassed memory-searching, "Love is..." resumed beautifully and the set continued. A bit later, between songs, some of the audience cat-callers were yelling out shit and setting each other off, and Jeff commented in a deflated voice, "I don't think this is going so well, now!" prompting a big laugh from the audience. A very funny little moment.

I mention this story because I saw that some bozo in the fb group used Jeff's comedic crack to try to argue that Wilco were having a very "off" night last night  and Jeff had even admitted it and apologized to the audience, saying "I don't think this is going well, now."

Jeebus, people. Context matters. I wonder if that person misses this much in real life. 

It was one of Jeff's funnier moments last night. He looked so disappointed in us. But in truth he (they) had the audience eating out of their hands.(And he knew it!)

Here's the original setlist. As you can see, we got a completely different encore.

Also Dawned on Me wasn't played.

DAMN, now THAT was a Wilco show!  It's hours since and I'm still gobsmacked by how good it was. Stellar setlist with something to please everybody, but I don't have it & can't remember it all...it's late and I'm exhausted.

Suffice it to say, they played everything like what they are, a band at the top of their game. The early-on "Handshake Drugs" pulled people to their feet and may have melted off part of my face so be kind when you see me next. I'll leave more details to others to tell. Must sleep.

Oh and Jeff's got crowd control figured out now. Tomorrow he's bringing a laser pointer to zero in on disruptive audience shouters. So you've been warned.

Also we got to sing the guitar line to Spiders! 

See you tomorrow!! Oops it's past midnight, SEE YOU IN ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE 20 HOURS! At the beautiful Ace. 

6 hours ago, Brian F. said:

 

In its first week of wide release, Cruel Country sold 7,000 copies across all formats (LP, CD and downloads).* That would include direct sales by the band as well as sales by retailers set up for tracking by Luminate (which will exclude some independent record stores). That number is slightly lower than it would have been but for the "white label" CD release on Record Store Day. (There were a total of 8,000 copies of that release available.)

 

In its first week of release, the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot box set sold 13,000 copies (8,000 vinyl, 4,500 CD and 500 digital downloads). That includes all the various permutations of the set, from the 2-CD highlights version to the 11-LP behemoth.

 

Bearing in mind that sales typically peak in the first week for an established artist and then drop off precipitously, these numbers support the idea that they would "budget" 1,000 LPs (and 500 CDs?) for Wilcoworld preorder (since the majority of sales will be through third-party retailers).

 

I shouldn't be surprised by these numbers, given that the by-far-most-common response by "civilians" when I have mentioned the band over the past 28 years has been "Who?," but it's amazing that the band has been able to sustain such a successful career with such a small audience. Obviously, the band's audience is larger than just the people who still buy their albums in 2023, but it's still small in the grand scheme of things.

 

* I don't have a breakdown of this, but an educated guess is that 4,500-5,000 were vinyl, 2,000-2,500 were CDs and a de minimis number were digital downloads.

 

EDIT: I should note that my copy of the LP is black vinyl. There's probably a separate tranche of the "floral ice" variant. Maybe they do another 1,000 of the variant.

I have the Floral Ice vinyl. Very cool looking and VERY thick vinyl. Is the black the same?

3 hours ago, Brian F. said:

I retract all of my whining. The package arrived today. Tracking still shows it in Raleigh, but it's here. What an infinite surprise (h/t coldasgasoline).

Same here!

I totally agree!

Good thinking. 

5 hours ago, Brian F. said:

On the one hand, I'm encouraged by the fact that they've shipped some of these out to arrive before Friday. On the other hand, I'm discouraged because I still haven't gotten a shipping notice. I really need this no later than Friday so I can have some familiarity before the shows starting Wednesday.

I'm feeling the same! Only got my shipping notice today.

Mine has shipped, but the tracking tells me it won't be here until *gasp* Monday October 2nd!  How the hell am I supposed to wait until then?

Welcome to Via Chicago! I wish I could afford to travel right now because the dollar is very strong in Japan right now. But I just can't. I hope you make connections! If you do, we'll want to hear your stories after!

If there's anyone out there who is going & not using their 2nd item (to be signed), I have a friend who would be thrilled if you could get a vinyl signed for him, since he can't be there. 

6 hours ago, chisoxjtrain said:

 

A man after my own heart.

He's such a breath of fresh air!

16 hours ago, u2roolz said:

https://americana-uk.com/wilco-cousin-2?fbclid=IwAR237plCSkKxxmOcDypkGy4qFOuAT7e-7YXX1topnZmSSiZthm6qJy3KbQY
 

 

 Thank you! Now the thread title is more legit.

Great, intriguing review!

14 hours ago, heychicken said:

As I eagerly await an announcement for Solid Sound 2024, I am beginning the process of replicating a small craft I did for last year's festival. 

If there's enough interest, I'll do it again!

 

For kicks, I made a series of bingo cards for Yo La Tengo's 2021 Hanukkah run of shows at the Bowery Ballroom. These were left in the venue lounge and it was fun to see people post their progress with them and when/if they'd hit five-in-a-row. 

In 2022, I made a newer series with the blessing of the band and their awesome management team to sell at the merch table to raise some extra funds for the charities they'd focus on each night. Here's an example:

 

 

I made a few earlier in the year for Solid Sound 2022 that were primarily stashed at the record store pop-ups near Courtyard D. No bingos as the band leaned heavily on the Cruel Country tracks on Saturday (didn't really care as the set was still great). Here's one of those (there were SOLID, SOUND, and WILCO variations): 

 

Disclaimer:

Folks asked me throughout the weekend what they'd win. There is no prize other than the potential for an absurdly large amount of people in a crowd to shout "bingo" (why not?).

I look forward to yelling "Bingo!" at next SSF. 

8 hours ago, jff said:

I'm scared to death that Biden's going to have a heart attack or stroke before the election.  If that happens, Trump wins even if he's in jail. 

I feel ya. Biden is exceptionally healthy for his age, so hopefully that continues. But there are a lot of terrifying scenarios for the next years.

As for Trump, he led an insurrection. He is not qualified to remain on the ballot.