Brian F.

I just hope that, whenever it's released, the physical release is available. (And here I'm talking about the CD; if it takes longer to get the LP manufactured, don't hold the CD hostage to the LP.)

I got tickets for all four L.A. shows as well as Santa Barbara. It worked out with fees to $105 per ticket. It gives an idea of the state of the live music world today that $105 per show seems totally reasonable. (Note: the Bellwether show in L.A. was about $20 less than the Ace and Santa Barbara shows.) Did anyone manage to get Orchestra Center? I was in right at 10 a.m. (as was coldasgasoline) and all of the tickets that came up for us were either Orchestra Left or Orchestra Right. I noticed before the on-sale that there was a button for AXS Premium and I wondered whether they mi

I thought the A's were moving to Vegas... As for the sitters, you know where I, um, stand on this. As Jeff has said many times, including on this topic, "Don't postpone happiness," which is pretty clearly an anagram of "HOP ONTO PEPPINESS: STAND!"

Acoustic Art of Almost? That must have been wild.

A couple of us were speculating today that there could be shows in either Southern California or the Pacific Northwest in between the Berkeley and Monterey shows, but that is not based on anything other than geography.

It's nice to see "You Never Know" make an appearance. Jeff always jokes about Wilco not having any hits, or about "playing the hit" (usually in reference to "Jesus etc."), but "You Never Know" is the only Wilco song to hit number one on any Billboard chart (Adult Album Alternative/Triple-A), so you'd think it would be more regularly featured. Granted, being number one on that particular chart is an example of being a big fish in a very small pond in terms of the total audience reached, but still.

Not to belabor this, but I really want to emphasize that this is not just about the first night of this residency. On the Cruel Country tour, only three of the 36 most-played songs came from these six albums. "Impossible Germany" was played 39 times, "If I Ever Was a Child" was played 33 times and "Love Is Everywhere (Beware)" was played 27 times. The next-most-played song on the tour from these six albums was "Everyone Hides," which was played at six of 59 shows. The only other song with more than three appearances on the tour was "You and I," which was performed five times. There

I tried to clarify that it wasn't only about last night. These other albums have not shown up a lot on set lists recently. I'd expect to hear a lot more of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at the next two shows, but not as much of these other six albums. We're talking about half of the studio-album catalog, and consecutively. I don't think it's an anomaly, but we'll see.

I know this is only the first of three nights where we anticipate no repeated songs, but it is odd to me that there is only one song in this 23-song set that post-dates the establishment of the current lineup of the band and pre-dates Cruel Country. "Love Is Everywhere (Beware)" is the only song from the six-album span of Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (The Album), The Whole Love, Star Wars, Schmilco and Ode to Joy and 15-year period from 2007 through 2021. With the four Cruel Country songs, that makes five songs out of 23 from the last fifteen years. Nels and Pat are almost in a cover band with the freq

I'll mention Pearl Jam, whose 2020 Gigaton record is fantastic. The only problem with PJ past the twenty-year mark is that the albums have been few and far between. Since their 20th anniversary in 2010, they have only released albums in 2015 and 2020. I think there are plenty of acts that continue to put out good records well into their careers, but audiences don't tend to give later albums the same time and attention they give earlier albums, not necessarily because of quality, but because the circumstances of the listeners have changed. It's really easy for a 20-year-old to disco

There actually was a tournament called Crosswords LA that was run for a few years here, but it was a lot of work for the organizer and I think it lost money (even though there were no cash prizes). My first tournament was Crosswords LA in 2014, I think. Bear in mind that ACPT and Crosswords LA are (and were) on-paper only. I haven't done any online tournaments because I would get completely destroyed competing on a computer. I have no facility with those crossword apps.

You got it. I will be defending my 18th-place finish from 2022.

Wow, this works out really well for me. I was already planning to be in New York that week centered around an event in Stamford on Saturday and Sunday, and the theater is eight miles from the hotel where the event is, so I just stumbled into three bonus Wilco shows. Nice!

It's a song that he played Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Largo.

My post wasn't about that song. It was about the song that could be named either "Nothing New" or "Having a Hard Time." Both phrases are part of its refrain.

For what it's worth, I asked Cash on Thursday what that song was called and he said, "'Having a Hard Time' is the only title I've ever heard."

I'm nominating the first line of this writeup for this year's Pulitzer in Breaking News-- Surveying. Previous surveyor laureates include George Washington, George Gallup... and probably other people named George. "Everlasting Everything" was indeed an especial and unexpected highlight. An (I think) unintentionally comic moment occurred after the "I'll Fight" banter, when Jeff proceeded to play "Hearts Hard to Find" with the opening lyric "I don't mind/When certain people die...." There were quite a few chuckles in the audience from people who perhaps thought Jeff was s

It is not a competition. I just think it's important for people to know that, if stuff goes down-- and these shows teeter on the edge of a riot at times-- you'll need to call the L.A.P.D. to respond. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which polices WeHo, has no jurisdiction at Largo. (Actually, arguably the only entity with jurisdiction at Largo is Flanny, who runs it as a sort of benevolent dictatorship.) ...But seriously, I would probably just call 911 if order needed to be restored but I can never remember the number.

For the record-- and I believe this has come up before-- Largo is not in West Hollywood. It is in the city of Los Angeles. The West Hollywood/Los Angeles line snakes in such a way that everything on La Cienega from Rosewood Ave. (where Norm's is) south is in L.A.

I was wondering the same thing. I bought both the CD and LP boxes, but I haven't opened the LP box and probably won't get around to it for a while. Is there any information in the LP box that's not in the CD box? I really have no idea what I'm listening to on CDs 2, 3 and 4 other than bits I can sort of glean from the essays, but even that's not totally clear.

I just received both the CD and LP sets... just in time for me to pay no attention to them as the Mets play their biggest series of the season over the next three days. Let's go, Mets!

And here's the printed set list. "I Got You (At the End of the Century)" and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" were not played. Now don't you fall "arart"...

I did not attend this show, but here is the set list for the record: Handshake Drugs I Am My Mother Cruel Country I Am Trying to Break Your Heart War on War Via Chicago* Hummingbird Bird without a Tail / Base of My Skull Jesus, etc. Impossible Germany California Stars Falling Apart (Right Now) Heavy Metal Drummer U.S. Blues * No coda I know coldasgasoline was there, and perhaps he'll share his experience, but he's traveling today.

There was someone in the second row in San Diego with a child that couldn't have been older than five. She was wearing protective headphones. Apparently, they worked because she was sound asleep before the main set was over.

They were done at 10:45 p.m., so they could have played "The Late Greats" if the curfew was 11 p.m. I just walked in the door at 1:10 a.m. after a 138-mile drive. Four hours to get to San Diego; just over two hours to get back. Typical.