bböp

8 hours ago, nalafej said:

Cool album title.

 

 

Wilc-ki leaks?

14 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

1000 views! Just like the good old days . . .

 

Surely 750 between you, me and the former prime minister...

And after four shows in four days, another Wilco tour of Spain is in the books. I think the most enduring memories of this little tour-within-a-tour will center on the oven-like conditions, and tonight was no exception. Even after the unrelenting sun sank below the horizon and gave way to the more-than-welcome darkness, the humidity generated by the seaside setting of this amphitheater made for a pretty sweltering evening.

 

Full recap to come, but for now, here was the complete setlist as played (didn't get a look at a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

Side With The Seeds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Whole Love

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

One Wing

Hummingbird

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

------------------------------------

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Just doing a little housekeeping for this one, since unfortunately I wasn't able (or rather, chose not) to attend in person. I know at least a few people who did make it there, however, so perhaps one of them will chip in someday and give us a little more insight on what this festival was like. I do know that it took place at the Feria de Muestras de Armilla (aka Armilla fairgrounds, more commonly known as Fermasa) south of Granada city center and that Wilco had a 1 hour, 40 minute time slot from 9-10:40 p.m. on the primary Victoria stage, preceded by Leon Benavente and followed by the interestingly named Love Of Lesbian. I think Jeff and Co. would probably have fit in better on the first day of the two-day food-centric fest when the lineup also included Nada Surf, the Lemon Twigs and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but such is festival luck of the draw, I suppose.

 

Anyway, thanks to the folks at Wilcoworld, here was the complete setlist as played (it appears that I Got You (At The End Of The Century) was on the printed setlist as the final song of the set but wasn't played):

 

Handshake Drugs

Side With The Seeds

Evicted

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Hummingbird

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

California Stars

Heavy Metal Drummer

Walken

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Once again, I'm going to have to circle back later to fill in the details on this second of two Spanish gigs under the umbrella of the Alma Festival. For now, I will just say that despite the wilting heat all day long, the energy level from both band and audience seemed significantly better than the previous night in Barcelona. It was still not necessarily a show that reached the heights of some previous performances in Spain, IMHO, but definitely still an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

 

OK, where were we? As with the previous night’s gig in Barcelona, the format of these Alma Festival shows seems to be to open the amphitheater gates several hours before the headliner takes the stage so as to give people plenty of time to partake of a number of food and beverage options as well as watch a local band on a different, smaller stage. There’s also at least three separate tiers of tickets — a VIP option, a “front stage” pass and a general ticket, with the folks who had purchased the front stage tickets able to enter a separate pit area closer to the stage. And while it was still hot just in general, at least that pit area was mostly out of the direct sunlight, which made the relatively long wait until Wilco started much more tolerable.

 

After a bit of a rushed feeling in Barcelona, Jeff and Co. actually took the stage in Madrid a couple of minutes early and with Handshake Drugs kicking things off, it seemed like they weren’t wasting any time getting into the meat of their set. I was kind of hoping all of this would pay off later by giving the band a bit more time to play a couple more songs than usual in the encore (hello, Monday…one of these days?) but it didn’t materialize. The Wilcomen actually ended up playing one less song total than in Barcelona, though in this heat, I guess who can blame them?

 

For his part, Jeff was definitely a bit more chatty than the night before, even if several of his comments were basically expressions of gratitude. “I wish I could say more than gracias,” Jeff said in his final comments before the end of the show. “Spain…has been one of the best places in the world for us for a long time. You always lift us up, so thank you very much.” Earlier, Jeff had remarked on how it was “so nice to be back in Madrid. It’s one of our favorite places. It might be our favorite place.”

 

Other visits to Banter Corner included a quip about Box Full Of Letters. Referring to the previous song, Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, while introducing Box, Jeff noted how “that song was from the 16th century. This song is even older.” Then with Annihilation following Box as usual, Jeff gave his spiel about the two songs demonstrating Wilco’s artistic growth over the past 30 years and joking that the two tunes “sound nothing alike.”

 

I don’t know If Jeff was actually a bit more engaged with the Madrileño audience in general, or if it just felt that way to me, but he did encourage people to sing along with Jesus, etc. in a kind of funny way, telling people to sing “if you know the words, or if you don’t, make sounds.” One song earlier, after Nels had received a nice extended ovation — complete with “Oeeee, oee, oee” chants — following Impossible Germany, Jeff deadpanned before Jesus, “(Nels has) had enough. He’s gonna take a seat.”

 

On the main set-closing Spiders (Kidsmoke), of course, Jeff didn’t have to say anything at all to get the crowd to participate. He simply led the proverbial horse to water and let it drink. I had forgotten that the band wasn’t really playing Spiders last time around in Spain, including two shows in Madrid, so tonight was the first time in a while for that particular crowd pleaser here. And while the response was not necessarily ear-splitting, it did lead to another brief round of “Oee oee” chants during the encore break.

 

Only Jeff and Co. can say for sure what role the oven-like conditions played in terms of their performance, but I can’t imagine it was easy to remain constantly focused out there. Jeff only had one real lyric flub that I could detect, botching the start of one verse in Hate It Here. It couldn’t have been easy to get guitars to cooperate throughout the show, though, and I noticed that Jeff seemed to spend about half of Walken trying to get his Telecaster in tune.

 

That’s pretty much all I’ve got as far as pertinent details from this one. Ultimately, the show clocked in at 1 hour, 56 minutes, and though there seemed to be an opening for an Outtasite (Outta Mind) or A Shot In The Arm sendoff, perhaps it was for the best that things ended where they did. I mean, after all, hadn’t we collectively (and individually) expended enough sweat already?

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (didn't get a look at a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Handshake Drugs

Evicted

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Pot Kettle Black

You Are My Face>

Whole Love

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Hummingbird

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Hate It Here

Walken

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

------------------------------------

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Because of travel and the heat, etc., it’s probably gonna take me a minute to come up with something lucid (as if I ever do) about tonight’s show that was not an “Evening With…” performance, as it turned out. This wasn’t a festival in the normal sense of the word, either; more like one in a summer series of concerts at the Montjuïc cultural complex known as the Poble Espanyol.

 

This was the same location of Wilco’s Barcelona tour stop just over three years ago, though the setup was much different this time around on account of being part of the Alma Festival series. Whereas back in 2022, the show simply took place in the main square of the sprawling Poble Espanyol, tonight there was a completely different entrance that led to a separate area with a smaller stage that featured a band that played earlier (not sure whether I should technically call them a support act or not because it was just so separate from the main stage area) as well as booths with drink and food options. Then when the doors officially opened for the stage area where Wilco played, you had make your way down a long interior “street” and finally into the PE’s central square, where there was a big festival stage setup and barricades separating those who had purchased “front of stage” tickets versus from those with regular tickets and other tiers.

 

By the time Jeff and Co. took the stage promptly at 10 p.m., it had already been quite a long day for everyone — especially given the heat wave that is gripping Spain at the moment. I think that as much as anything accounted for a Barcelona audience that seemed, I would say, a bit more subdued that you would otherwise normally expect. I can’t speak for anyone else, but between the draining heat/humidity and the stage setup being much less intimate than I remember from the show three years ago, it was hard to really feel as strong a connection with the band as I would have liked.

 

Another factor to this gig kind of having a “professional show” vibe to it was the way the band just kind of proceeded through its set without much chatter by Jeff at all and then, by the end, almost feeling rushed. Those two things probably went hand in hand, with the band seemingly needing to be done by the stroke of midnight (which it was exactly). Jeff said as much at the start of the encore when he told the crowd, “We don’t have much time. We’re gonna get these last (few) songs in.” The printed setlist I glimpsed had both Falling Apart (Right Now) and Monday listed as part of the encore, but both were crossed out and apparently cut for time.

 

Despite the time crunch, we did get Spiders (Kidsmoke) to close out the main set. But even during the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” climax, Jeff didn’t really draw things out as much as usual. This was one of the few moments when the audience seemed to overcome its collective lethargy. “I don’t need to tell you what to do,” Jeff said by way of encouragement. “You invented this.” But just as soon as some momentum seemed to finally be building, the song quickly ended, the band left the stage and the expected “Oeeeee oee oee…” Barça cheers never really came together.

 

Those “Oee oee” chants were pretty much only heard briefly following Impossible Germany, when the crowd gave Nels his due. I had forgotten that he missed the show here three years ago after remaining in COVID quarantine following a positive test earlier on that tour, so it had been a good while since IG had been performed in Barcelona proper. It was something that Jeff mentioned right away, noting that “we brought Nels this time.”

 

Even with Nels in the fold, however, the overall energy level just wasn’t quite up to the high standards set by previous Barcelona audiences. I’m sure there are a number of reasons for that, from the unrelenting heat just wearing everyone down to maybe just a general aging of the fanbase or perhaps even a sense that it hadn’t been that long since Wilco’s most recent visit. And from the band’s end of things, it might just have reached that point in a tour where you have a slight dip in momentum; every night can’t be transcendent, as much as you try to remain consistent.

 

As I mentioned earlier, Jeff hardly paid any noteworthy visits to Banter Corner and when he did, it was basically to reiterate how much he and his bandmates enjoy visiting Barcelona (like a lot of Americans do — and, as always, there were more than a few in attendance tonight). “How nice…what a lovely night,” Jeff said about halfway through the show. We’ve been (to this venue) before. We missed it.” And then near the end of the night, he once again simply expressed a simple message of gratitude: “You really are our favorite place, so thank you very much.”

 

In the end, I really just have to put this one in the “professional show” category. Which means that it was a perfectly solid gig. If you hadn’t seen the band before, or hadn’t seen a show this year, you almost certainly would have walked away feeling like you had gotten your money’s worth and been happy to have spent a night outside in a lovely city seeing a really good band. Sometimes that’s good enough, right?

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, Falling Apart (Right Now) and Monday were on the printed setlist in the encore but weren't played):

 

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

Side With The Seeds

i Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

One Wing

Hummingbird

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Meant To Be

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Heavy Metal Drummer

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

—————————————

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

2 minutes ago, chaslor said:

While I love the colour bbop et al brings with words, what I'm really looking forward to are more pics from the incomparable Zoran Orlic. I chatted with him this morning and he was pretty jazzed about it.

It was so good to see Zoran! And yeah, his images — based on the sample Wilco has shared so far — must be amazing. One thing I will give the RAH, it’s certainly an impressive-looking room.

Yeah, heard Thax moved/drifted up to Wisconsin some years back. He pops up every now and then, usually with acts exactly like The Wacos.

21 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

(Jacques) Ta(ti), (Vol)ta(ire), or indeed (Gus)ta(ve Eiffel).

 

So, in summary, the Royal Albert Hall was close but no Cigale.

 

(I’m here all week . . . )

I’ll just have some excellent beef ta(r)ta(re) if it’s all the same to you. Maybe even served by the late, great Joe E. Tata in his guise as the owner of the Peach Pit. If you know, you know…

With the afterglow of a “Big Show” at the Royal Albert Hall still lingering, Jeff and his bandmates stepped onto a slightly less glamorous — but far more familiar — stage in the City of Light about 24 hours later and found themselves instantly more at home. Amazingly, it had been nearly six years since Wilco’s last show in Paris proper and the sold-out crowd at the cozy La Cigale was clearly ready for its fix.

 

And while the setlists between the RAH and La Cigale gigs ended up overlapping quite a bit — of the 23 songs at both shows, by my count, 19 were the same (albeit in a slightly different order) — the vibe between the two shows could hardly have been more different. Of course the two rooms had something to do with that, going from the cavernous RAH with room for nearly 6,000 spectators to the clublike feel of La Cigale with its standing capacity of just under 1,400, but also the energy within both places. While I don’t dispute that the RAH audience was enthusiastic by British standards, the French crowd was a couple of steps shy of South American in terms of its reception for the band. Anyone who was at both shows could almost certainly feel a difference.

 

“It’s nice to be back in a proper venue,” Jeff said eight songs in, with tongue firmly planted in cheek. “You should’ve seen the dump we played last night. It was a thrill, actually, but I still feel more comfortable here, I have to tell you.”

 

Clubs like La Cigale are the kinds of places Jeff in which Jeff has been performing for more than half his life, so it’s kind of easy to understand why he would feel the way he did. And I honestly have no idea if that had anything to do with the few lyric flubs (one big one and a couple of minor ones) he had at the RAH, but tonight he nailed it in that aspect. I thought his vocals were especially strong on relatively recent material such as Meant To Be — for which, incidentally, I noticed that John had a little lyric cheat sheet at his feet — and Quiet Amplifier.

 

Perhaps the only downside to this show was how quickly it flew by. It seemed like Jeff and Co. were bound by a 10:30 p.m. curfew, even though Jeff didn’t say as much. Looking at the printed setlist, Theologians was listed as the penultimate song of the main set but got cut altogether, followed by an option for either I’m The Man Who Loves You or Spiders (Kidsmoke) — and I can only guess that the former was the choice for time reasons. Then the planned show-closing duo of Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind), which would have been very fun to experience in that room, got scrapped in favor of the expected I Got You (At The End Of The Century).

 

Perhaps because of that time crunch, visits to Banter Corner were also fairly limited. Jeff did, however, take time out to thank the Wilcrew for its hard work — especially over what had been a long previous 48 hours — and then later, support act Deep Sea Diver. Other than that, he only offered his usual warning/joke about “getting pretty close to the end” and also encouraged the audience before Jesus, etc., to “sing along if you know the words. It won’t hurt you. It will do no harm.”

 

I have to give kudos to this audience, which not only took Jeff up on his invitation to sing along to Jesus, but also gave Nels a huge ovation following Impossible Germany and just seemed to be really into it from the get-go. It would have been pretty amazing to hear what the Spiders singalong on the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” part would have been like inside La Cigale, but unfortunately that will have to be left to the imagination. It’s kind of ironic, to me anyway, that two recent audiences — Buenos Aires and Paris — that probably would have needed the least amount of cajoling to participate on that part ended up not getting the opportunity.

 

Anyway, it was kind of unfortunate that Paris “only” got 1 hour, 58 minutes of Wilco after a relatively long absence. Again, I have no insider knowledge about why the London and Paris shows weren’t “Evening With…” performances like the others on this European run. And no offense to Deep Sea Diver, which put on an entertaining half-hour set, but I would guess that the crowd at La Cigale (and the RAH, for that matter) would have relished another 30 minutes or so of Jeff and Co.

 

But for better or worse, these shows are now in the history books and it’s onto Spain for four more concerts before Wilco gets to take a short breather. I don’t know why, maybe because there’s an extra day off, but after Paris, it feels like a bit of an inflection point on this run. Maybe it’s because some of the regulars who have gone to one or more shows in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK and France are dropping off the tour and I know that a new batch of folks who are traveling will be in Spain, but I’ll be interested to see if it’s more of the same as we head back to the “Evening With…” format or if there will be a few surprises yet to come.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as previously mentioned, Theologians was on the printed setlist as the penultimate song of the main set but wasn't played, while the final song of the main set was listed as “Man or Spiders”; and in the encore, the planned closing two-fer of Monday>Outtasite was replaced by the unlisted I Got You.)

 

Wishful Thinking

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

Side With The Seeds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Whole Love

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hummingbird

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Meant To Be

Via Chicago

Quiet Amplifier

Jesus, etc.

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

I'm The Man Who Loves You

---------------------------------------

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Well spelling words with more 'u's might help boost your numbers for a start.

I shall endeavour to never allow such balouney to colour my flavour of the month ramblings. Let’s see if this makes me a favourite or simply a poseur.

12 hours ago, Marijn said:

https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/live/wilco-royal-albert-hall-london-june-22-150244/

 

They could've just published Paul's review... Quite raving, though!

 

Mine wasn’t quite as raving, lol! All in all, far from the worst review I’ve ever read. Reviewers across the board generally need to revisit Banter Corner more frequently, though. IMHO.

 

27 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

I am with you though - spit and sawdust venues are for me. The more rowdy Roundhouse night 2 (Nick Lowe!) and Brixton Academy (good Spiders chant) shows were my favourites that I have seen in the UK (and probably ever). I have been to the Albert Hall once - Emmylou a long time ago . . .

Ta for your ta. This thread has been more than our usual incomprehensible chirping back and forth, hasn’t it? Dare I say we have more readership than we thought? And what does that mean for future antics? Well, perhaps it’s just an eager UK audience looking for an outlet to opine (and not just engage in Welsh rugby chat  ). Anyway, glad we agree on the spit and sawdust venues! Now we need to find a place over here with literal sawdust on the floors…

1 hour ago, martynep said:

I would say restrained mane more accurately describes the audience. Whether it was the heat/venue/Sunday night vibes, or a combination of all three I don’t know but both my (much younger) son and I thought it started off quite flat compared to most other Wilco shows we’ve seen (solely in the UK). Also, the audience demographic was way narrower, I thought, than for the Bobby Weir show the previous night. I too am mystified (and feeling somewhat short-changed now I know about it) that we didn’t get an ‘Evening With..’ show. It was meant to be a special show, after all. 

Yes, restrained is definitely the word I was looking for. Thanks for that. And yeah, I don’t know why they didn’t just do the “Evening With…” format in London and Paris as well, unless there was some kind of arrangement with Deep Sea Diver that we don’t know about. Usually that has to do with promoters and not necessarily the band, though I’m not sure in this case. Obviously that would have been fun at the RAH…

4 hours ago, tblair said:

The audience seemed far from "buttoned up" to me. Yes, they stayed seated, but the reception they got from the moment they walked on stage, and after every song was really enthusiastic. I don't know whether their fans are older in the UK than other places, but it was an elderly, but really enthusiastic crowd.

Perhaps “buttoned up” wasn’t the best phrase to use, but I also don’t think there was a ton of energy emanating from the audience either, at least that I could see. Personally I don’t understand how someone could watch almost motionless and with their arms folded for much of the show (like the guy next to me). I understand that people consume music in different ways, but do people still not understand that with a band like Wilco, you get back what you put in from an energy standpoint? That’s just how I see it — and have experienced it.

 

As for the relatively older crowd, I have no idea if the average age of fans is higher in the UK, but Jeff seemed to take note. Introducing Box Full Of Letters as a song from their first record, Jeff quipped that “looking around (at the audience), I think you might remember it.” 

30 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Belated ta from deepest Hardy country. No time to read the London review now - something to look forward to tonight or tomorrow!

Good, ‘cause it’s not finished yet. Have two hours on Eurostar to concoct some more nonsense…

I’m not mad or anything, but Jeff stole my line when he shared with the large audience at the close-to-capacity Royal Albert Hall the fact that the last place Wilco had played before tonight was called JunkYard and how the band really had come full circle. It was a more oblique way of saying that to go from a literal junkyard to the grand environs of the RAH was like going from the outhouse to the penthouse in terms of possible places that a group of musicians could perform.

 

But here’s the rub: If you ask me, I think I would actually prefer the proverbial outhouse. At least when it comes to Wilco shows.

 

No doubt this was a big day on the Wilco calendar for this run of shows on this side of the pond. After all, here was the show at the esteemed 6,000-capacity Royal Albert Hall — a venue that holds a certain mystique for Americans. It’s kind of like playing Radio City Music Hall or Hollywood Bowl or [insert your iconic venue here]. As a band, it’s another sign that you’ve attained a certain level. London is a cultural capital like New York or Los Angeles, and people from all over will have traveled here — if only to cross going to a show at the RAH off their bucket lists.

 

“I’m just trying to savor this,” Jeff said about a third of the way through Wilco’s 23-song set. “When does this happen? It’s been 30 years (as a band) and it hasn’t happened. It’s crazy. I think we got in just under the wire on civilization.”

 

Indeed, the current tumultuous state of the world certainly calls into question that civilization. But I’m here to report that civilization seemed to be all well and good at the RAH. And when it comes to a rock ‘n’ roll show, is it possible that too much civilization can be a detriment? The crowd at the RAH certainly didn’t seem too keen on ruffling any feathers for much of the show, staying seated (and, it seemed, pretty buttoned up restrained) for virtually the entire main set with the exception of a brief standing ovation for Nels following Impossible Germany. Finally, at the climax of Spiders (Kidsmoke), Jeff finally managed to get people on their feet with his spiel about singing along to the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” part. “I haven’t asked you to stand or do anything all night,” Jeff said. “I haven’t asked you to do shit. But I want you to sing along…because I think it will make you feel a tiny, tiny, tiny bit better to participate. Do not postpone joy.”

 

Ultimately I don’t know how rousing the singalong was, but at least it got people out of their chairs for the duration of the show. When the band came back out for the encore, Jeff marveled that everyone in front of him had remained standing. “Wow, I should’ve given you permission (to participate) way earlier,” he said before briefly introducing and starting Falling Apart (Right Now). On the ensuing California Stars, Jeff had his one and only bad flub of the night; during the second pass through the verses, when John comes in with the harmony, Jeff unfortunately sang the “they hang like grapes on vines that shine…” line instead of “I’d love to feel your hand touching mine…” and just couldn’t save it, as he sometimes manages to do. Oh well. He shrugged off the mistake pretty quickly and even though the show was already past what figured to be the 10:30 p.m. curfew, Jeff told the audience that he and his bandmates would play their final two planned songs — Walken and I Got You (At The End Of The Century) — “since you’re up on your feet.”

 

That brought the evening to a satisfactory enough conclusion, the band having delivered essentially a condensed version of the “Evening With…” show it has been playing at most stops on this European tour. With a support band for the first time in a little while — Seattle’s Deep Sea Diver — obviously the complete “Evening With…” program wasn’t possible. But we still got a few nuggets here and there, such as Muzzle Of Bees in what would usually be Set 1 and Less Than You Think segueing into Spiders (Kidsmoke) in the de facto Set 2.

 

As far as Banter Corner, aside from expressing how thrilled and grateful he and his bandmates were to be playing this room on more than one occasion, Jeff also seemed to have a bit of a running fixation with an empty seat in the front row right in front of him — the “seat of shame,” he later called it. He joked that he was “starting to take it personally that almost every (seated) show we play, the seat right in front of me is empty. I’m starting to feel like Gallagher.” Then he proceeded to ask a person — I couldn’t see if it was a man or a woman — if their date had bailed on them when they found out where the seat was. And then one song later, he followed that up by saying, “I assume they’re not coming.” Not long after that, a guy holding a glass of vino apparently came down and filled the seat for a bit and Jeff poked fun at him, asking, “Was there a long line at the white wine booth?” Later, I guess the wine guy vacated the seat and Jeff once again inquired about where he had gone. “Your friend has a problem,” he said, apparently to the person next to the empty seat again. “I don’t mean to make you part of the show, but did he go back to the wine line?”

 

Ultimately, as I mentioned earlier, this show was a perfectly fine one. From a personal standpoint, it was nice to see and catch up with friends from all over the world (sorry I missed you, Marijn) and even meet some folks I had only previously known from online (shout out to VCer Ghost Of Bob Cumming and his son). If you only had a chance to see one show on this tour, this one was a decent-enough distillation of what Wilco has been doing lately. But if you have been lucky enough to see multiple shows on this run — and you are a relatively veteran fan of the band — then there’s no way this RAH gig could compare to recent gigs in Antwerp or Germany, IMHO.

 

And that’s not just because it wasn’t an “Evening With…” performance. As I suspected, the RAH joined other iconic venues in which Wilco has played in my theory that the “iconic” venues usually have the most average shows. While I’m sure it’s a thrill for the band to play these sorts of rooms and obviously the chance to see a show in one of them attracts more than a few audience members, there has yet to be a show by Jeff and Co. that I’ve been to in a legendary venue that surpasses one in a general admission hole-in-the-wall with some character. That’s probably due in part to the kinds of audiences that go to shows in these different rooms. In short, if I’m being honest, give me the junkyard (and not just because of the pyrotechnics) any day.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn't get a look at a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

Muzzle Of Bees

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Via Chicago

If I Ever Was A Child

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hummingbird

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Meant To Be

Jesus, etc.

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Less Than You Think>

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

---------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

59 minutes ago, Ghost Of Bob Cumming said:

Hmm, Sandord & Son?? A junkyard?? Not a US sitcom based on Steptoe & Son, by any chance, I'm wondering?

 

Quick Google result: of course it is.

But did Steptoe & Son have a bitchin’ theme song? (I have no idea.) 

Not to reply to my own post, but I had to add a photo of the pyrotechnics, even if it’s not the greatest pic. I would love to see a photo of it from further back in the crowd or, even better, a video of it if anyone managed to capture the flames going off.

 

Edit: There’s a clip on Wilco’s Instagram/Facebook stories right now. Four flamethrowers!

 

After seeing Wilco play the second of two “Evening With…” shows in Germany, this one in a junkyard outside the city center of Dortmund, I have so many questions. Like, did the Sanford and Son theme song run through the minds of Jeff or his bandmates at any point before or during the gig? Like, did all of the band members — but especially Glenn — put on an adequate amount of sunscreen? Like, which Central Europeans are more reserved when it comes to concert behavior: Germans, Belgians or the Dutch? Like, did we just witness the first-ever pyrotechnics at a Wilco show?

 

Let’s start at the, uh, end. As Jeff and Co. battled what was apparently a hard 10 p.m. curfew, they were approaching the frenetic climax of their final song of the evening — I Got You (At The End Of The Century) — when to the surprise of some of the audience (including yours truly), a burst of heat suddenly enveloped the front few rows after several flamethrowers atop the stage ignited and sent multiple bursts of fire shooting toward the sky. It happened several times during the song, and I’m sure the band members were forewarned. But man, in all my years of attending Wilco shows, that might have been a first. I’ve seen fireworks shows after a Wilco performance before, but I cannot recall stage pyrotechnics during one. What is this, KISS? And on a stage that I would hardly describe as elaborate, where the front of the crowd was close enough to fully feel the residual heat…whoa.

 

As I said, the venue for this show was indeed a former junkyard — that was creatively named JunkYard — and it was a place that wouldn’t have felt out of place in, say, Austin, Texas. It reminded me, in a weird way, of the type of locale that might host a day party at the South By Southwest music festival. There were large metal shipping containers stacked to the left of the stage, one with a small car atop it, and more shipping containers actually surrounded the stage on either side. Unlike the previous night in Dachau, the area in front of the stage was (thankfully) level and there was more of a traditional concert setup with a barricade and a gap between that and the front of the stage.

 

The tough thing for the band with this stage configuration was that it faced west and, with the relatively early start dictated by the curfew, that meant that for much of the show Jeff and Co. had to deal with the sun right in their faces as it very slowly began its descent. Half the band, including Jeff, Nels and Mike, sported sunglasses for the first set, while Mike also sported a baseball cap and Pat had a Panama hat on. Glenn, of course, had neither sunglasses nor hat, so I worried about him getting a bit too much color, but at least he seemed to be hydrating more than usual. “How’s everybody doing?” Jeff asked about five songs into the show. “We’re melting. This is the most sun any of us have had in decades.” Toward the end of the first set, Jeff quipped, perhaps as a bit of self-encouragement as much as anything else, “The sun’s gonna go down eventually. That’s been my experience.”

 

Of course the date for this show with prime sun exposure lined up with the summer solstice, so the band probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to play here. But that didn’t keep them from mixing things up a bit in the first set, which included Wilco’s first performance of Tired Of Taking It Out On You this year as well as a couple of tunes that aren’t played every night such as One Wing and the rearranged Everyone Hides. Either Way as the Set 1 closer was especially apropos, as Jeff gestured toward the sun while singing the opening line. Eventually, the sun did relent enough for everyone to ditch their shades and it didn’t seem like as much of an issue in the second set. There was a funny bit in that second set when Jeff and Glenn had a little private back and forth after Side With The Seeds and Jeff shared that Glenn had particularly enjoyed those brief few moments at the end of the song when Jeff steps back during Nels’ outro solo because Jeff shielded him from the sun.

 

Jeff and Glenn’s brotherly antics also led to one of the best visits to Banter Corner during the show. Before Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff was interacting with the crowd after someone yelled “We love you, Wilco!” and he had apparently spotted a guy to his right wearing a Bob Dylan T-shirt and joked about how he had been drawn toward him all night. Anyway, they continued to have a little exchange that went a little longer than normal and at one point, Jeff realized that Glenn was simply letting him go on and on. “This is the part of the show where Glenn leaves me hanging,” Jeff explained, “because he’s supposed to start the next song, but he just lets me keep saying stupid shit.” All the while, Glenn just cracked up behind Jeff, which was amusing to see.

 

Jeff had a couple of other good quips during the course of the show — he joked, “Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk,” for example, after his usual spiel about how Annihilation being played right after Box Full Of Letters demonstrated the band’s artistic growth over the past 30 years — but the chatter was generally kept to a minimum as the night went on because of the impending curfew.

 

Because of said curfew, Spiders (Kidsmoke) was perhaps an unexpected choice to close out the second set but I suppose the opportunity it offers for crowd participation is too good to pass up. It’s certainly been an interesting test case on this tour for just how out of their collective shells different crowds will come. Jeff, as usual, made his case for singing the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” in part by arguing that you, the audience member, would definitely not look back on your life in old age and think, “Thank God I didn’t sing along at the JunkYard in Dortmund” that one time. I have no real barometer for how many people accepted Jeff’s invitation to participate, but of the previous three nights, this one probably seemed the least participatory. Then again, maybe it was just all of the direct sunlight and it would have been more boisterous if it had been a little darker. Who can say?

 

What I do know is that after 2 hours, 41 minutes (plus a 21-minute interval), people were still clamoring for more. It’s a testament to the depth of Wilco’s catalog that this “Evening With…” format can barely contain all of the songs people want to hear. How will we ever go back to “normal” shows? That’s a question for another day, I suppose. For now, we can just enjoy getting to hear 30-plus songs each night and, hey, if they want to throw in some literal fire shooting out of the stage every now and then, I, for one, would be down with it.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn't see the printed setlist for either set, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Set 1

Wishful Thinking

Company In My Back

Handshake Drugs

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Evicted

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Forget The Flowers

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Cruel Country

Everyone Hides

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

 

Set 2

At Least That's What You Said

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Side With The Seeds

Whole Love

Jesus, etc.

Hummingbird

Impossible Germany

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

-------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta. I must say it's a real pleasure to have you on Euro time so the review is there ready when I reach my natural tea break. The icing on the cake or biscuit, or whatever.

 

Also

 

 

 

Glad I can be of service... 

From my perspective, it’s nice to receive the notification of your ta at a normal hour rather than at, say, 4 a.m., seconds after I’ve hit the post button. 
 

33 minutes ago, 50footqueenie said:

Not enough curmudgeonly content in this review. Hopefully the ‘peanut gallery’ Will provide more at the weekend.

 

What can I say? It’s the Era Of Good Feelings. We need some hooliganish behavior out of you British Isle — am I allowed to use that as a descriptor? — lot to maybe get Curmudgeonly Jeff back for a brief moment. 

 

That, or the the peanut gallery will have to be a lot more chirpy… 

 

10 minutes ago, jackpunch said:

Well I was there and had a great time. Thought the band was on top form. Apparently the venue/square holds 1500 people 

Glad you enjoyed, and thanks for the info on capacity!

For any student of history, at least of the 20^th century variety, the name Dachau evokes its tragic past as the site of the first and longest-operating Nazi concentration camp. Located approximately 12 miles northwest of Munich, in southern Germany, the town of Dachau today could be described as a bedroom community and a relatively sleepy but picturesque small burg that features several different waterways.

None of the past — or present — of Dachau, however, came up during Wilco’s tour stop here as part of the Dachauer Musiksommer series of outdoor concerts held in the plaza right outside the Rathaus (or City Hall). The closest thing to a downer might have been when Jeff was once again trying to urge the somewhat staid audience to sing along with the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” part in Spiders (Kidsmoke) and he was saying the usual things about how he knew that there were a fair number of introverts and shy people in the crowd but that singing along would make them feel good and that singing with other people is one of the best things we can do. But then for his final point, he offered the idea that when you are in the hospital at the end of your life, dying, “You’re not gonna think, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t sing along.’” If you thought, “Well, that took a turn,” I couldn’t really blame you (though it did actually end up working pretty well as a motivational speech to get the crowd going).

The other moment during the show when Jeff kind of “went dark” for a moment came much earlier on when he asked if people were having a good time. This came after a rousing version of Meant To Be. When the audience members generally answered in the affirmative, Jeff quipped, before starting Via Chicago, “We’ll see what we can do about that.”

Before I go any further, a few words about the setup for the show. As I mentioned, it took place in the Rathausplatz — a sort of town square — and basically it was like Dachau just decided to throw a block party. Except that the stage was set up in a corner of the space on a part of the plaza where the first row of the audience barely fit on one stone step and then the next few rows sloped down several more steps. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it definitely made for a weird standing situation. Add to that the fact there was no barricade at the front, but there were several big subwoofers set up so that there were little pockets in between them where one or two people could fit right up against the stage, which is what happened when everyone initially took their spots after the gates opened. But just before Wilco took the stage, a security guard came and put a piece of tape across all of the subwoofers to try and establish a de facto rail, pushing all the people who had been in the little gaps out. It just made for another bit of discomfort, especially for folks in the front few rows. (I will take credit for dubbing the security guard’s taping-off of the front as an example of “once in Germany someone said nein.”)

Anyway, despite the somewhat odd setup, there was nonetheless a sort of intimacy between band and audience. The sold-out crowd of maybe 1,000 or 1,200 never felt too far away at any point, and you could tell that Jeff and Co. were feeding off some of the energy from the onlookers. As one small example of just how close the first few rows were, after the one real setlist surprise of the night — the first full-band performance of You Never Know this year — Jeff assured the audience that despite the song’s repeated lyric about not caring any more, “We still care.” One member of the peanut gallery (ahem) questioned Jeff, with a slightly sarcastic “Do you?” Jeff of course heard the comment and quietly responded, “We do — too much.”

That was a subtle example of Jeff’s several amusing visits to Banter Corner over the course of the evening. Another came near the end of Set 1 when he was introducing the Ode To Joy two-fer of Love Is Everywhere (Beware) and Quiet Amplifier. “I know there was somebody from this country with something named that as well,” Jeff joked, referring to Beethoven’s Ode To Joy from his Ninth Symphony. “We don’t mind. Now we’re gonna play a couple (songs) off the real Ode To Joy.” A bit later, during Set 2, Jeff said, “All right, we’ve got a lot more songs to play if that’s all right. It’s been such a lovely, lovely night and Wilco sounded sooooo good earlier.” It wasn’t the first time Jeff joked about he and his bandmates opening for themselves, except that when he sensed the bit might be falling flat, he seemed to finally admit defeat. “All right, I’m gonna step away from that joke,” Jeff concluded.

As the night went on, things seemed to get progressively goofier — both from the band and the crowd. In the encore, for example, someone in the middle of the crowd apparently got up on someone else’s shoulders and it prompted Jeff to remark “that doesn’t happen to this band very often. I’m gonna go write in my diary.” Then someone else nearby must have done the same thing, which caused Pat to observe: “Different person, but same shoulders.” Jeff then poked fun at the rest of the crowd (the guys, specifically) for not being strong enough to lift their own person up on their shoulders, quipping in his best Chicagoese, “What’s the matter with youse guys?” Finally, though, Jeff had to admit that while it was nice to see the shoulder riding, “It’s dangerous. Please get down.”

For his part, Jeff’s goofiness manifested during the start of I’m The Man Who Loves You when he delayed the start of the song by holding the first note for so long that even his bandmates seemed to be wondering what he was doing. He glanced over at Pat, who was waiting for him to start the song in earnest and joked(?) that “this is how it was written, (with) a long note.” Glenn also got a little weirder as the show went on. At one point I think I caught him trying to scratch an itch on his back with one of his drumsticks.

It was that kind of night, I suppose. Jeff’s entreaty to the audience to sing the ba-bas during Spiders clearly paid dividends as this southern German block party finally kicked into high gear. As happened in Antwerp a couple of nights earlier, it seemed like the crowd just needed some sort of chant behind which to rally. (Apparently they don’t do the South American “Olé, olé, olé, Wheelco, Wheelco,” on this side of the pond?) So once the ba-bas took hold, then of course they extended into the encore break and beyond. And that caused the band to again goof around with it briefly at the start of the encore — Glenn hit his cymbal threateningly as if to trigger another Spiders breakdown, for example — before they got back to the task of sending the Dachauers into the night having been sufficiently rocked.

Here was the complete setlist, as played  (I glimpsed a printed setlist for Set 2 and the encore and there were no changes/omissions; can't say for sure about Set 1, but it didn't seem like it):

Set 1

Wishful Thinking

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Meant To Be

Via Chicago

If I Ever Was A Child

You Never Know

Forget The Flowers

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Cruel Country

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

Side With The Seeds

Whole Love

Hummingbird

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

--------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

On 6/18/2025 at 2:38 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

That is all. Ta for reading this far.

 

My turn to ta. So, ta.

 

I caught this show in Indianapolis of all places last year. In a *much* smaller venue, though. Really enjoyed it, I must say. Brought a Graham Gouldman Thing record for scribbles to see if they might be hanging around afterward, but no such luck. As I recall they didn't even have merch for sale at the gig, but they directed people to their Web store or something like that. Anyway, the things we do for love eh?

10 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Spotted @ 2min 48 secs into the new mini-film from SubStack

 

Spotted duck? Spotted fever? What ever could you have spotted?

15 minutes ago, theashtraysays said:

I’ll add one bit of banter that I came across. 
Just before Via Chicago, in the quiet moment as the band was settling into the instrument change, someone (a woman I think) in the rail area in front of Nels let out a good solid “WOOO”.  Jeff happened to be looking right at her at the time and apologetically said something like “I’m sorry- I was looking right at you just now”, and then proceeded to maintain direct eye contact with her for the opening lyric of “I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me” before giving a grin and continuing on as normal.

Thanks for clarifying what happened there. I jotted down Jeff’s comment, but I had no idea what he saw.