bböp

51 minutes ago, kidsmoke said:

Dear bbop, I've been reading your reviews with appreciation and admiration for years, but this one so perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the night, the energy in the room...you've outdone yourself! It's a truly great review. 

 

Thanks, kidsmoke, or should I say (San) ta (Monica)?

Just before playing the final song of his four-night run at Largo for the year, Jeff tried to come up with a few words to summarize what the venue and this run of shows has come to mean to him over the years. And I, for one, am glad that they were recorded as part of a live-streamed episode of The Tweedy Show that his wife Susie was diligently filming from the back of the room — which has also become another tradition of sorts — because unlike some of Jeff's myriad banter over the course of four shows, it felt like these were sincere sentiments that you wanted to get right and so I appreciated the opportunity to go back and check myself to make sure I did actually capture exactly what Jeff had said word-for-word, which isn't a luxury I'm always afforded for these little summaries.

 

Things will inevitably change, as they always do, but it's nice to think about this moment in time, these recent years of Jeff solo performances in the 300-seat Coronet Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard, as being a special one that those who attended got to be a part of.

 

"This is my favorite place to play in the world, I think," Jeff said. "I think what it is is this is like the height of my ambition my entire life. I think the size of this, the way it sounds, this is what I thought music was supposed to be like my whole life. It could be loud too — I mean, it could be like a punk rock show or something — but this size audience, this size room, this size feeling of people being together doing something that feels bigger than themselves but also really, really intimate and sweet and not, like, a spectacle. I don't know. Anyway, I just think that this is perfect. I'm never playing anywhere else ever again.That's it. I'm done. I'm done trying to fill up the bigger places."

 

On Night 4, Jeff once again tried to keep the setlist varied enough to navigate the "balancing act" of satisfying the handful of hardcore fans who had attended all of the shows and only wanted to hear the deep cuts ("That's a lot of money...I'm definitely gonna have to try for those people,") and those in audience who were maybe hoping to hear a few more familiar tunes. Ultimately, though I think he demurred from granting requests for some deep (Sunlight Ends) and deeper (Quarters) cuts, he wound up only repeating two songs out of his 18-song set, and one of those was a new song, Enough, that he also played the first two shows of the run.

 

We also got the début of yet another new song, Feel Free, which is a long, sprawling tune, almost stream-of-consciousness thoughts anchored by the mantra of "Feel free to" do this or that. So for example, "Feel free to lay down like a wreath and jump over what's underneath," or "Feel free to keep it all pristine, in its original packaging," or "Feel free to take it slow, even though your heart is racing," and all these many thoughts finally brought to a close by the thought, "Feel free to sing a song that never ends."

 

Speaking of never ending, apparently the bit where "Chuck" aka "The I'll Fight guy" requests that song also has unfortunately become a permanent part of Jeff's Largo shows. At least it's become almost comical now and seems to amuse Jeff rather than irritate him, but even after finally getting his request played on Night 3 (albeit not the greatest version of the song), "Chuck" made himself known again tonight almost immediately when Jeff was pondering aloud whether to play a longer song. He chimed in with the suggestion of Remember The Mountain Bed, but Jeff shot that one down right away and said he wasn't going to play that one and then almost immediately the reflex came back, "I'll Fight." To which Jeff just had to shake his head and reply, "You thought you could move to a different seat and I wouldn't know where to direct my scorn, but I know."

 

From there, Jeff seemed to direct his attention to dealing with a "rogue" facial hair over the course of a few songs. Rehashing a bit he had been doing on and off since Night 1, he proceeded to share with the audience what really had been going through his mind during the previous song and after Whole Love, he said that in addition to embracing the "spirit dove" lyric as the stupidest one he had ever written and delighting in the fact that he had allowed himself to be so whimsical, there was a long hair from his mustache that "was tickling the inside of my nostrils when I was doing the falsetto." And I guess he couldn't shake the feeling on the subsequent song, New Madrid, because it was the first time I can remember him having to stop mid-song and sort of rub his face and shake it out before continuing. You knew that there was going to be some kind of issue when he put his harmonica on for She's A Jar, and indeed, after a slight lyric flub during that one, he blamed it on the same hair that had gotten caught in the harmonica. Which in turn led to another funny visit to Banter Corner...

 

"This is the kind of stuff you don't get at other shows — they're not gonna tell you that, maybe for good reason," Jeff said of his facial hair-harmonica snafu. "I'm fascinated by show business because I don't have it in me. I wish I did, and I've been on stage my whole life. What the fuck? Why? I don't like it. Just kidding, I love it. But I wish I was more like David Lee Roth, I really do. That looks like fucking fun. Anybody else wish they could be more fun? Yeah. Oh, well."

 

All things considered, I'd say Jeff is doing pretty well in his own little corner of the universe, and I'm sure those in the Largo orbit, like tonight's surprise opening act Judd Apatow — who was sporting a vintage A Ghost Is Born-era Wilco T-shirt...represent! — would agree. It's always a little bittersweet when these Jeff Largo runs end because they always seem to go by so quickly, but considering that we weren't even sure that a 2024 run was going to be in the cards at all, I'm walking away as always feeling grateful that they happened again and that the stars aligned for another year and that I got to be here again with some dear pals. Thanks Tweedy fam, Wilcrew and Largoites...until the next time!

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 4 at Largo (2024 edition):

 

Less Than You Think

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

new song-Feel Free

Orphan

Ashes Of American Flags

Whole Love

New Madrid

Far, Far Away

She's A Jar (w/harmonica)

Out For A Walk

Either Way

Dawned On Me

If I Ever Was A Child

Even I Can See

Heavy Metal Drummer

new song-Enough

You Are Not Alone

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

1 hour ago, Ken Dunbar said:

Isn’t “Cry Baby Cry” a Beatles song? 

 

Well, there is of course a song on The White Album by that name, but the one Jeff played at Largo was a more developed version of the demo he shared on his Substack last year. Not sure if you have to be a paying member of the Starship Casual to access that post, but anyway.

As he strummed the opening chords to another midtempo number he was about to play — I'm pretty sure it was Evicted — Jeff paused for a moment and took stock of how the third show of this year's annual multi-night run at Largo was going on this Sunday evening. "I get a real hushed vibe tonight, guys," Jeff observed. "That's great, I enjoy that. But is it too quiet? I can play some uproarious numbers." And with that, he switched tacks and suddenly launched into a twangy and fun version of Casino Queen that instantly injected some energy into the room and explained how that had been the original arrangement of the song.

 

After returning to Evicted, Jeff followed it up with another A.M. track that got the crowd in more of a singalong mood in Passenger Side before closing out the set with a few more tunes, including granting his wife's friend's request for a show-closing California Stars. It seemed like the perfect way to close out a show in which Jeff seemed happy to try and make as many people's nights as possible, even at the expense of performing new songs as he had on the first two nights.

 

That even included the by-now infamous "I'll Fight" guy — whose name is apparently Chuck — who has made himself known with the same song request at seemingly every Largo show Jeff has played in recent years. Tonight the request came early in the show, and Jeff seemed almost prepared for it. "I heard you the first time three nights ago," Jeff said in a slightly mocking tone, "but OK, fine." So despite predicting he would "fuck it up," he began to play the song, but unfortunately got hung up on the second verse ("You'll rise each day as planned/Your will is your command/And stand each Sunday/A hymnal steady in your hand," and had to get a little audience assistance to muddle through it. Jeff admitted that he had even run through the song earlier that day during soundcheck in anticipation of getting the request during the show, he had still forgotten part of the song immediately afterward (which frequently happens to him, he said.)

 

It wasn't the only time Jeff erred over the course of the evening. Heck, he might have set a record for quickest lyric flub tonight when he messed up the second line of his first song, Someone Else's Song, by singing "I can't tell you anything/Your eyes, they just roll..." instead of "You don't already know," and then realizing his mistake with a knowing smile in the second verse when he sang the correct lyric, "I keep on singing/Your eyes, they just roll..." Afterward, he joked, "There was a missing lyric; I kind of like it better."
 

Then again, in one funny visit to Banter Corner later in the show, Jeff subsequently also suggested that his goofs were an indication that the show was finally hitting its stride. "My wife tells me it's really not interesting until I fuck up," Jeff said, "and really that's why I've been fucking up — it's to engage with my wife. I know these songs."

 

Actually it seemed to please Jeff that a decent number of folks in the audience seemed to know his songs as well, seemed to know them well enough to request a bunch of them well enough to yell out requests — and not just for the usual suspects. He was, I'm sure, at least partially joking, but he did say something about how he didn't take it for granted that just because people had paid for tickets to come to see him perform that they would actually know his songs. Of course, Jeff still only chose to play the ones he felt like playing. Please Tell My Brother? I don't see why not. The Universe? Sure! Via Chicago? Why not? You Are Not Alone? Jeff: "I played that the other night." Requester: "Well, I wasn't here." Jeff: "I don't give a fuck." Then, after a short pause, "Now I have to play it, because I was rude in refusing the request. But not right now."

 

A bit earlier, after Jeff had just finished a lengthy introduction to the song An Empty Corner by regaling the crowd with illicit tales of his employment as a teenage liquor store employee in Southern Illinois, Jeff once again gave some indication of his mindset for the evening when he conducted his "mandatory" audience check-in to see how everyone was doing — something he said he had learned to do over 30 years as a live performer. When someone in the crowd replied, "How are you doing?" Jeff quickly shot back, "It doesn't matter. That's another thing I've learned over 30 years, that it matters not (how I'm doing). I'm here to perform a service." Again, as with much of what Jeff says on stage, most of it is joking but with at least some truth mixed in as well.

 

In the end, Jeff wound up playing just one newer song — Cry Baby Cry. It's actually not even really that new a song, but I think it hasn't been released anywhere but on his Substack. I'm too lazy to look up right now whether he has played it at a solo show before or maybe just on the Tweedy Show, but anyway there you go.

 

Perhaps Jeff simply was rolling with the crowd-pleasing vibe of the evening as a whole, which featured not one but two surprise comedic opening acts. First up was a reprise of the opening's night's father-son duo with Bob and Nate Odenkirk doing a series of improvised "interviews" with various characters (Bob Odenkirk also did a very abbreviated monologue — a tight three?), followed by Fred Armisen doing some bits from his comedy act. It was another one of those only-at-Largo kind of evenings, and I'm already sad that we've only got one more left to look forward to for this year...even if a lady from Encino turned around and glared at me for singing along at an appropriate moment. Ahem.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 at Largo (2024 edition):

 

Someone Else's Song

new song-Cry Baby Cry

Summer Teeth

I'll Fight

You And I

Company In My Back

Guaranteed

An Empty Corner

Please Tell My Brother

Sky Blue Sky

The Universe

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

Casino Queen (twangy arrangement)

Evicted

Passenger Side

Family Ghost

You Are Not Alone

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

On 4/13/2024 at 1:42 PM, theashtraysays said:

I don’t recall a deep cuts set at SSF tho. 
 

I’m sure bbop would know….

 

Oh, would I?

 

They've never played a special set at Solid Sound that was specially designated as " Deep Cuts" or whatever. That 2015 Saturday set at SSF wasn't designated as a "deep cuts" set, even though they did play Panthers, A Magazine Called Sunset, Let's Not Get Carried Away and Dark Neon, among others.

 

Wilco Friday "theme" sets at Solid Sound Festival

2010 no "special" set

2011 no "special" set

2013 Covers

2015 All Acoustic

2017 Audience Album Vote (Being There, plus surprise bonus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)

2019 Audience Karaoke

2022 Cruel Country Album Release Party

3 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta

Did you mean T(opang)a, as in the Canyon?

4 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

(La Brea) Ta(r pits)

 

Methinks you have used that one before. Have you considered a Ta(rzana) by chance?

6 hours ago, nalafej said:

Excellent review as always, bbop. Glad you are there to fill us all in.

 

wilcoworld has the song titles: 

 

Your "Hard To Stay In Love With Everyone" is "Enough"

Your "When I'm Sleeping" is "KC Rain"

 

I'm not going to say which titles are better

 

Ha, thanks man. Should of course have cross-referenced Wilcoworld before I posted blind guesses for the new song titles like an idiot. I'll edit the original post above to reflect the apparent actual titles.

Geez, are we halfway through this year's Largo run already? Well, Night 2 of this four-night stand for 2024 gave us slightly less chat from Jeff overall than on Night 1 but did give us a chance to hear yet another new song as well as revisit two other new songs played on Night 1, get some "fucking pie" for Jeff's nephew Charles (Tweedy Show holla!), be very pleasantly surprised by a song off Wilco's first record (no, not that one) and listen to California Stars for the 4,000th time and genuinely not mind (as long as some sort of singalong can be achieved).

 

I guess we can just start from the start. Following a short opening set by none other than Sarah Silverman, who appeared to be trying out some new material and even had a joke about Jesus, etc., and how she had to be corrected by her friend that Jeff wasn't calling Jesus "honey" in the song, Jeff emerged and immediately played two songs from Cousin. The latter of the two, Pittsburgh, finally saw him pick up and put on the harmonica holder that had been lying unused on his side table since the start of the previous night's show and it was cool to see him use the harmonica held therein to fill in the guitar bursts on that song that Nels normally makes when Wilco performs it live.

 

"I just wanted to take advantage of the good mood everybody's in after some laughs and just hit you with some pure misery," Jeff said prior to Evergreen. "The contrast is uncomfortable. Here's a song about my dead father..."

 

Initially, Jeff seemed as if he would continue with the same bit he had begun to develop on Night 1 — namely, spelling out to the audience exactly what he had been thinking about while playing the previous song after playing that song. He joked that after 30 years of being a singer-songwriter, he was no longer thinking of the songs he was singing while he was singing them; rather he was thinking about where he had put his keys or something, or he was writing other songs. "Wait until you hear those other songs," Jeff joked. He continued with the bit after the next song, Many Worlds, when he said he was thinking while playing it that he hoped people wouldn't think he was playing it because of the "stupid eclipse." And then he worried about whether he had put the stress on the correct syllable, as in e-clipse (as in, electric clipse?)

 

But before too long the focus switched to the new songs he shared on Night 1, and he played two of the three again (KC Rain and Enough) sandwiched around a surprising and lovely rendition of A.M. deep cut Should've Been In Love that certainly pleased at least a handful of us if no one else. Jeff also unveiled yet another new song, called You're Not Gonna Win, that opened with the lyrics, "Winter in the west/Hits me in the chest/I remember things/I want to forget," and also contained a verse with imagery about "Eating a peach/sitting in the street..." and a chorus with "You're not gonna win/you're not gonna win/you're not gonna win/Again."

 

For whatever reason, Jeff decided to have his guitars arranged on stands on stage with him tonight as opposed to the first show and whether or not that had anything to do with it, there was much less guitar talk than the previous evening; the disuse of the bowed-neck 12-string might also have contributed. Generally speaking, there was a bit less crowd back-and-forth with Jeff than on Night 1 (though the "I'll Fight" guy made his presence known again, thankfully in a relatively understated fashion).

 

That made for some funny visits to Banter Corner in the back half of the set, especially when Jeff started to sense that he wasn't playing enough "crowd pleasers." At one point he started to play the opening chords to Jesus, etc., and then stopped and said he guessed that he sort of had to play it tonight — alluding to Silverman's mention of it — but joked that those few chords were really enough, right? Jeff then shared that Wilco HQ had actually made pamphlets to put in the lobby at shows with tips for how to cope with that point in the show when people realized they weren't going to hear the song they came to to hear. I've never seen one of those myself, and Jeff said maybe they had never actually put them out, but it sounds like they actually exist.

 

As the show began to wind down, I figured we'd almost certainly hear Pecan Pie at some point tonight because I had spotted Jeff's nephew Charles before the show and I knew that song is one that Jeff usually plays (and changes the lyrics to "fuckin' pie" to amuse Charles) when he is in attendance. And sure enough, we got that one...even if Jeff slightly botched the second verse. It's always a bonafide crowd pleaser. And they continued on into what would have been the encore, if there had been one. Instead, as Jeff explained the night before, he wasn't doing encores anymore but rather just marking where one would have come and staying on stage to enjoy the applause.

 

So in the de facto encore, then, he took another crowd-pleasing request for Hummingbird. And then as he searched for another song to play, someone toward the back mentioned "a song about California," and Jeff went back into unspooling his thoughts to the audience one more time for the evening. After briefly pondering a cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication, he asked if we really wanted to hear that California song again, and admitted what he was thinking was he couldn't help looking at some people in the front who had come to see him play a lot and whom he considered to be friends and wondering what they would think about having to hear California Stars for the 4,000th time. (Uhhh...  For the record, the only thing that I find a little tense about Jeff's shows at Largo is the occasional vibe of some people who are so draconian about not singing along, even at appropriate times. And that's the only reason I would ever not want to hear California Stars, honestly. It's supposed to be a singalong, IMHO, and I'll just leave it at that.)

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, on Night 2 at Largo (2024 edition) [edited to reflect new song titles taken from Wilcoworld despite my, er, initial best guesses]:

 

Infinite Surprise

Pittsburgh (w/harmonica)

Evergreen

Many Worlds

new song-KC Rain

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Should've Been In Love

Don't Forget

new song-Enough

Jesus, etc.

new song-You're Not Gonna Win

Lou Reed Was My Babysitter (started and restarted on different guitar)

Soldier Child

Impossible Germany

Pecan Pie

Hummingbird

California Stars

A Shot in the Arm

2 hours ago, Brian F. said:

Thanks. For what it's worth, I thought I heard the new lyric as, "Is your heart higher than your mind?"

 

Yeah, that word probably makes more sense in that line so I edited my original post to reflect that. Thanks for the clarification.

Just when it seemed like we might suffer a year without a run of Jeff solo performances at Largo, poof...four dates suddenly materialized on the calendar a few weeks ago. And thank goodness they did (and thank goodness for the alert friend who nabbed tickets on my behalf when they went on sale because I sure wasn't in much of a position to pounce on them when they hit the interweb around 3 a.m. Australia time after a Wilco show over there. It really does take a village.) Anyway, obviously Jeff had to move his annual Largo dates a little further down the calendar on account of his recovery from hip surgery earlier this year, but it's nice that he and the club were able to fit them in again.

 

Interestingly I don't think Jeff mentioned his hip once during the first of his four shows this year, or he may have but only in passing. He claimed not to have any "bits" this year, which he said he has felt the need to have at Largo in the past when performing after some of the unannounced comedians who traditionally open his shows (tonight's opener was Bob Odenkirk and his son Nate doing a series of "interviews" with improvised characters). Of course, Jeff worked his way into some bits as the show went on — one of which became detailing exactly what he was thinking during the previous song. For instance, after One Wing he pondered whether he should have played it so intensely like the crowd seemed to enjoy or strum it more gently like he was inclined to do. It made for pretty funny banter over the course of the night.

 

Because of Largo's strict no-camera, no-recording policy, it's become a safe space for Jeff to try out new material in recent years — and tonight was no exception. We got three new songs in all, though I remembered him mentioning that one of them — the opening song of his set tonight — was a Tweedy band song that they had tried to get together to play a few months back at the Sky Blue Sky festival in Mexico but just didn't manage to in time (probably for the best, considering the lyrics, which include the lines, "Ain't it a shame when you want to die on the beach in the sun/ain't it a shame when you want to die young.")

 

The other two new songs both contained lyrics that dealt with the word 'high,' though it's difficult to ascertain any meaning from a first listen. The first one, called Enough, began with the questions, "Has it ever been enough/Has it ever been OK...Is your [heart] higher than your mind? It's hard to stay in love with everyone." [edited to reflect the suggestion in the following post that perhaps the lyric was actually "Is your heart higher than your mind?" which probably makes more sense. But anyway.] The other new tune, which is apparently called KC Rain, opened with the observation, "I was born a little sad/Mom and Dad let it slide/No wonder I'm never satisfied," and continued with the couplet of "High in the morning/High in the afternoon/High in the evening/When I'm sleeping, I'm with you."

 

In and around the new songs and the bits about what he was thinking during older songs were still more visits to Banter Corner that I can't even try to fully recap here. It's just one of the aspects that make Largo such a unique place to experience Jeff's solo shows. While he might have had some prepared bits in the past, he usually picks up a few comedic gems every show from interactions with the audience. It started early this year, with a running joke/annoyance of a guy who keeps showing up and requesting the song I'll Fight. He did it at several shows during the run last year and didn't waste much time making himself known again this year. Fortunately it didn't throw Jeff too much, and he even managed to joke about it this year with a retort of: "I'll fight you. I'll kick your ass. Why not? At least I'll have that to look forward to."

 

It wasn't clear if the "I'll Fight" guy  was the same goober who a few songs earlier had felt the need to chime in after Jeff played Hearts Hard To Find, with its signature opening lyric of "I don't mind/When certain people die." That line drew a knowing chuckle from the audience, and of course everyone in the room was thinking about O.J. Simpson, whose death had been reported earlier in the day. "I don't know why that song popped into my head," Jeff deadpanned. Immediately, a guy to Jeff's left (from vaguely the same spot as the "I'll Fight" guy) yelled out, "O.J.!" Jeff simply shook his head and replied, "You don't have to say it. That's not cool."

 

Speaking of not cool, another funny moment occurred near the end of the set when Jeff started to play You Are Not Alone and noticed someone walking out at precisely that moment and using the door nearest the stage that the Largo folks specifically ask people not to use during the show. Apparently it was a woman, who then also had the nerve to stand there and peek in at Jeff for a second longer before leaving...which also didn't go unnnoticed. After the door had shut behind her, Jeff jokingly told her, "Fuck you." Fittingly, Jeff had also just told a couple of funny anecdotes about some memorable experiences performing by himself at a recent outdoor festival in Florida when more than a few people left early and once at a nursing home when much of the audience nodded off.

 

Perhaps the most significant visits to Banter Corner, though, came as a result of Jeff's guitars (which he usually has set up on stage on stands, but said he had nixed that setup at the last minute for some unexplained reason). There was one memorable back-and-forth with the audience when Jeff switched guitars and a guy — again, in the same general area as the "I'll Fight" guy — felt compelled to share with Jeff in a loud voice, "That one sounds better." Jeff, taken a bit by surprise, strummed a few more notes and then jokingly yelled over to his guitar tech offstage that this guy thinks this one sounds better and to "throw that (other) one away." "They're all gonna sound kinda bad," Jeff continued, "because I don't change the strings and I don't really care." Then a bit later, Jeff called for a 12-string guitar to play a couple of songs but realized that the neck was bowed or something so he had to switch to a lower tuning with no capo to perform A Bowl And A Pudding (that's what he said, which is about the extent of my technical guitar knowledge, so I apologize if that's not 100 percent correct).

 

Surely I'm missing a good amount of chat and the like from Jeff, as I always do at these Largo gigs, especially on a night like this when Jeff is feeling especially freewheeling. But hopefully I've managed to capture a decent amount of the highlights. Near the end of the show, Jeff also mentioned he wouldn't be participating in the encore charade and going on and off stage, so he simply indicated where the main set would have ended and he would have normally engaged in said charade and we skipped that tired ritual. Oh yeah, there was also the moment earlier in the set when Jeff seemed to turn down a man's request for I'm Always In Love only to come back to it a couple of songs later. Doesn't he always do that? Well, not always...but quite often. "I'm here to serve," Jeff said, simply. Aren't we the lucky ones?

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at Largo (2024 edition) [edited to reflect new song titles taken from Wilcoworld, despite my, er, initial best guesses]:

 

new song-Ain't It A Shame

Hearts Hard To Find

I Know What It's Like

Ambulance

Box Full Of Letters (waltz version)

One Wing

Story To Tell

new song-Enough

I Am My Mother

Gwendolyn

Country Song Upside Down

A Bowl And A Pudding

new song-KC Rain

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

I'm Always In Love

Jesus, etc.

You Are Not Alone

A Lifetime To Find

I'm The Man Who Loves You

1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta

 
tlock.

One final show Down Under, and now the Wilcos and the Wilcrew are all presumably headed back home after another successful run through their usual touring grounds of Japan and Australia. This final show of the run was in the more-conducive-to-rocking confines of the Enmore Theatre, which if memory serves, is where they also performed when they played Sydney back in the halcyon days of 2007 and 2008. Alas, I wasn't able to be there this time...but once again look forward to the reports and thoughts from those lucky souls who were.

 

Here, via the good folk at Wilcoworld, was the reported setlist for the tour finale:

 

Infinite Surprise

At Least That's What You Said

Handshake Drugs

Levee

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Either Way

Cousin

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Dawned On Me

I'm Always In Love

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

A Shot In The Arm

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

California Stars (w/Leah Senior and band on backing vocals and electric guitar)

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

3 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Did you manage to arrange that session with JT to confirm the rumour about water going down the bath plughole the other way round?

 

Also, it should have been 'bloke' not 'guy'. That's what spending too much time around Americans does to you.

I’m afraid that’s a couple of notches above my pay — or ta — grade these days. You could ask Vince, I suppose.

38 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta (to Vince, not that other guy).

Well, I am simply your ta - less servant as always.

Unfortunately Melbourne was the end of the Australian run for me this time, but it looks like the band had quite the time at the esteemed Sydney Opera House (with a very special guest in attendance, at least backstage) in their penultimate show of this Japan/Australia jaunt before heading back across the International Dateline. I look forward to hearing about it from some of our intrepid correspondents on the ground, who will hopefully check in here when they get a chance.

 

I promised to at least set up the template here with the setlist, based on the good work from the folks at Wilcoworld, so here is what was played:

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Side With The Seeds

War On War

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Whole Love

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Via Chicago

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

If there's any ground rules about seeing Wilco live that I could impart from years of experience, one of them surely would be don't miss any nights of a multi-night run if at all possible. Or at least do so with the understanding that you're almost certainly going to miss out on some gems from the catalog and an increasing simpatico both within the group and among the audience. I think perhaps those who turned up at the venerable Forum in Melbourne the past few nights began to appreciate some of that as the band completed its first-ever three-night run in Australia since it began touring here back in 2003.

 

With the opening two-fer of Misunderstood and War On War to kick off Night 3, neither of which had been played either of the first two nights, you knew that Jeff and his bandmates intended to continue shaking things up at least somewhat for the benefit of those who had already come to either or both of the previous shows. And while it perhaps didn't end up as wildly different a set as it could have been, there were still by my count 10 songs total (of 24) played on the third night that hadn't been performed either of the first two.

 

Showing that he was at least a bit sensitive to this sort of thing, Jeff took a moment about two-thirds of the way through the set to reiterate how much the band had enjoyed its time in Australia and in Melbourne, in particular. "We've had a great time in your country, and in your city" Jeff said. "We've got a little time left, but not here." Then before starting Box Full Of Letters, he asked by a show of hands how many people had been to at least one of the shows before tonight. When apparently less hands went up than he expected, Jeff quipped, "Oh OK, that's not too bad. That makes me feel not so bad about playing this song for the second time in three nights."

 

He might have thought twice about it had he known that the "Pat! Pat! Pat!" chant would once again break out afterward from the group of, ahem, rowdy Americans who took over "the Pat corner" at stage left once again and lavished praise on the Winter Bearded-Wonder after his ripping solo on Box while Pat once again delivered the self-effacing "Oh, stop it!" wave. Jeff, of course, looked over at the scene and deadpanned, "Thank you on behalf of Pat."

 

Another two-fer of songs, You Are My Face and Either Way, that hadn't been played yet during the run — or on the tour, for that matter — caused Jeff to make another trip to Banter Corner about halfway through the set to say that despite having songs they've played every night, he and his bandmates were still trying to search out "songs we want to play, songs we should play." After Either Way, Jeff added, "We haven't played that one in a while. I broke a nail playing that one for you."

 

If one was going to nitpick anything about Jeff's attempting to build rapport with the Australian audience, one might point toward his custom during I Am Trying To Break Your Heart of swapping out the "hello" in the "What was I thinking when we said hello" lyric to something amenable to the local crowd. For instance, in Mexico, he would usually switch the "hello" to "hola." Makes sense, right? In Australia, however, Jeff has routinely failed to switch the hello to either a "g'day" or as he did tonight, switched it to "how you doing?" instead of the "how you going?" which I think is a dead giveaway of American-ness.

 

I'm sure there were other nits to pick here and there — maybe a slightly worse sound mix than the night before? — but how much can you really say when a band tries so hard to satisfy so many different aspects of its wide-ranging audience?

 

Not that Jeff and his bandmates really needed to ingratiate themselves with the local audience any further than they already had with a three-night run, but their Night 3 encore probably took care of any lingering loose ends. First, when they returned to the stage, Jeff reminded the audience to "tip your bartenders" and pointed out that the ones working the bar at stage left were wearing Wilco T-shirts. "That's very unusual for us," Jeff said. "Bartenders are usually upset when we play." Then, in an apparent nod to a request by someone at local record store Greville Records (whose T-shirt Pat was wearing all night underneath his blazer), the band honoured a request by playing a rollicking version of A Lifetime To Find — for the first time on Australian soil — to kick off the extra session.

 

And then Jeff and Co. made good with virtually the entire crowd when they launched into a raucous Monday (on Monday!)/Outtasite combo to close out what was — taken together — truly a terrific trio of performances over these lovely three nights in March. There was no I'm A Wheel to be added to the setlist on this night and I'm secretly glad because I think I might have passed out otherwise (though I probably would have risked it for Kicking Television). But in any case, it was a lovely end to a fun time. Glad to be able to make it back to Melbourne after so many years, and to see some old friends, renew some acquaintances and make some new ones so far from home.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 in Melbourne (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):

 

Misunderstood

War On War

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Handshake Drugs

Levee

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

Company In My Back

Cousin

Hummingbird

You Are My Face

Either Way

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

I'm Always In Love

A Shot In The Arm

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

A Lifetime To Find

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

Second night better than the first? I believe a certain frontman once told me that rule himself one time, but it isn't always true. And what makes for a "better" show anyway? It's so subjective for everyone, I have to think. Is it more banter, or less? Is it a matter of hearing more songs that they personally wanted to hear? Or is it a matter of happening to stand in a spot where the sound was superior? Or a perception, either real or perceived, that the band performed better from one night to the next? Or simply the people one is surrounded by and enjoying the show with, which can make such a big difference — or at least it can for me.

 

Probably some combination of all of the above, so take it with all the necessary grains of salt when I say I think that for all the shade — joking and otherwise — that Jeff might have thrown the crowd tonight that I think I personally had more fun overall.

 

I'm not sure if Jeff expected a bit of a rowdier crowd on St. Patrick's Day or not, as there almost certainly would have been back at home in the U.S., but he was wearing a green T-shirt underneath his dark-colored jacket and mentioned the holiday early on in his first extended comments of the show. After an always-sublime How To Fight Loneliness, he said (not entirely truthfully) that he thought it would be the last quieter song in the set. "I think this might be it for our tender numbers for the evening," Jeff offered. "Sometimes there's a lot of them."

 

Other visits to Banter Corner involved various ways of trying to get the crowd more involved, such as when he shared his "mild-mannered David Lee Roth move" of indicating to an audience when he wanted it to sing along more. Jeff demonstrated the kind-of low-key arm motion he makes during the "Our love..." verse in Jesus, etc. when he hopes the crowd will join him in singing in unison and described it as a "sly way of saying" he wanted that to happen, likening it to the former Van Halen frontman "maybe overseeing after-school detention."

 

I do wonder if maybe the Forum crowd, which in theory should have been made up of the most ardent fans since it was the show that went on sale first of the three was perhaps a tiny bit more subdued than Jeff expected because when he came back out for the encore, he made an offhand comment that went something like, "They did a lot more of that (applause) last night. I hope you guys are OK." I'm sure he was half joking, but there's always an element of truth to everything Jeff says as well. At any rate, it was quickly forgotten as the band launched into Falling Apart (Right Now), complete with Pat's showy B-Bender Telecaster antics at the end that drew — appropriate enough on the holiday — a few "Pat! Pat! Pat!" chants from some rowdy American fans down at his end of the stage. Pat ate up the attention and mockingly deflected it with a couple of "Who, me?" waves, until Jeff, eager to start the next song, looked down the line with mock disdain at the whole interaction and asked, "Are we done yet?" It was pretty funny, but maybe you had to be there.

 

And as further evidence Jeff and his bandmates were feeding off the crowd's energy toward the end of the show, they tacked on a closing I'm A Wheel to the end of the show, which wasn't on the printed setlist but is always a sign that the vibe in the room is sufficiently good enough to keep the rocking momentum going for a few more minutes.

 

Earlier in the set, Jeff himself had done the usual playing off of the Night 2 crowd versus its Night 1 counterpart but ultimately expressed his gratitude to be back in Australia and be back in Melbourne. "You guys are so much better than that audience last night," Jeff observed about about halfway through the show. "They were really terrible. Just awful. Obviously that's a joke. It's actually much the same group, the same cross-section of humanity. But we do love being back in your country, in this beautiful town. I don't know why it's been so long, but it's not gonna take as long until the next time so, uh, don't go anywhere."

 

From a setlist perspective, we got 14 different songs (out of the 24 songs played on Night 2) that were not played on Night 1, including two — Shouldn't Be Ashamed and Dawned On Me — that made their débuts for this Australian run (Jeff joked about Nels' white double-neck Jerry Jones guitar he uses on Dawned that "I can't believe that got through customs.") What I'm curious about, as we head into the third and final show in Melbourne, is if the Australian audience will finally get to hear the premiere of another song or two from Cousin, such as, I don't know...Meant To Be...which, after all, the band made a music video for and promoted fairly actively ahead of this tour.

 

All will be revealed on Night 3, I suppose. And heck, maybe we'll also even be lucky enough to actually get Monday on a Monday for once. C'mon Jeff, is that too much to ask?

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 in Melbourne (I'm A Wheel was not on the printed list, but was added as the final song of the show):

 

Infinite Surprise

At Least That's What You Said

Handshake Drugs

Story To Tell

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

How To Fight Loneliness

Cousin

Hummingbird

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

Dawned On Me

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Red-Eyed And Blue>

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I'm A Wheel

The start of a three-night run in Melbourne brings with it the same sort of energy it does anywhere around the world, I suppose. It's a place the band has played relatively often over the years — often, at least by Australian standards — and has built up a certain comfort level with the audience. And it's interesting to see old friendships renewed and some new ones made, depending on who has come out for the shows and who has been able to travel from where this time around. I suppose you meet more than a few folks as well who have journeyed here because their own home cities/countries have been left out of this round of touring (ahem, Perth and New Zealand).

 

All came together at the lovely Forum in downtown Melbourne, a venue the band has played in before but apparently which has undergone a fairly significant refurbishment since the last time, including an increase of its standing-room capacity to 2,000 from 1,500. The wide room has kind of a neo-classical vibe with some Greco-Roman statues at the sides and a painted-sky ceiling with twinkling stars, but offers pretty good sightlines all around (including some interesting booths clustered around the soundboard that maybe our own theashtraysays can comment on) and yet still feels pretty intimate at the front because the stage is only about three feet high.

 

"This really is one of our favorite places to play, so thanks for inviting us back," Jeff at the start of the encore, presumably referring to Melbourne as a whole and not just the Forum though he didn't exactly specify. "Sorry it's been so long."

 

Before I forget to mention it, I have to say that I thought that of all the shows in Australia so far, the sound tonight seemed like it was the best. I don't know if there was a particular reason for that, such as standing in front of a particular fill monitor or something, but the sound — and in particular, the sound mix — was really solid for maybe the first time. I could actually hear Nels' guitar pretty crisply in the mix despite being somewhat on the other side of the stage and that doesn't always happen, so I was happy about that. It made a difference, obviously, during the guitar workouts we got in the set tonight, such as Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull and Impossible Germany, but even more so on songs like Side With The Seeds and Theologians on which Nels has little isolated solo parts.

 

As usual, it took Jeff a little while to warm up his bantering "muscle" but he exercised it a bit in the exact same spot he had the night before when he jabbed Canberra prior to Random Name Generator. "We were in your capital last night, and we set them straight," Jeff quipped. "You're welcome."

 

Of course, Jeff was also more than happy to pick on one of his other favorite foils overseas, The Ugly, Loud American (even if this particular one wasn't being all that ugly or loud). It happened one song right after RNG when a few people began to loosen up a bit and yell random comments and Jeff went to one of his standbys of how now was the point in the show when the band like to go around and hear from each person in the audience individually. At this point, someone toward the front and center raised his hand, caught Jeff's eye and was given the floor. In a non-Australian accent, he said how he hoped to hear War On War but that RNG had been awesome and thanked Jeff and the band for coming ("you made my year.") Jeff replied, "Are you American? We came all the way here and we want to hear from Australians, so shut the fuck up, OK?" Then, off mike, he mouthed at the guy, "Just kidding." One song later, he joking asked, "Did the American guy leave yet?" It was all in good fun, though it might not translate as well in writing.

 

Other than once again being occasionally distracted by a security guard distributing cups of water to the audience and pausing the starts of songs to enable said distribution to take place, Jeff didn't have much else of note to say for the rest of the night except for one other visit to Banter Corner when he briefly introduced Box Full Of Letters. "(When we played recently) in Japan, there was a kid wearing an A.M. hat," Jeff said. "I don't know what it means. Maybe that rocking will break through one of these years."

 

Ultimately, the question of varying the setlist over the rest of the run came up and Jeff took his usual unscientific poll near the end of the show about how many people were coming the following night. When not that many people raised their hands, apparently, Jeff made his oft-told joke about how that was good and how that meant the band could play the exact same set the next night. But of course he immediately relented and said that of course they would play some different songs — just how many remains to be seen.

 

For the encore on Night 1, at least, things remained status quo for a first-night setlist during this run of shows in Australia: Via Chicago, California Stars, Spiders (Kidsmoke). Just before California Stars, Jeff looked over and seemed to recognize a familiar face in the front row. I'm not sure if it was because he was about to play a Mermaid Avenue song that made him think of it, or if it was just a coincidence, but there was unquestionably a nod of sorts to one of our resident old-time VCers (and Melbourne-area natives) froggie, who happened to be standing right next to me. So that was pretty cool. Here's hoping for some more good vibes on Night 2 and another night of fun to be had.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 in Melbourne (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Side With The Seeds

Random Name Generator

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Whole Love

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Via Chicago

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Other than falling somewhere behind the Big Three of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, I honestly couldn't tell you where Canberra fits into the rest of the Australian cultural conversation except that it has the added cachet of being the nation's capital. I do know that until tonight's show at the Canberra Theatre, Wilco had never performed in the city despite playing many shows in Australia since its first tour here back in 2003 (and neither the Tweedy band nor Jeff solo tours had visited Canberra either on their Aussie excursions in 2016 and 2019, respectively). So this was a rare first, which are becoming increasingly rare in Wilco/Tweedy world after 30 years of live outings.

 

Not that it felt all that different from your average seated theater show in most small-to-medium-sized cities in the good ol' US of A. Take a modernish 1,200-seat room that mostly hosts musical theater productions, comedy shows and the occasional rock concert in a city like Spokane, Wash., or Des Moines, Iowa, and I don't think you'd be too far off from what the vibe of the Canberra Theatre — or its sold-out audience — was like. At least that's how it felt to me, outside of the handful of ardent fans, who made for an interesting standing vs. sitting "referendum" at the front.

 

Jeff, of course, couldn't help but poke a little fun at the seated and relatively sedate crowd and he chose his moment eight songs in — knowing he and his bandmates were about to play a rocker in Random Name Generator — to observe that "you're pretty quiet for a Friday night crowd. You must be all tuckered out from all the legislating and stuff. ... That's OK, we have a lot of time and a lot of songs to win you over." For their part, the Canberrans(?) seemed to enjoy getting a little jab and it spurred some of them onto a mini-stage rush of sorts as a few of the big fans already seated in the first couple of rows — including our own the ashtraysays — rose to their feet and were joined by a small, gleeful band of others who streamed down the aisles toward the front of the stage as the band launched into RNG.

 

It made for kind of a strange sight, I have to say. Instead of the usual standing vs. sitting dynamic that I expected at a show in a venue like this, you suddenly had about 75-100 people standing huddled around the front of the stage, while behind them sat about 1,100 other folks looking either bemused and/or annoyed. It was actually OK the first time it happened because right after RNG, Jeff quipped that, "I think this referendum has been voted down, clearly," and how it was OK because the band was going to play a ballad next anyhow, "so you should give each other some hugs and find your seats." Most of the stage rushers dispersed at that point and did just that, but a few continued to hold out even as Jeff continued to joke about how "there can't be anarchy" and "you can do whatever you want, (but) it's up to your peers."

 

Rock concert as metaphor for societal dynamics, eh? I suppose it's been done before. Ultimately, though, I suppose it ended up being what it usually ends up being — every man or woman for themselves. It's just that over here, or at least at this particular venue in Canberra, people were seemingly too polite to get too bent out of shape nor were the venue staff strong-willed enough to enforce anything once things got out of control. For instance, a couple of songs after Muzzle of Bees, when order had somewhat been restored a guy simply came back down and stood in the aisle next to the front row during Evicted and no one shooed him away or anything. He was simply allowed to remain, and eventually others followed suit again until there were a group of about 50 people standing in the aisles and the gaps between the front rows and the stage for the rest of the show.

 

I believe it was the guy who came down front during Evicted who was responsible for another funny moment during the show when he yelled out a request for Love Is Everywhere (Beware). Jeff heard the request and immediately shot back, "I just cut that from the list. No, I really did. OK, put it back. We'll do it. Not now. When we come back in 10 years." And eventually Jeff and Co. did play the song just where they had intended to all along — its first performance on Australian soil, to boot. "I'm glad I thought of that one, to put it in the set,"  Jeff said. "That was my idea." (Incidentally, right after that, someone yelled out for some Thin Lizzy and Jeff replied by saying they were a great band and playing a quick snippet of a riff, but quickly nipping any suggestion of a cover in the bud by saying, "We have about 400 of our own songs and we're only gonna get to play...a few more.")

 

Things went pretty much by the book for the last third of the show. The group of standers toward the front didn't really grow much more, nor did it shrink. It just kind of became the status quo after a while, and that was that. Occasionally someone would yell a request out and after one such instance, Jeff would recycle his old line about how "it's getting to be that point in the show when people have started to realize we're not gonna play the song that they want to hear. We have pamphlets in the lobby...no, there's a support group for how to deal with that."

 

Whether or not Jeff simply wanted to try and shake an audience comprised largely of people probably seeing his band live for the first time out of their doldrums a bit or just couldn't resist making a few governmental jokes at the expense of a capital city crowd, he at least succeeded — by speaking up early on — in making more interesting what could otherwise have just slipped into the ranks of theater shows that go by the wayside and aren't long remembered by their middle-aged suburbanite attendees. And I'd say for that fact alone, Canberra's initial Wilco resolution passed successfully.

 

"I think we got a lot of good work done tonight," Jeff said to a cheering audience in his final words before waving good night one last time.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Canberra (there were, in the end, no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Levee

Side With The Seeds

Random Name Generator

Muzzle Of Bees

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Via Chicago

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

12 hours ago, knotgreen said:

Interesting how AGIB-heavy these sets have been. Gearing up for Friday night's SSF show, perhaps? 

Safe travels, Setlist Jotter!

 

Yeah, I took note of that as well. Who knows, but it is moderately interesting...

12 hours ago, 50footqueenie said:

Are you big Down Under yet?

 

#fnarrfnarr

 

Not even close.

[Would've gotten this filed much sooner if I hadn't literally gotten back to my room last night after the show and had my head immediately sent a-spinning by the announcement of the new tour dates and all the pre-sales going live within the next hour or two, not to mention having to pack and get up and out for an early flight to the next city, so I once again apologize for the delay in posting. And thank goodness for an off day, so I can catch up before falling too far behind. I'll get it together, eventually...]

 

When it comes down to it, what am I going to remember about Night 2 in Brisbane? Honestly, that it was a pretty similar experience as Night 1 except that the powers-that-be at the Princess Theatre actually moved the barricade slightly closer to the stage, which I don't remember ever happening at a venue before. (This was told to us by possibly the friendliest security guard in history, who chatted with some of us early queuers before the show and even shook some of our hands and told us to have a good show. He said he admired that we seemed to know the words to the songs and shared that he hadn't been familiar with Wilco before the previous night's show, but thought Jeff and Co. were a very good band).

 

Unlike the first night, however, there wasn't a delivery of canned water by security — at least not until much later in the set, possibly — that seemed to perk up the audience. Both the crowd and the band in general seemed to be slightly more subdued than on the first night. Maybe there was a little natural comedown from that initial wave of excitement surrounding their first performance in Australia in 11 years, or maybe it was just the natural rush of trying fit all of the songs they wanted to play into the allotted time, but for whatever reason, Jeff wasn't nearly as chatty as a night earlier.

 

He didn't say anything until nine songs in when he introduced Cousin by joking about how someone had yelled out the previous night, "Come back!" and Jeff replied, "Here we are, and here's the title track from our newest album." A couple of songs later, after watching Pat and Nels dazzle the crowd with their guitar duel on Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull — the first performance of that song in Australia — Jeff looked back and forth at the two of them and quipped, "The sad part is they don't get along." Glenn, somewhat uncharacteristically but with a big smile on his face, followed that up with a rim shot, and Jeff looked back at him and immediately gestured toward the drummer and told the audience, jokingly, "We really don't get along."

 

That was, almost certainly, the most amusing visit to Banter Corner on this night. Whether it was just reticence or a matter of time, Jeff really didn't have too much else to say for the duration of the show other than one brief moment toward the end of main set when he told the audience, "I'm glad we came back. We missed you."

 

Instead, we got a setlist that featured 13 different songs than Night 1 (out of a 23-song set) and if it wasn't exactly the full-on 25th anniversary celebration of Summerteeth or deeper dive into Cruel Country or Cousin that some might have hoped for, well, I'd say it was still pretty good variety for a place the band hasn't performed in more than a decade. And within the nooks and crannies of every setlist, there are always gems such as Sunken Treasure that I personally will never get tired of hearing — and I think people who don't get to see them as frequently maybe don't realize how relatively rare they are (even though I think it was the same annoying-voiced guy who was ticking off Jeff with his Casino Queen requests a night earlier chose just before Sunken Treasure to make an ill-timed Passenger Side request tonight, which caused a brief eye roll from Jeff).

 

Once again, we had hometown hero and former guitar tech Matrix back on the Wilcrew for the night. He helped with all aspects of the stage setup and breakdown before and after the show and once again took on his old role of bringing Jeff his guitars between songs, but fortunately wasn't called into action to deal with any hecklers (or annoying song requesters, as it were). Actually, Jeff didn't even say anything about Matrix tonight so I guess it was just a case of "If you know, you know."

 

You knew after the Spiders ending on Night 1 that we were almost certainly headed for the "rock songs, etc." conclusion on Night 2, but even then, you're never quite sure how that will play out. As it turned out, they must have been some concern about running over the 11 p.m. curfew, so they cut Red-Eyed And Blue from the printed setlist and launched into I Got You (At The End Of The Century) straightaway after Falling Apart (Right Now), which always makes for a bit of a jarring transition. Those two songs — Red-Eyed and I Got You — really work best together and a build-up and release, don't you think? Ah well. I guess it was ultimately for a good reason because we got I'm A Wheel added on as the last song of the show, which wasn't on the printed list.

 

Oddly enough, another cut off the printed list was I Must Be High which was slated to be played between Jesus, etc. and Heavy Metal Drummer. I suppose it makes sense to try and squeeze an A.M. cut in the set somewhere, but I think that one at that point in the set would have been a surprise — albeit a pleasant one — to me.

 

So that was it for the band's long-awaited return to bustling Brisbane, which seems to be growing by the day. Here's hoping that Jeff and his bandmates return here again before the Summer Olympics arrive in 2032, and I would certainly not complain if they played the Princess Theatre for multiple nights again. What a nice, intimate venue in which to see the band, I believe the first time it has played a venue in Brisbane other than the more spacious Tivoli (and on the very same night that Teenage Fanclub was also in town, at the even tinier Triffid...what are the odds?). Maybe next time we'll even get more of a full-on rock show going from the Brissie audience, befitting Aussie traditions. The band did its part at the end of Night 2.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 in Brisbane (as mentioned, Red-Eyed And Blue was on the printed setlist in the encore but wasn't played, replaced by I'm A Wheel, which wasn't listed but was plahyed as the last song; meanwhile, I Must Be High was on the printed list in the main set but wasn't played):

 

Infinite Surprise

At Least That's What You Said

Handshake Drugs

Story To Tell

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

How To Fight Loneliness

Cousin

Hummingbird

Sunken Treasure

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I'm A Wheel

Apologies for the delay in getting this one posted, but the jet lag has been real...what can I say? Not to mention it's beautiful outside and one wants to soak up at least a bit of the Australian lifestyle during the day before congregating inside the intimate Princess Theatre in the evening. Anyway, tonight's first Wilco show on Australian soil in nearly a decade was a special one both for the band — and for those in its past, present and perhaps future orbit.

 

OK, from a setlist perspective, one might look at the list of songs played and simply shrug their shoulders and say, 'Well, it doesn't look all that different from what they played in Japan a few days ago.' Or even since Cousin came out last fall, for that matter. But that wouldn't take into account the feeling in the room — the excitement of the folks from Perth standing next to us who had traveled across the country to see the band live for the first time, the giddiness of those of us who spotted the familiar figure on stage before the show helping Wilco's crew like he used to do and then bringing out guitars to Jeff during the show instead of Jeff's regular guitar tech, the warmth of a Brisbane audience that remembered how to re-engage with the band again for the first time in nearly 14 years.

 

For those of us old-timers, I guess I should start with the return of Matrix, who Jeff only actually mentioned once during the show but who everyone certainly saw even if they weren't paying attention to him. Matrix, of course, being Jeff's longtime Australian guitar tech, who retired from the road a few years back to be closer to his family in the Brisbane area (in fact, I spotted him walking up to the venue tonight with his daughter, Kitten). It was like old times with him back on stage before the show helping out with various crew tasks, and then when the show began, it was evident that the crew had gotten up to some mischief by arranging to have Matrix bring out Jeff's guitars each time a change was called for throughout the set. Finally Jeff acknowledged it when there was a bit of an unruly fellow in the crowd who kept yelling out for Casino Queen, and Matrix apparently asked Jeff when he brought out a guitar if he wanted him to quiet that guy down.

 

"There's a lot of people who used to work for us here at the show tonight, and one of them keeps bringing me guitars," Jeff said after Jesus, etc. "He asked me if I wanted him to take care of that guy (requesting Casino Queen). You don't wanna mess with Matrix."

 

As you might have expected, it seemed like there were more visits to Banter Corner than in Japan (though I wasn't there, I'm assuming this was the case as it usually is when Jeff is back speaking his native tongue). Ever the observer of crowd dynamics, Jeff astutely picked up on the fact that for whatever reason, the mood seemed to lift a bit when security guards toward the front apparently got the go-ahead to start passing out cans of water to those who needed them about halfway through the show. Conveniently, this happened to be right during Hummingbird and Jeff went with the flow, took a can himself and actually appeared to drink more than a few sips (gasp!)

 

"That was a can of water, by the way," Jeff told the audience afterward. "It's been 20 years since I went to the hospital this month and (I've been drug-free) except for the one Dilaudid when I had my hip surgery recently." Then a woman interrupted him by shouting out, loudly, "Please come back!" Jeff paused, and then replied, "Please come back? We're here! How about tomorrow night?" And then he joked to the rest of the crowd, "Are you OK? I knew I shouldn't have taken that can of water..."

 

Another funny bit came a bit earlier between Random Name Generator and Muzzle Of Bees when Jeff stepped to the mike with a somewhat sour look on his face and jokingly said he was "told I have to say something to cleanse the palate" because these two songs have totally different tempos. "Are you ready now, Glenn?" Jeff said, looking back at a smirking Glenn. A bit later, Jeff also had a slightly off-putting moment when an audience member noticed his watch glowing and suggested he check it. Jeff looked at it and reported that it said something about "logging your feelings," and that had never happened before. Of course Jeff chose to parlay that into a short bit about how he thought the audience member was suggesting the band had played too long already.

 

Ultimately, we got a typical Night 1 encore with Spiders (Kidsmoke) to close and I must say that the Brissie crowd did an admirable job keeping the clapping on beat while also doing the "ba ba bas" and even getting some pogos in. Considering there were zero songs from Being There played tonight, I figure we're due for the barnburner encore tonight. It was weird, too, given that it was the first Wilco show in Australia since the release of Star Wars, Schmilco, Ode To Joy, Cruel Country and Cousin that every time a song from one of those records got played tonight I would make a mental note to myself, "First time that was played in Australia."

 

So we'll see what Night 2 at the Princess has in store. It's a nice and relatively intimate theater (capacity of just over 900) in South Brisbane that dates back to the late 1800s, set in an area now dominated by the enormous Queensland Children's Hospital. But overall, it's quite a nice venue for a rock show. My only complaint is the rail is set a bit far from the front of the stage. I'm not sure why, but it's a bit "too far apart" if you ask me. It's just been great to see some familiar faces, including that of our correspondent on the ground in Japan, theashtraysays, who I'd like to thank for his large-print reports from those shows.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 in Brisbane (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Side With The Seeds

Random Name Generator

Muzzle Of Bees

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Whole Love

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats

A Shot In The Arm

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

Via Chicago

California Stars

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

And just like that, Wilco (and Finom’s) three-show run in the Land of the Rising Sun has come to an end, hopefully not for another decade. I have no idea if there were any special surprises as the tour moved on to Osaka, but once again, thanks to the quick work of the good folk at Wilcoworld, at least we know what was played.

 

Otherwise, we await any reportage from those in attendance and/or social media evidence to emerge (preferably the former)…

 

For now, the setlist for Osaka courtesy of Wilcoworld (and already griped about by at least one member of this forum):

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Side With The Seeds

Random Name Generator

Muzzle Of Bees

Hummingbird

Evicted

Box Full Of Letters

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Whole Love

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats

 A Shot In The Arm

—————————————

Via Chicago

California Stars (with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart of Finom on vocals and Spencer Tweedy on shakers and drums)

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (with Sima Cunningham, Macie Stewart and Spencer Tweedy of Finom on backing vocals?)