bböp
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O Tatlock My Tatlock,
Well, what can I say? Barcelona always turns out for Wilco, and tonight was no exception. As I think I mentioned in yesterday's missive, I attended the band's first headlining tour of Spain back in 2005 (consisting of four shows). But Jeff and Co. actually first performed on Spanish soil the year prior when they played a headlining set at the 2004 Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, which actually was the third show ever with the current six-piece lineup after Nels and Pat officially joined the band that month and played that pair of debut gigs at Otto's in DeKalb, Ill.
Fast forward a little over 18 years and the band found itself back where it all started in Spain at the Poble Espanyol, an open-air artisan and architecture space — I was told that apparently there are examples of different types of architecture from all over Spain — and tourist spot located in the lovely Montjuïc area. I didn't realize this before, but a friend told me that the Poble Espanyol was actually the site of the first few editions of Primavera Sound before it expanded into the global behemoth it has now become.
The irony, then, was not completely lost on me that since the Barcelona audience had never experienced Wilco as anything other than the current six-piece lineup, that all these years later it would randomly get to see the band as something other than that. And of course, that was the case with our favorite guitar hero Nels still in Covid quarantine and awaiting the negative test(s) that he needs to rejoin the band before this tour wraps up next week. As usual, you kind of felt badly for the folks who might not have otherwise gotten to see Wilco at full strength before, who came to hear songs like Impossible Germany, Dawned On Me, Ashes Of American Flags or numerous others that the band simply was not going to play without Nels. But at the same time, it was a tradeoff of sorts with Wilco's deep catalog; for example, you might not get to hear Ashes, but you did get to hear Poor Places.
And you couldn't really have asked for a better audience to embrace what Jeff called a "make the best of it" situation than this one. Once Jeff made his usual remarks about Nels' absence early in the set ("Our compadre Nels Cline could not make it tonight. He sends his love and wants the show to go on, so we're here to give Nels' love and play our songs for you. Thank you for letting us do that."), not much more needed to be said. It feels too weird to even write this, but because of the selection of songs, you almost forgot at points that there was a very significant member of the band missing. If you didn't know better, you could have easily thought, well, this is the band.
I can't say with absolute certainty what the mood was throughout the crowd, but from what I could see, it seemed like most people were at the very least happy to just be enjoying live music again on what turned into a beautiful evening. I think Jeff must have picked up on that vibe, too, saying how happy he and his bandmates were to be there and how much they had missed this during one check-in with the audience. As you might expect, several "Oeee oeee oeee oeee
Olé, olé, olé, olé" chants broke out as the show went on and Glenn would do his part to egg them on every time by hitting his kick drum in time with them. When one such cheer broke out after Box Full Of Letters and before Jesus, etc., Jeff had to gently rein it in by joking that it was simply "too much love. The next song's kinda slow. We'll do more of that (rocking out) later."
A little later in the set, Jeff mentioned that it was guitar/keyboard tech Austin's birthday and got the audience to sing happy birthday to him and also to give a collective cheer for all the members of the Wilcrew as a way of thanking them for all of their hard work in keeping the proverbial train on the tracks during this challenging tour. Of course when the cheers got a little too animated/excited, Jeff also gave the universal "knock it off" hand signal, joking that they couldn't have the crowd cheering more enthusiastically for the crew than for the band.
All of the crowd love ultimately resulted in a dedication of the first song of the encore, You And I, to everyone in attendance. As Jeff remarked, sincerely, "You are the best audience we've ever had." From that point on, it was the aforementioned and promised rock songs, etc., mini-set to sweatily and satisfyingly close out the show (John had a couple of very emphatic jumps during all of this, fwiw). I could get into a bit of the nerdery here and note that Jeff sang the lyric in Red-Eyed And Blue as "the drugs we can't afford/not to take" tonight after singing the album version of "the drugs we can't afford/on the way" the previous couple of times. Jeff also did the count-in to Monday in Spanish, natch: "Uno...dos...uno, dos, tres, cuatro!” And for the record, it was Glenn who once again mouthed the "son of a..." transition from Monday into Outtasite.
You want more nerdery? OK, how about the fact that the band really adhered to the album versions of all of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot songs — from Pat playing the outro to Kamera on keyboard as opposed to the xylophone (although I actually thought the original, original version was Glenn playing the outro on crotales?) to no “stick twirl” verse on Heavy Metal Drummer to the filled-in backing oohs, singing of "Writing this letter to you" the second time around and end guitar slashing in I'm The Man Who Loves You. Or Jeff changing the lyric in Sunken Treasure from "I got my name from rock and roll" to "It's not the same without rock and roll." What sort of dork would take note of these things? I mean, really!
I guess that's about all I have to report from Barcelona, where I'm also told they will shortly welcome summer with a big party in honor of St. John (Sant Joan), the patron saint of Catalonia, and the summer solstice. Should I espy Señor Tweedy out on the streets, sparkler in hand, I shall return and make special mention here. But in any case, this celebratory night following the Wilconic fireworks should make for quite the festive evening full of bright lights and such. Wish me luck!
Once again yours in concert and banter reportage, Your Faithful Correspondent.
Here was the complete setlist, as played (I got a brief glimpse at the printed list and it appeared that there were no changes/omissions):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Hints
Story To Tell
Sunken Treasure
If I Ever Was A Child
All Across The World
Hummingbird
Poor Places
War On War
At Least That's What You Said
How To Fight Loneliness
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
Box Full Of Letters
Jesus, etc.
Forget The Flowers
California Stars
A Lifetime To Find
—happy birthday sung by audience to crew member Austin—
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
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You And I
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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6 minutes ago, 50footqueenie said:
Obviously your Scottish trip avoided ‘the great unwashed’ in Glasgow then?
How do the Welsh rate in terms of cleanliness, in your estimation? Are there also “greatunwashed” in Cardiff? Watch yerself now…
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To Tatlock:
A postcard from Zaragoza — that's th-air-ah-goth-ah for us non-brutes, I believe — where Wilco played its second show of this Spanish tour without the esteemed and beloved guitarist Nels, who remained in Covid quarantine after his unfortunate positive test the other day. Jeff's final words to the audience as he departed the stage tonight, in fact, were something to the effect of, "Go give Nels your love." But more on that in a bit...
I won't go too deep into my personal recollections — or lack thereof — of Zaragoza, but I realized that this was actually the third time I've seen Wilco here, which I'm pretty sure represents every performance the band has given in this fifth-largest city of España. Actually this was where the band played its first-ever Spanish headlining show, back in 2005 (Jeff and mates had previously played a Primavera Sound festival or some such), and I remember that to secure a ticket — at least from the good ol' U.S.A. — you were instructed to e-mail the venue. You never got a confirmation receipt or number or anything, but just an assurance that a ticket would be waiting for you at the box office and you would pay for it when you arrived. Somehow, miraculously, it was.
Anyway, I suppose Wilco has come a long way since those days — I was able to buy and print my ticket in advance and it was easily scanned (and at just 20 euros, it might have even been cheaper than it was back then)! — to the point where it drew a good-sized crowd of maybe 1,200 on a Tuesday night to a lovely enclosed garden section (the Jardin de Invierno, or Winter Garden) of one of Zaragoza's biggest parks (the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta). Of course I had to walk about 45 minutes back to my hotel after the show because the applicable buses had stopped running, cabs were fairly non-existent and ridesharing apparently isn't a thing here.
Where was I? Oh yeah, Wilco. Well, as you might have expected without Nels again, his bandmates didn't exactly try and re-invent the wheel from the previous evening in San Sebastián. There were a few variations in the setlist, but basically they seem to have chosen the songs they feel they can best pull off as a five-piece lineup. It's perhaps just as interesting to zero in on some of the songs they don't think they can pull off without Nels that would otherwise almost certainly be in the set — classics like Impossible Germany and Handshake Drugs, obviously, but also Falling Apart (Right Now) and Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, among others, off the new record. Somehow they have found a way to cover Nels' solo on Hummingbird, as someone else had mentioned in the discussion of the San Sebastián show, and I think it was mostly Mike on keyboard as well as a hint of Pat on Mellotron. I'd be curious to know more, but I'm not sure my non-musical brain would comprehend anyway.
It didn't all go off without a hitch, of course. On You And I, for example, Pat definitely hit a wonky note mid-song that caused him to wince a bit and I sort of missed the little psychedelic touches at the end that Nels usually adds to the ballad via his use of pedals and effects. A bit later in the 1-hour, 48-minute set, Jeff seemed to get caught between the album arrangement and live evolution of I'm The Man Who Loves You with Pat strumming an acoustic rhythm guitar and had to restart the song (and even then I'm not sure Jeff entirely nailed the opening to his satisfaction). Actually, it might have been some of that veering between various arrangements of songs, in addition to adjusting to Nels' absence, that was to blame for any minor struggles.
But as usual, these are minor quibbles on my part. What stood out to me was that the rest of the band members seemed to be having a good time up there playing together, figuring things out on the fly occasionally and just seeming loose. Obviously they missed Nels being there — and once again Jeff took time out early on to address his absence by saying in part, "We're missing our wonderful compadre Nels. He would never, ever want the show to not go on, so that's why we're here. He loves us, and he wants us to play these songs for you, so thanks for letting us," — but at some level, they were still focused on putting on as good a show as possible for those who turned out. And they did.
Apart from what I've already reported, variations of which were repeated a couple other times over the course of the show, the only real extended visit to Banter Corner came pretty early on after Sunken Treasure when Jeff apparently broke a nail after his shredding on that tune. As he was shaking out his finger, he stalled for a bit of time by pointing out that it was Pat's birthday but that we weren't going to sing happy birthday to him "because he doesn't want that." Then Jeff and Pat had a brief back-and-forth with Jeff joking, "I severely injured myself for your birthday," and Pat replying, "You didn't have to do that." Then of course, the audience proceeded to sing happy birthday to Señor Sansone, whether he liked it or not. No cakes were presented on stage, however.
May I just also opine here how lovely it has been to hear Sunken Treasure the past couple of nights? Definitely in my personal top five Wilco songs, I think. I would gladly sacrifice it for Nels not to be sick — and I'm not sure the band would be playing it on this run if not for that unfortunate reality — but I'm not complaining otherwise. And tonight Jeff modified the lyrics of the last verse, changing the second "I was maimed by rock and roll," to "It's not the same without rock and roll, is it?" No, it is definitely not.
Covid times have made it difficult for everyone, but certainly rock and roll bands (and crews) still face a ton of challenges as they attempt to navigate these ever-changing conditions, so here's once again wishing Nels a continued speedy recovery and the rest of the Wilcos and Wilcrew good health in their collective efforts to keep the show on the road. And wishing you, Tatlock, vim, vigor, vinegar and a peaceful tea time.
Once again yours in concert and banter reportage, Your Faithful Correspondent.
Here was the complete setlist, as played (I only caught a fleeting glimpse of a printed list, but I don't think there were any changes/omissions):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
If I Ever Was A Child
Story To Tell
Sunken Treasure
—happy birthday sung to Pat by audience—
All Across The World
Hummingbird
Poor Places
War On War
At Least That's What You Said
Please Be Wrong
How To Fight Loneliness
Hearts Hard To Find
Box Full Of Letters
Jesus, etc.
Forget The Flowers
You And I
A Lifetime To Find
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You (started and restarted)
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California Stars
Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
I'm A Wheel
The Late Greats
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Dearest Albert,
Well, it certainly must have been an eventful day in Wilcoworld! Not that I would know, but just before heading over to the first show of the band's long-awaited Spanish tour tonight, late word came in via the social media — sosh medes, if you will — that lead guitarist and all-around good fellow Nels would not be performing after testing positive for the dreaded corona earlier in the day. The show would go on, apparently at Nels' insistence, and some adjustments were made, but it turns out that the remainder of the Wilcomen are also quite talented musicos and they were able to not only limp through a performance but power through a full set of songs, new and old.
Of course, the tall and elegant Sir Cline was much missed in his usual spot at stage right and I'm sure it was weird for Mr. Jeff to look over during a Wilco show and not see him there for the first time in nearly two decades. "(Nels) insisted that we go on with the show," Jeff said two songs into tonight's performance when he acknowledged Nels' absence. "It's our first show in 18 years without him, and hopefully there won't be very many of them. But we have a lot of songs (on the setlist), and we'd like to play them for you."
Having done some light Internet research, I can say with reasonable confidence that this was the first Wilco show without Nels since he and Pat made their band debuts at Otto's in DeKalb, Ill., on 19 May 2004. The last time the band played a show without Nels was way back in the halcyon days of 2003 when it finished its touring for the year with a couple of short sets at the Bridge School benefit concerts in California in late October, which came on the heels of two shows at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago that brought to an end the touring cycle for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Earlier this year, as you'll remember, the band played three shows at the Sky Blue Sky Festival in Mexico without a positive-testing Mikael when a tag team of Liam Kazar, Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart helped cover his parts. This time, however, there would be no fill-ins, especially being so far from home and on short notice. So some tweaking of the setlist was certainly going to happen one way or another. As it turned out, it was probably fortunate that the band had both a new record and the recent YHF 20th anniversary shows from which to draw a bulk of songs for tonight's setlist on which Nels wouldn't be missed quite as much or could be covered somewhat. Actually with some of the YHF material, the sound reminded me of the days with the five-piece lineup (or even the four-piece, which I know at least a few VC old-timers pine for nostalgically).
Sunken Treasure, which featured Jeff on electric guitar, was of course an inspired choice to pull into the set, and always wonderful to hear. You also figured that At Least That's What You Said, which the band has been regularly playing on this tour anyway and features Jeff on lead guitar, would be on the setlist, and it was. But even though Jeff usually does the shredding on that one, he admitted afterward that not having Nels there was taking some getting used to: "Playing electric guitar without Nels is like being on a high wire without a net," Jeff remarked. "It's been a long time." (To which someone in the audience said something like, "You're doing great," which of course opened the door for Jeff's bit about how he has the face of a guy who needs encouragement and how "that's my brand.")
It was also probably fortunate that the first show without Nels came at the 1,800-capacity, stadium-seated, wood-accented Auditorio at the Kursaal complex. If I'm not mistaken, it's the lone indoor theater show on this Spanish run, so it was a place where quieter songs such as Ambulance and The Universe off Cruel Country as well as oldies like How To Fight Loneliness could work. Not that rock songs weren't performed, even without Señor Nels. The crowd, which remained seated throughout the main set and the first couple of songs in the encore, finally got to its feet — mostly — when the drum intro of Monday kicked in and remained standing as the band surprised some by also squeezing in Outtasite (Outta Mind) to close out the 1-hour, 49-minute show. (I must observe that I didn‘t hear Jeff mutter the traditional and transitional "son of a..." between the two songs, but he had a lot to worry about, so all is forgiven.)
Another interesting song to be included in the set was Forget The Flowers, which of course usually features Nels' twangy solo. In his place, Pat stepped in and showed that he could twang it up a bit in his own right (on his cream-colored Telecaster, I believe). I actually thought the band might lean on Pat even a little more on guitar than it ultimately did, but as Jeff said in introducing him after Flowers, "he's covering a lot of territory (tonight)." Jeff actually wound up introducing all of the band members, which doesn't often happen — Mike ("he's got two hands, too!"), Glenn ("he's just doing what he normally does") and John ("my brother...I've been with him longer than anybody.")
So for one night, at least, Jeff and Co. not only survived but (more or less) thrived despite the absence of their esteemed bandmate, who has been such a rock over the years. As Jeff said, here's wishing Nels a speedy recovery and that we'll see him back on stage very soon. And obviously let's also hope that nobody else in the band or crew catch a positive test; this is life for touring bands these days, unfortunately. It's clear that Wilco can probably do a show or three without any one member (except Jeff, I guess), but it's also clear that the band at full strength is something not to be taken for granted.
Onward, and welfare to you! Yours in concert and banter reportage, Your Faithful Correspondent.
Here was the complete setlist, as played (it looks like I'm A Wheel and The Late Greats were listed as the last two songs of the encore on the printed list, but weren't played):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Story To Tell
Ambulance (Jeff solo)
Sunken Treasure
Hummingbird
Poor Places
War On War
At Least That's What You Said
Passenger Side
The Universe
How To Fight Loneliness
Hearts Hard To Find
Box Full Of Letters
Jesus, etc.
Forget The Flowers
California Stars
A Lifetime To Find
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
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Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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3 hours ago, Nick110581 said:
Uk dates will be next year
Hopefully they will play more than just London and Manchester this time...
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3 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:
Dear Bbop,
Was that a pretty great guitar-focused segment?
You ardent admirer,
Albert.
P.S. Ta
Did I repeat that bit? I have decided that I shall, in the future, simply begin composing my correspondence here with a "My Dearest Albert..." salutation since you are the only one who deigns to reply anyway. Ta.
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17 hours ago, Nick110581 said:
Thanks for the setlist. Thought the show was amazing and a really great mix of songs. Band looked like they were having fun.
It was also lucky they played before the Waterboys despite Wilco being main headliner as that got suspended due to weather and was chaos getting out the site. The festival was poorly organised but thankfully Wilco made it all worthwhile.
Oh, wow. Didn't realize that the Waterboys' set got cut short since I had to leave fairly quickly after Wilco's set to catch the shuttle bus back to the station to make the last train back to London, though I suspected it couldn't have been terribly pleasant to be out there when I saw the rain pouring down (fortunately just after I had just gotten on the bus).
To be honest, I was a bit annoyed that they waited so long to announce the stage times because it made it difficult to sort transit options, etc., but in the end, it proved to be a lucky break that Wilco got the penultimate slot on the main stage (as opposed to the final one, as usually goes to a festival headliner). As someone who's been a victim of tough weather luck more than once at outdoor Wilco shows, I guess we really did have fortune on our side this time.
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Billed as Wilco's only UK appearance this year, I think this performance at the Black Deer Festival in Kent had actually been in the works for somewhere in the neighborhood of three years or more owing to the pandemic. Personally it wasn't a show that I ever thought I would actually make it to, but sometimes life has a funny way of working out. And so I found myself getting on a train from Brussels to London in the morning, then two more trains to get to the Tunbridge Wells station and then a shuttle bus to the festival site and then hiking short distance into Eridge Park until I finally arrived at Black Deer's surprisingly small intimate main stage by mid-afternoon.
Talk about a contrast with the festival Wilco played at on a Belgian beach the night before. The two scenes couldn't have been more different in general, probably, but even though we were probably further back from the stage at Black Deer than at Live Is Live, the stage was only about half as high and there were no giant video screens so things were about as intimate as you could probably get for the main stage at a reasonably-sized festival. (And have I mentioned no sand?)
Though Wilco technically were the day's headliners, the band was slotted into the penultimate slot on the main stage, following American singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews and her band and the Scottish veterans The Waterboys. Andrews seems to be perhaps even more popular in the UK than at home, and she entranced the audience with a set of songs both new and old before the wind and chill started to pick up just in time for Wilco's long-awaited performance. "I'm glad we finally got to do this show for you all," a Stetson-topped Jeff said, in his only comments before the end of the set.
I wasn't sure how Wilco would be received, actually, when I saw a few folks in the front putting pieces of cotton in the ears during Andrews' relatively gentle set. But apparently there were more than a few Wilco die-hards who had made the trek from near and far, so that set a good mood at least as far as I could see. And fans of both Wilco and Andrews were rewarded when Jeff and Co. invited the latter and her bandmates back on stage for a joint rendition of California Stars near the end of their set.. Andrews chipped in on vocals, while her three bandmates all contributed some form of percussion, while interestingly (though perhaps more understandably than the previous night), Pat once again did not play the banjitar.
Setlistwise, the band pretty much stuck to its general script of mixing in a selection of tunes from Cruel Country with some old favorites. One swapout that I don't believe had been played yet in Europe was Ambulance, which Jeff played truly solo while the rest of the band temporarily left the stage.
For the second straight night, the band also played in front of a more plain black backdrop that just read "Wilco" in a stylized font (which I'm pretty sure was the same backdrop the band used for the complete Cruel Country set at Solid Sound) as opposed to the much more intricate reddish one that features "Wilco" and a series of leafy designs in a lace motif. I'm sure the explanation for that has to do with mundane production issues like the specs of the festival stages or setup times, but anyway, I figured it was at least worth noting.
As far as Banter Corner, other than the aforementioned brief comment Jeff made relatively early on there really wasn't anything of note until he interjected again near the end of set to say that he and his bandmates "were trying to fit in as much music as we can in our allotted time. You never know when everything might get shut down again." Jeff was referring to the pandemic, I think, but he could have just as easily been talking about the incoming weather. You could see Wilco's crew members looking and pointing out at the sky with concern before the set and preparing for the worst, but fortunately they were able to get everything in without any interruptions.
Not so lucky for The Waterboys, or so I later heard (see post below). By then, Wilco — and hopefully, CMA and her band — were probably nicely ensconced in their various touring vehicles, having cut through the swirling Kentish winds and gloom for at least a little while with their individual and collective takes on Americana and in so doing, bringing smiles to more than a few British faces in the process.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, at the Black Deer Festival (The Late Greats was listed as the final song of the set on the printed list, but wasn't played):
A Shot In The Arm
Story To Tell
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Handshake Drugs
Hummingbird
Ambulance (Jeff solo)
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
War On War
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Impossible Germany
At Least That's What You Said
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
Jesus, etc.
A Lifetime To Find
California Stars (w/Courtney Marie Andrews on co-vocals and CMA band members on various percussion)
Falling Apart (Right Now)
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1 hour ago, Albert Tatlock said:
Ca plane pour toi?
Ta
More like Ça Chunnel pour moi (which costs more than a plane and you have to get there nearly as early, so what’s the point?)! -
Due to a slightly late start, some hideous Friday rush-hour traffic getting out of Brussels and the disorganized parking/entrance situation at the event itself, my comrade and I unfortunately arrived at the inaugural Live Is Live festival in the Belgian coast town of Zeebrugge only in time to catch the last couple of songs by the popular Belgian band dEUS. Fortunately that meant that a good chunk of the crowd, at least in the premium "frontstage" area," cleared out for the next band, Wilco, and we were able to secure good spots close to the stage.
Not that this was a particularly intimate event or anything, given that the stage was at least eight feet high with two huge video screens flanking it and the barricade set back a good 10 feet. We were lucky that the band set up close to the lip of the stage, or it might have been difficult to see Glenn at all. And just so you get the full sense of it, this whole setup was on the Zeebrugge beach (though oddly enough, you couldn't really see any water), which meant traipsing through heaps of sand. Fun!
Anyway, Wilco gave it 100 percent as the de facto support act for The National, which was headlining the first night of the festival (and incidentally, it wasn't really even a festival in the sense that there was just the one stage, so it was just more of an extended show with a five-band bill). "Thanks for listening to us," Jeff said near the end of the show in one of his only visits to Banter Corner. "Have fun with The National later. We go way back." (By the way, the mutual respect between the two American bands was reciprocated early in The National's set as well, when frontman Matt Berninger dedicated Mistaken For Strangers to Wilco, who he called "heroes to us, and one of the reasons we started (our) band.")
Between the always-effective opener of A Shot In The Arm and the early, well, shot in the arm provided by Handshake Drugs, that helped to balance the inclusion of new Cruel Country material like Story To Tell and I Am My Mother that might otherwise be a tough sell for a "festival" crowd. Then the middle of the set was just one guitar workout after another, as Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull went into Impossible Germany, which segued into At Least That's What You Said and finally concluded with the Via Chicago>Many Worlds coda pairing.
Phew...that's a pretty great guitar-focused sequence right there, if you ask me! And it was a treat to hear Pat's playing, in particular, on a nice-sounding PA system. His playing really drives a lot of the Cruel Country material, and I enjoyed getting to hear some of the sounds he was making come through the mix especially clearly.
But far from being done, Jeff and his bandmates finished out the set with the "rock songs, etc." encore that wasn't actually an encore. You knew once they started into Red-Eyed And Blue — and incidentally, Jeff sang the original lyric of "some drugs we can afford/on the way" instead of how he has usually sung it in recent years as "some drugs we can afford/not to take," which I'm sure exactly no one noticed — that I Got You and probably Outtasite would follow. But we also got the added bonus of I'm A Wheel, which they certainly didn't have to do. I'm not sure they had an exact defined set time, but they wound up playing 101 minutes in all...so a bit longer than the 90 for which we presumed they would be allotted.
Before I forget, a few nerdy guitar things that I noticed for the first time that probably very few care about. On I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, for example, Nels played some sort of thin resonator-type guitar that I hadn't seen him use on that song before, while Jeff used one of his rubber-bridge guitars throughout the length of Via Chicago and the ensuing Many Worlds coda. Oh, and on California Stars, Pat didn't use his banjitar for some reason — even though they soundchecked it earlier; instead, he played his solo on keyboard.
And that's more or less all I've got to report from the beach in Belgium (whilst I'm still emptying the sand out of my shoes and the cuffs of my jeans). It was a pretty fun way to spend a Friday afternoon/evening once we got there, and while I wouldn't necessarily want to trudge to concerts on a beach all the time, there is something quite pleasant about breathing in the sea air on a warm summer day every once in a while. Let's just not make a habit out of it, OK?
Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn't see a printed list, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):
A Shot In The Arm
Story To Tell
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Handshake Drugs
Hummingbird
All Across The World
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
War On War
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Impossible Germany
At Least That's What You Said
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
Jesus, etc.
A Lifetime To Find
California Stars
Falling Apart (Right Now)
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
I'm A Wheel
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1 hour ago, chisoxjtrain said:
Looks like they closed the main set with Many Worlds.
Ah, of course they did. Thanks for the setlist pic. I’ll make the edit above when I get a chance. -
Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the refined halls of Frankfurt's Alte Oper, the city's one-time primary opera hall, so just stealing this setlist from good ol' Wilcoworld for posterity's sake. Nice to see that the band is continuing to tweak the setlist a bit and presumably tailor it to the venue (as it usually does). Also presumably, Aoifa Nessa Frances provided support again as she did in Cologne. Was anyone there who can add any details about the show?
Anyway, here was the setlist for Frankfurt, as reported on Wilcoworld (as usual, the site doesn't indicate where the encore break was, so I
'm taking that liberty and making the assumption based on earlier showsI've edited the setlist below based on the printed setlist that was posted, and also assuming that the Via Chicago>Many Worlds (coda) is the same version they have been playing at these European shows thus far):A Shot In The Arm
Story To Tell
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Hints
Handshake Drugs
Hummingbird
If I Ever Was A Child
All Across The World
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
War On War
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
Impossible Germany
Mystery Binds
At Least That's What You Said
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
-------------------------------------------------
Jesus, etc.
A Lifetime To Find
Falling Apart (Right Now)
California Stars
The Late Greats
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1
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Well, have you heard the one about a Glaswegian bloke in Cologne who tried and failed to ignite some sort of football-style chant during a Wilco show (and even tried to get Jeff to lead it)? I guess you could say it was Impossible Germany. #Rimshot
OK, bad jokes aside, this actually happened tonight when a Scottish guy in the front row — ironically, NOT the guy sporting a shirt that boldly read Scotland across the front — took the opportunity to try and start some version of the "Here we, here we, here we fucking go" chant that is apparently popular in Scotland. When the German audience didn't join in kind, he appealed to Jeff to help him get the chant going. After a half-hearted attempt, Jeff quipped, "I appreciate the gumption it took to try and start a chant — and get me to participate." He then further defused the situation by telling the story he first told on The Tweedy Show about someone who bought he and his wife a tiny square of land in Scotland that made them a duke and duchess or something like that and joked that he shouldn't really be speaking to someone beneath them.
It all added a bit of levity to an otherwise music-focused night at the E-Werk, where Wilco had last played nearly a decade ago. It's a converted power station that can hold up to 2,000, but was probably only about two-thirds full. It definitely wasn't as intimate as the previous night's venue in Copenhagen, but at least was still a general-admission situation. Kicking off the show, as she will be in Frankfurt on Thursday, was the Irish singer-songwriter Aoifa Nessa Frances, who delivered a moody half-hour solo set.
As for Wilco's set, it looks like the general framework for this first bit of touring featuring Cruel Country has been more or less established but it's nice to know there's still some room for more variety — even if they can't get to it all every night. For instance, we got the welcome additions of Company In My Back and Muzzle Of Bees early on tonight while one of my personal CC faves, Hearts Hard To Find, replaced Tired Of Taking It Out On You. And though I didn't get a glimpse of a printed setlist, I was told that The Universe — as well as Spiders (Kidsmoke) — were listed in the encore. Unfortunately, or fortunately if you're a Being There fan, the band appeared to have to adjust its plan due to (I'm pretty sure) an 11 p.m. curfew and wound up concluding once again with the tried-and-true Red-Eyed>I Got You>Outtasite trifecta.
For me, and probably for a lot of fans, it's hard to ignore the parts of the set that Jeff and his bandmates have created for themselves to stretch out instrumentally. I'm thinking of the tacking-on of the Many Worlds outro to Via Chicago which really makes that into an epic piece (on which, incidentally, Jeff played one of his rubber bridge guitars for the duration; I don't remember that happening before) as well as Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, which is such a unique and weirdly thrilling song among the Cruel Country material. In general, there's quite a lot of guitar workouts sprinkled among the 25 songs played each night so far — and there's still room for more (IMHO).
Aside from the "incident" with the Scotsman, Jeff didn't pay too many visits to Banter Corner. One other moment that actually might have opened the door for the wannabe chanter came pretty late in the show when Jeff started to say something and hesitated for a second, which led someone in the crowd to say, in a German accent, "You can speak." To which Jeff replied, "I can speak. I've just been keeping quiet because we have a lot of music to play. Well, not anymore. We already played most of it. See, this is why I don't talk." The only other significant comments I remember Jeff making were introducing Everyone Hides with his line about how every time the band puts out a new album, it makes people like the last one, and just a general thank you to people for coming to the show and how nice it was to be able to come back.
As much as I would have liked to hear a different encore tonight, I will say that one nice bit of getting Red-Eyed>I Got You again was seeing Glenn with his sleigh bells again for the transition between the two songs. The night before in Copenhagen I worried that perhaps that instrument hadn't made the trip across the pond because he only had a tiny little hand tambourine, but no worries...the sleigh bells returned in their full glory in Cologne! As a friend pointed out to me, this is a detail that probably only I would notice or care about. But then again, these are the sorts of things you definitely notice from night to night — and part of what makes seeing multiple shows on a given run fun.
We shall see what future nights have in store, but I'd say that the integration of the Cruel Country material into the larger framework of a Wilco setlist seems to be going pretty swimmingly so far. Seems like you can already tell what the deep cuts off CC will be, although at least we won't have a Sunloathe situation hanging over our collective heads for a few years. And personally, I'll still be — perpetually, I'm sure — waiting for that The Empty Condor>An Empty Corner jam...sigh.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, in Cologne (as I mentioned, I didn't get a look at a printed setlist, but I know the planned encore was at least partially different):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Company In My Back
Hints
Handshake Drugs
War On War
Muzzle Of Bees
If I Ever Was A Child
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
All Across The World
Everyone Hides
Story To Tell
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Hearts Hard To Find
At Least That's What You Said
Country Song Upside Down
Impossible Germany
Jesus, etc.
Box Full Of Letters
A Lifetime To Find
The Late Greats
Falling Apart (Right Now)
----------------------------------------------
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
-
First full show of the Cruel Country tour, and there's a bunch I'd like to write but that's going to have to wait because I have to leave to catch a flight in about four hours and your humble correspondent can't function on as little beauty sleep as he used to...
[Edit: Finally getting around to adding some more reportage below...he said to an audience of Tatlock. ]
Amager Bio (located, somewhat confusingly, in the Amagerbro district and just off the Amagerbrogade) is one of those venues that Wilco just doesn't play in the good ol' US of A much anymore — that is, a 1,000-capacity, general-admission space with a relatively low stage that allowed for that truly intimate feel like back in the old club days. It was pretty wide and not very deep, and the band took up most of the width so that it felt like Nels and Pat were a bit far apart at times for some of their guitar back-and-forth on some of the Cruel Country material. But I'm definitely splitting hairs. Amager Bio, which I believe might be a converted movie theatre, is really the perfect room for a band like Wilco, IMHO. And I hesitate to say more good things about it because, frankly, we don't need an influx of Americans flocking to places like Copenhagen to muck up the proceedings. I keed, I keed...kinda.
Anyway, I think if Jeff had had his druthers, he and his bandmates might well have just played Cruel Country straight through again as they did a couple of weeks earlier at Solid Sound. "You may be able to tell we have a new record (out)," Jeff said a little over halfway through the set, in his first extended comments of the evening. "We just want to play all those songs, but we have songs from other records, too." All in all, it was a bit of a Cruel Country and "the hits" set, though an early appearance of Handshake Drugs was certainly welcome.
By the time Jeff somewhat awkwardly introduced the final song of the main set, Falling Apart (Right Now), it seemed like the Danish audience had (wink, wink) "embraced the yeehaw" — at least as much as it was in their collective DNA to do so. (I think the moments that translated best from the new record, not surprisingly, were the soaring Pink Floyd-esque jam of the Many Worlds outro that flowed out of the end of Via Chicago and the mesmerizing Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull guitar workout led by Pat). "We're gonna leave you with our big country hit," Jeff said before Falling Apart. "We just played this on...on...uh, we haven't played it anywhere yet." OK, so maybe the banter still needs a little fine tuning.
I couldn't help but also notice another amusing moment in the encore during the transition from Red-Eyed and Blue into I Got You (At The End Of The Century) where Glenn usually has a pretty sizable set of sleigh bells that he shakes around and very visibly hits one hand on top of before putting them down and hitting the cowbell that officially kicks off I Got You. Well tonight, I'm not exactly sure what happened — whether the crew had misplaced them or were just goofing around — but instead of the sleigh bells, all Glenn had in his hand was the saddest little hand tambourine that he kind of used as best he could (with a sheepish expression on his face). It was probably more of a "you had to be there" moment, but definitely brought a smile to my face.
Another noteworthy (to me, anyway) moment also involved Glenn and came during Heavy Metal Drummer. For the most part, since the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 20th anniversary shows, Wilco has stuck to the album arrangements they relearned to perform that record as it was recorded. So it will be interesting moving forward to see how much (or little) the live versions of the YHF material revert back to the way they had evolved over time until a few months ago. Tonight, for example, I was fully expecting HMD to follow IATTBYH and War On War and be played with the album arrangement. That meant no "she lifted up her shirt at the battle of the bands" verse or line about "(the drummer) twirled his sticks..." However, to my surprise (and maybe Glenn's as well), Jeff made the ostensibly spur-of-the-moment decision to sing the verse that differs from the album version and that meant Glenn had a stick-twirling opportunity after all. I'm happy to report that despite perhaps being caught a bit by surprise, Glenn still managed to deliver said stick twirl — much to everyone's delight and relief.
As far as Banter Corner, Jeff didn't really say much for the first two-thirds of the set but he did start to open up a bit toward the end. At one point, Jeff thanked the audience for coming out and said, "We love it here. We don't think it's fair that you get to live like this." He added, in a not-at-all-subtle dig at our cruel country that, "You have a decided lack of weapons." Of course that led to an audience member shouting that the band should move to Copenhagen, to which Jeff replied that he would gladly do it but someone would have to convince his wife, who has lived in Chicago all her life. Jeff joked that his wife has been dodging bullets for many years now and also mentioned the infamous story about their house getting shot at a few years ago in a random drive-by shooting, asking rhetorically if anyone in the crowd's home had ever been shot at. #Merica
Then, by way of introducing the all-Being There encore, Jeff made some brief comments about how Cruel Country was actually the band's second double album and that most bands don't make it long enough to have one double album in their career, much less two. And that apparently emboldened Jeff enough to declare that Wilco will have three double albums before it's through. "I'm saying it right now!" Jeff said, and of course we — or at the least the approximately 1,000 of us who were at Amager Bio — will hold him to that. Wait, does this mean the next Wilco record is going to be another double album?
I suppose there will be plenty of time to hem and haw (yee? sorry) about the prospect of back-to-back double albums, but at this point in their career, it seems safe to say that Wilco feels self-assured enough to go just about any direction it wants to — whether that happens to be songs about birds without tails and conversations with Death, Gitarzans and Janines or, I suppose, anything in between. Here's to the next one (show, album, multi-day event, merch concept, etc.)!
For now, here was the complete setlist as played in Copenhagen (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Hints
Handshake Drugs
War On War
If I Ever Was A Child
All Across The World
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
Everyone Hides
Story To Tell
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
At Least That's What You Said
Country Song Upside Down
Impossible Germany
Jesus, etc.
Heavy Metal Drummer
A Lifetime To Find
Box Full Of Letters
The Late Greats
Falling Apart (Right Now)
-----------------------------------------------
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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1
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I wasn't at this first show of this latest European run, but for the sake of posterity and record-keeping...I saw our Brazilian correspondent(e) post a pic of the setlist, so I'm reposting here. Intrigued by the Via Chicago>end of Many Worlds outro. Reminds of My Morning Jacket's occasional detours into sections of their songs, like "end of Run Thru" and whatnot (although a lot less rocking). Looking forward to seeing Jeff and Co. tomorrow in the Land of Hygge!
Anyway, here was the printed setlist for the show at Loaded Festival (obviously can't say if there were any changes or omissions):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Hints
War On War
If I Ever Was A Child
All Across The World
Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)
Everyone Hides
Story To Tell
Bird Without A Tail (presumably into Base Of My Skull, though not actually listed on setlist as such)
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
At Least That's What You Said
Impossible Germany
Jesus, etc.
Heavy Metal Drummer
A Lifetime To Find
Box Full Of Letters
The Late Greats
Falling Apart (Right Now)
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2
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I think they livestreamed this set as well — why wouldn't they? — but I didn't see quite as many cameras as for the Wilco sets, so anyway. In any event, this Tweedy and friends set has always been the traditional way that Solid Sound concludes and often has its biggest surprises as far as collaborations with other artists performing at the festival and the like. This year there was only one real surprise — the appearance of David Byrne — and even that was kind of not quite as big a shocker as it might otherwise have been, after Byrne came out to perform a couple of songs with old friend Terry Allen earlier in the day.
Nevertheless, when Jeff introduced the Talking Heads frontman by saying it was one of "the biggest thrills of my life," it was clear that this would be one of the defining moments of Solid Sound 2022. While some — myself included — held out hope that Byrne and the Tweedy band might perform the Talking Heads' classic Heaven, which Jeff had played over the end credits of the Every Other Summer documentary about Solid Sound if I'm not mistaken, the big ensemble finish for this year's fest turned out to be the more conventional and safer California Stars. Byrne struggled with the first verse lyrically, though neither he nor anyone in the band seemed to get too thrown off, and eventually others joined in the vocals and the song came off like the celebratory anthem it has become.
Otherwise, the festival-closing set on a gloriously sunny afternoon was a nice distillation of what the Tweedy band has been up to the past couple of years following the release of Love Is The King and the additions to the mix of Sammy Tweedy to the mix as a backing (and occasional lead) vocalist and Ohmme's Macie Stewart on violin and backing vocals. The usual cast of Spencer Tweedy on drums, James Elkington on electric guitar, Liam Kazar on bass and Stewart's bandmate and Kazar's sister Sima Cunningham on backing vocals and electric guitar rounded out what has come to be an all-star family band.
Anyway, more to come perhaps, but for now here was the complete setlist as played for the final set of Solid Sound 2022 (there were no changes to the printed list, except I believe Jeff accidentally flip-flopped Guess Again and Let's Go Rain):
Evergreen
Love Is The King
A Robin Or A Wren
Opaline
Gwendolyn
Having Been Is No Way To Be
I Know What It's Like
Save It For Me
The Red Brick>
Warm (When The Sun Has Died)
Don't Forget
Half-Asleep
Natural Disaster
Even I Can See (Jeff and James Elkington only)
World Away
Bombs Above>
Some Birds
Guess Again
Let's Go Rain
Family Ghost
--------------------------------------------------------
Helpless [Neil Young] (with Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals, Janet Bean and Rick Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day on backing vocals and Sam Evian on electric guitar)
It Must Be Love [Labi Siffre]
California Stars (with David Byrne on vocals and acoustic guitar and ensemble, including Nels Cline on electric guitar, Glenn Kotche on percussion, John Stirratt on bass, Mikael Jorgensen and Pat Sansone on keyboard)
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3
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As usual with livestreams, 95 percent of anyone who cares probably either was in attendance or watched from home so this is just a cursory (and delayed) setlist post for the record. Might add some thoughts when I get a chance, but I'll be in transit for a bit and, well, you know how that goes...
Anyway, here was the complete setlist as played for Wilco's set on Night 2 of Solid Sound 2022 (The Lonely 1 was apparently on the printed list as the last song of the show, but wasn't played):
You Are My Face
War On War
Muzzle Of Bees
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Side With The Seeds
If I Ever Was A Child
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
Hotel Arizona
At Least That's What You Said
Either Way
Impossible Germany
She's A Jar
What Light
Story To Tell
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Falling Apart (Right Now)
Walken
----------------------------------------------
The Good Part
Jesus, etc. (with Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast on lead vocals and Macie Stewart and Molly Germer on violin)
Heavy Metal Drummer
Dawned On Me
Lifetime To Find
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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1
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After the requisite Berkshires downpour/lightning event that always seems to happen at Mass MoCA at some point no matter when the Solid Sound Festival is held, and of course the accompanying schedule juggling, Wilco managed to pull off its planned celebration of the release of its latest studio (double) album, Cruel Country, with what Jeff said would almost certainly be the only front-to-back performance of it before a receptive crowd at Joe's Field — and who knows how many more watching at home via live stream.
Fortunately, de facto support act Sylvan Esso's anticipated hour-long set preceding Wilco's only had to be abridged by about 15 minutes and when the headlining set was moved up by 15 minutes, that gave the Wilcos enough time to play nearly all of the songs they had apparently planned to. Also fortunately, the weather cooperated beautifully for the remainder of the evening. All of it seemed to leave Jeff a bit emotional as he departed the stage following Cruel Country's final song, The Plains.
"Thank you so much," Jeff said earnestly when he returned to the stage for an extended encore. "Not many audiences would let you play your new double album (in its entirety) like that."
Obviously there's plenty to discuss — and will be plenty to discuss moving forward — regarding Cruel Country and I'll get to some initial impressions of the live performance in a bit. But getting to see that encore made up of a couple old favorites and some specially selected country songs to finish (with Jeff remarking that country, both as it applies to Cruel Country and these songs, was "whatever we want it to be").
As if to draw a through line from his personal musical upbringing to the present that would make just that point, Jeff introduced the first cover — Climbing by Meat Puppets, from their II record — as being by "the first country band that made me feel like I wanted to be a part of." That was followed by the rather interesting choice of the traditional Wild Mountain Thyme that the Byrds adapted on their Fifth Dimension album (which most would probably regard as more of a psych-folk homage than straight-up country, but anyway). Then came the true 60s-70s country influences: Jeff invited Neko Case, who had played a secret, but not-so-secret set earlier in the afternoon, and her bandmate Nora O'Connor up to the stage to sing the Connie Smith classic Once A Day with its sentiment of "I'm only crying once a day." And that was followed by She's My Rock, which Jeff said he just wanted to sing because it's "a badass song" that was written by Ronnie Millsap's wife (Sharon K. Dobbins) and popularized by Stoney Edwards. Finally, the show came to a fitting end with Roger Miller's Reincarnation (which of course was the closing theme of nearly every episode of The Tweedy Show), a tune about which Jeff simply said, "This song means a lot."
Of note, the printed setlist contained what looked like a brief second encore with a couple more country-tinged covers that weren't played: "Omaha" (presumably the Skip Spence-penned Moby Grape song) and "I'm So Lonesome" (presumably I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams). Whether that was meant as an actual second encore or just a couple of other songs that the band had rehearsed and could add in or swap out for something else I can't say.
Anyway, prior to all of that of course, came the Cruel Country (cowpunk?) celebration. Yeehaw...or not. I guess it's up for debate just how "country" a record CC truly is, and with his aforementioned comments, it's clear that Jeff believes the country tag can be wide-ranging. Fair enough. To me, it doesn't really matter. On first listen to the live versions, some songs sound twangier to me than others, especially the ones with Pat finally getting to show off his Telecaster prowess, but ultimately it's another case of Jeff's songwriting being augmented by his talented bandmates.
I'll stop short of saying it has a Jeff solo album feel to it in some places, but there's definitely some of that — as evidenced by songs such as Ambulance (where the rest of the band departed the stage) and The Plains (on which only Nels and Pat played with Jeff) — and it makes sense knowing how a lot of these songs developed over the course of the pandemic. Jeff has been performing some of the songs that ended up on Cruel Country in his solo shows — not to mention The Tweedy Show — for the better part of a yer now.
But of course there are other songs that we haven't heard at all until now and with the addition of Wilco, some of the tunes definitely shape up as live favorites. For instance, the audience at Mass MoCA first seemed to really respond, about 10 songs in, to the peculiar song Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull. Not because of the interlaced couplet lyrics in what presumably is the Bird Without A Tail portion of the song, but to the guitar duel/jam between Nels and Pat on what I assume is the Base Of My Skull part. As I mentioned, Pat really gets his Tele workout in on this album and I hope that a lot of those songs wind up staying in the set when the band heads out on tour this summer and fall.
Surely, some of the more explicitly political/thematic songs will remain in the set for a long while. I'm thinking of song such as Hints (with its lyric about "There is no middle when the other side/would rather kill than compromise...") and, of course, the title track ("I love my country stupid and cruel"). There will be plenty more chances to discuss/debate/deride/demand/etc., so I'll leave it there for now, but if I could make just one request...please let there be at least one time before Wilco calls it quits that it plays The Empty Condor and An Empty Corner back to back. The Universe>Many Moons>You Satellite, anyone? Ah, it'll probably never happen.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco's headlining set on Day 1 of Solid Sound 2022 (see above for second encore listed on the printed setlist but not played):
I Am My Mother
Cruel Country
Hints
Ambulance
The Empty Condor
Tonight's The Day
All Across The World
Darkness Is Cheap
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
The Universe (started and restarted)
Tired Of Taking It Out On You
Many Worlds
Hearts Hard To Find
Falling Apart (Right Now)
Please Be Wrong
Story To Tell
A Lifetime To Find
Country Song Upside Down
Mystery Binds
Sad Kind Of Way
The Plains
--------------------------------------
It's Just That Simple
New Madrid
Climbing [Meat Puppets]
Wild Mountain Thyme [traditional; popularized by The Byrds]
Once A Day [Bill Anderson; popularized by Connie Smith] (Neko Case on lead vocals and Nora O'Connor on backing vocals)
She's My Rock [Sharon K. Dobbins; popularized by Stoney Edwards]
Reincarnation [Roger Miller]
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5
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2
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Spoiler alert: Same show (or SASS, if you will)! OK, the band reverted back to Monday after playing I Got You (At The End Of The Century) the previous evening and OK, Jeff became enamored with a dog he apparently spotted in the audience after the band came back out for its encore/second set. But for the most part, these 20th-anniversary Yankee Hotel Foxtrot shows were pretty similar once Wilco and the supplementary musicians who performed with them found their footing and settled on what they were going to present.
Perhaps I'll have some more to report later — will I? — but if not, kindly refer to the threads for the last two (or seven) outings...
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 in Chicago (either The Magnificent Strings and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War On War
Jesus, etc.
Ashes Of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
--------------------------------------
Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]
Pieholden Suite
Cars Can't Escape
A Magazine Called Sunset
Hummingbird
The Good Part
Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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2
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Oops, forgot to start a thread for this one. Probably 99 percent of people who would care either were there in person or watched on the live stream, so you pretty much got the idea.
But anyhow, here was the complete setlist as played for Night 2 in Chicago (either The Magnificent Strings and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War On War
Jesus, etc.
Ashes Of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
---------------------------------------
Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]
Pieholden Suite
Cars Can't Escape
A Magazine Called Sunset
Hummingbird
The Good Part
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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1
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6 minutes ago, solace said:
Music at 7:30 I read? How late did it go?
Well….since I’m standing in a dumb line (make your queuing jokes, Euro friends!), I will report that the strings started playing at 7:42 — a few minutes earlier than NYC, I might add — and Wilco came on around 8:07 and finished by about 9:35.-
1
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Not enough time to come up with a full recap right now since I need to go stand in line at my local record store soonish for the Record Store Day scrum, but suffice it to say that Wilco enjoyed a nice return to its hometown as it kicked off the second and final leg of the 20th anniversary celebration of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Of course, after five shows in New York, there was once again the excitement of an opening night of sorts since the majority of the audience would likely be experiencing this show for the first time. And I'm sure there were some minor kinks to work out between the band members and the string and horn players who would be augmenting their performance.
More to come when I finish making the RSD rounds, but by now the setlist probably looks pretty familiar.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 in Chicago (either The Magnificent Strings and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War On War
Jesus, etc.
Ashes Of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
---------------------------------------------
Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]
Pieholden Suite
Cars Can't Escape
A Magazine Called Sunset
Hummingbird
The Good Part
Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
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1
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1
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11 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:
Ta
Da -
8 hours ago, mariana neri said:
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 5 (either Aizuri (String) Quartet and Total Pros horns or both were present on stage for entire set, though strings and horns did not play on every song):
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Radio Cure
War On War
Jesus, etc.
Ashes Of American Flags
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Pot Kettle Black
Poor Places
Reservations
----------------------------------------------
Be Not So Fearful [Bill Fay]
Pieholden Suite
Cars Can't Escape
A Magazine Called Sunset
Hummingbird
The Good Part
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
Thanks for filling in for me (and maintaining the thread-title style)! Was it really as poorly attended as some were suggesting? What did you think about the shows you got to see this week, nosso correspondente?
Also, Monday! With horns!
Wilco — 22 June 2022, Barcelona, Spain (Poble Espanyol)
in After The Show
Posted
Thanks for being my editor, Cris! I didn’t know that about olé vs. oeee either. I made the correction in my post. It was fun to get to spend some time with your friends and family! You are the mayor of Barcelona.