bböp

In the end, it was a fairly typical festival set...albeit one played with a lot of intensity. The highlight for me, and probably a lot of others, was Nels' searing solo on Impossible Germany (which the band had to start three different times). To paraphrase one of my festival cohorts, Nels was seemingly on another planet during that song. Afterward he dedicated it to the late, great Bay Area guitarist John Cipollina. Jeff, in an attempt at a lighthearted aside, had pointed out that Nels had played that great solo while having his pants zipper held together by a safety pin, which Nels briefly showed the crowd. Imagine having to play, Jeff said, while worrying about whether "your schlong was going to fall out." Then Jeff spotted a little girl down in the photo pit and realized he probably hadn't chosen the best banter topic there.

For me, one small surprise was that no special guests joined the band on stage. I know people usually make way too much of collaboration between artists and sometimes it just isn't feasible for one reason or another, but it's too bad because there were plenty of potential candidates. Andrew Bird played a fun set on the same stage two time slots before Wilco, so he was probably around (although they didn't get a soundcheck to run through anything, which I think they usually like to do). I thought I also spotted Justin from Bon Iver watching from the back part of the stage after having played on another stage earlier in the day. Again, there probably wouldn't have been time to work anything out, but in light of the recent performances with Fleet Foxes, something like I Shall Be Released would have been fun to see.

And last, but not least, was Spiral Stairs (a/k/a Scott Kannberg) of Pavement, who joined Broken Social Scene for their closing number. Of course, Scott has a connection with Wilco as well; his post-Pavement band, Preston School of Industry, opened some Wilco shows back in 2002. So there was some thought that he might possibly join in on something like California Stars. But ultimately, no dice...

Nonetheless, it was a fun day overall. The weather cooperated -- the sun finally came out -- and we got the chance to see several great performers precede Wilco on the Twin Peaks stage. And then Wilco's own performance, of course. So it's hard to complain too much.

man i really want to hear i shall be released with fleet foxes, is a version up anywhere?

They only did the song together three times, so I don't know if anyone's posted a recording yet. But last night's version was a really nice one, with both Robin and Josh of the Fleet Foxes (the singer and drummer, respectively) each taking a brief turn on lead vocals before deferring back to Jeff for the "falsetto" part. They hadn't done that at either the Boise or Spokane shows. When it was over, the stage turned into a big lovefest, with all of the Wilcos and Fleet Foxes exchanging numerous hugs.

Oh, and prior to I Shall Be Released, the FFs finally delivered some presents to the Wilcos in the form of a football (which they had become known for throwing around all tour), sunglasses for all six Wilcos and a straw hat for their tour manager Jason. The running joke had been that the FFs were Wilco's second favorite band to work with because Bon Iver had given them presents. But I think the FFs had definitely moved up in the pecking order by the end of the evening.

Overall, it was a very fun show. Took the band a little while to get going. Jeff forgot a verse to IATTBYH and War on War was, shall we say, not exactly a masterpiece. But it was all very very fun to watch. A totally different vibe from Spokane.

Do any of you think that Jeff cut the show short? He was talking about the "Longcore" earlier in the show, but we never got it.

You don't even want to know. Maybe someone who got a printed setlist will chime in, but let's just say the show didn't quite go as originally planned.

I hear in Boise, they're Basque fries!

I had some potatoes in a Bechamel sauce at a Basque restaurant, does that count?

As to the show, I honestly think this one will go down as one of my favorites of the year. I'm not necessarily one for outdoor shows, by and large, but as Jeff pointed out, this one had the feel of Wilco playing in someone's back yard. I mean, they essentially played in a gazebo--how great is that? There was a patio-like semi-circle area in front of the stage where people could stand if they wanted; otherwise, they were welcome to set up low-backed chairs and/or blankets fanning out in an arc from where the "patio" area ended. i'm not sure how many people ended up standing, but this was the best of both worlds--those who wanted to stand could stand, those who wanted to sit could sit.

Everyone was very nice, from the winery staff to security. Sodas and water were $1, beer was like $4 and good-looking food (although I only tried a little bit) was $3-$7. It was all very civilized.

And the show was a really fun one as well. When John's amp started to click and crackle before Handshake Drugs, that wasn't a good sign. They brought out another identical amp ("Wilco has two of everything," Jeff joked) but eventually the problem seemed to be solved by not using the black bass that John normally uses on Handshake, I'm The Man Who Loves You and a handful of other songs. Jeff had some priceless banter throughout the night, including calling out a guy with a Rollie Fingers-style mustache before I'm The Man: "Sir, if you're going to come to a show with a mustache that awesome, you need to warn us because it's been distracting me all night." There was also a funny bit after California Stars about having done "their signature move" (a riff ending) like three songs in a row. Maybe someone else can elaborate on that one...

Not sure how the sound was further away from the stage, but up close, Nels was a little loud in the mix, which I like. Everything just sounded very crisp and right on from where I was.

It certainly wasn't the best setlist I've seen overall, but it was one of those shows where what they played was less important than how they played it...which was very energetically and viscerally. Of course, getting I Shall Be Released as a show closer was perfect. It had been a while since we'd heard that one, but when we heard them soundchecking it earlier with Fleet Foxes (who looked so happy to be out there for the finale), we were hopeful. What a great song to end the night on!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29662327@N04/

Thanks for posting those photos. Can't remember the last time Jeff performed in a T-shirt and without a jacket of some sort.

As for Brian Wilson, it was actually quite sad. He had his keyboard in front of him, but he didn't touch it the whole set, and he didn't sing more than 40% of the time. It was definitely a Beach Boys Review, but the crowd had a lot of fun and there was a lot of dancing by people of all ages. I didn't realize Mertens played sax with Wilson--I'm not sure if that's a regular gig or not. When the festival line-up was first announced, I was hoping for Love & Mercy, but once I saw Wilson on stage I knew it wasn't going to happen. The 8 or 9 musicians around him were definitely the only things keeping him up there, and he often looked bewildered.

Yeah, it sounds a lot like the show I saw last month. I remember him actually singing more, but his keyboard was definitely there for appearance sake because he hardly touched it. Same with a bass guitar that someone put on him for one song. You almost have to see him on stage to really understand the state he seems to be in right now, don't you think Tamala? Bewildered is a good word.

I don't think the show I saw had horns, though, so at least you guys got a bonus there with Mertens, et al. Glad you guys were able to make it out there...

"it's jim! he's got the flying-v! and puppets!"

Here are my photos from the show on Flickr. A couple pretty decent ones toward the end of the set if I do say so myself.

I have some good pictures that I just uploaded to my computer. Will try to post a couple here, or at least link to my Flickr when I get to where I'm going tonight. Damn, that was a fun show. Nice review, Evonne! All I can say is PUPPETS!

Wish I could have gotten to the aftershow at the Mangy Moose but we had our kids with us (their first show!) and we had to get back to the campsite.

Haha, I love the names of these places when Wilco plays out-of-the-way towns...Moose's Tooth, Mangy Moose. Maybe there could be a moose-themed tour!

Great show in Teton Village. The weather was perfect, especially when the sun went and the guys could actually see. Seeing Brian Wilson was also a treat.

Thanks for keeping track of the set, T! Glad to hear you guys had/are having a good time.

So Paul Mertens was there, but not the other Total Pros? That's interesting. Cool that you got to hear "Blood of the Lamb." And two encores at a fest? Not bad. Take any pictures?

P.S. Glad you guys caught Brian Wilson as well. Did he do Love and Mercy? I'm betting not since he's got a new record coming out, plus people want to hear the hits. I saw him a month ago and it was kind of sad actually because he just sort of seemed very old. He barely played the keyboard he had in front of him, and he seemed confused when leaving the stage. I'd be interested to hear your guys' experience.

guess who i spotted in one of the fan pics

 

hi Paul

hi Drew

What song did Nels pull the banjo out for?

He plays the banjo on Pieholden Suite (or Pieholden Sweet, as I saw it referred to on someone's blog today...I hope that was an intentional misspelling ).

Incidentally, Jeff thanked the Total Pros after Outtasite and said it was their last night with the band (this time around). So it doesn't look like they'll be heading out west...

I think they definitely add a lot to some of the songs, especially like Walken and I'm The Man Who Loves You, that have been played a lot. And they enable the band to do rarer stuff like Pieholden Suite, Blood of the Lamb, Can't Stand It, etc. Plus, it seemed like the TPs were continuing to work out arrangements for different songs as the tour went on, like with Kingpin and California Stars (the latter of which they didn't play on during the Residency). So it's too bad that they won't be playing more shows with Wilco for awhile because it would have been interesting to see what else might have developed.

The tradeoff with having the TPs on tour, I think, is that the setlists become a little more predictable from night to night because the band naturally wanted to take full advantage of having the Total Pros out there and doing the songs where they really stand out. So it's a good thing for some songs that people might want to hear and bad for some others (I guess like those on A.M., although they did sound check Should've Been In Love yesterday).

A few other notes from last night:

*Jeff introduced Pieholden as being from the album Summerteeth and then proceeded to sing the first line of Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze," substituting Summerteeth for Summer Breeze of course. "Summerteeth makes me feel fine..." That was pretty funny.

*Glenn didn't have the gongs from Tanglewood for I'm The Man Who Loves You and Jeff said he missed them and could Glenn do something...gong-like. He tried his best, but ultimately settled for getting up on his stool and doing his Todd Trainer tribute. I think Jeff played an extra riff or two just to torture Glenn a bit.

*This was a first: During Spiders, the crowd somehow changed the beat to the clap. Instead of just being on the 2s and 4s, it became two short claps and a long one. Not sure if that makes any sense, but it definitely weird. I thought it actually kind of worked, but Jeff called it out when he came back out for the encore, saying that they had played that song all over the world and that was the first time any crowd had actually changed the beat. He attributed that to the crowd being free thinkers -- "Like my dad said of Bob Dylan, I don't know what he's smoking, but he's a free thinker." -- and jokingly encouraged people to change the lyrics to the next song (Jesus, etc.) if they wanted.

*After Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff made a comment to the effect that their guitar tech Matrix has "heard that song we just played (hundreds) of times, and he said we never played it that well. Actually I think Matrix said, 'I cant wait to get out of here.' Just kidding. He said it was magnificent." Maybe you sort of had to be there for that one.

*I'm sure there were probably a ton of people there who were just hanging out and getting blitzed and whatever, but the crowd up front seemed generally pretty good and respectful, at least around me.

*Spotted Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon afterward. I also saw them at a Flight of the Conchords show earlier this year, so I have to give them some credit for their musical taste!

Hope it was a wonderful day! You deserve it.

Argh, so so late on this! Happy birthday, E! (Sounds like you had a nice relaxing one... )

Beautiful summer evening at Tanglewood, and the band responded with a very energetic performance. If you're a big fan of the album Summerteeth, it was definitely your night. The band members (and the Total Pros) all wore their nudie suits from Lollapalooza. Maybe the only big surprise was that Andrew Bird didn't come out and join Wilco on any numbers. One other noteworthy occurrence was Glenn standing with his back to the audience and banging on two big gongs at the start of "I'm The Man Who Loves You" instead of doing his usual arms-raised tribute to Todd Trainer.

I was in the covered "shed" part of the venue, so perhaps people on the vast lawn had a different experience, but I can say that underneath the roof, there seemed to be a lot of energy. People stood from start to finish, which kind of surprised me, and I could see a good bit of pogoing and such up front. The band seemed to respond to that.

The complete setlist was as follows:

Either Way

Hummingbird

Remember The Mountain Bed

Muzzle of Bees

You Are My Face

Impossible Germany

IATTBYH

A Shot in the Arm

What Light (w/Total Pros horns)

California Stars (w/TPs)

Pieholden Suite (w/TPs)

Handshake Drugs

Pot Kettle Black

Summer Teeth

Jesus, etc.

Poor Places>

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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

Can't Stand It (w/TPs)

Hate It Here (w/TPs)

Walken (w/TPs)

I'm The Man Who Loves You (w/TPs)

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

The Late Greats (w/TPs)

Heavy Metal Drummer

Monday (w/TPs)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind) (w/TPs)

I'm A Wheel

Okay, now I'm officially excited (against my better judgement). Please let this be true!

I think it's on, Judy! Not sure about Vancouver, but it seems to be happening.

Pretty loose show overall, I thought, at least by Wilco standards. How often do you hear the band not be able to get it together to start a song, like they did on Hotel Arizona? And Jeff getting distracted by something or someone right in the middle of Radio Cure? The show sounded really good, though. Pretty nice acoustics in that place.

Jeff's quote of the night, after noticing someone toward the front (apparently a courtroom sketch artist) sketching them throughout the show: "We need to see those. Whenever I'm sketched, I tend to look...simian."

Here's the complete setlist, in order:

Sunken Treasure

Wishful Thinking

IATTBYH

Blood of the Lamb (w/Total Pros horns-clarinet only)

You Are My Face

Company In My Back

Hotel Arizona (started and restarted three times)

Handshake Drugs

Pot Kettle Black

Side With The Seeds

Radio Cure

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Theologians

Poor Places>

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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

Hummingbird

Hate It Here (w/TPs)

Walken (w/TPs)

I'm The Man Who Loves You (w/TPs)

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

Heavy Metal Drummer

The Late Greats (w/TPs)

Casino Queen>

Outtasite (Outta Mind) (w/TPs)

I've scoured the site and the net for the "Addendum" to no avail, but it looks like this tour is a go.

Not to put a damper on this, but last I checked Glenn was scheduled to perform with the Kronos Quartet on New York on Dec. 5 (though I don't think tickets have gone on sale yet, so it could probably easily be rescheduled).

How long did the headliners play?

Well, if by headliners you mean the last act on each stage...Jack Johnson got 1 hour, 15 minutes, Foo Fighters got 1 hour, 45 minutes and someone called Underworld, who was headlining the creatively named Dance Tent, got 2 hours.

(Edit: Out of curiosity, I just looked up Underworld -- who also played right before Radiohead the other night at the All Points West Festival -- and apparently they are pioneers in the British techno scene. That is one genre I can safely say I know zilch about. )

Were they all at the same stage? Luckies!

Yep, same stage. Pretty lucky because Sharon and the DKs were great, as were Rodrigo y Gabriela.

The Swell Season was a nice treat as well. It was just Glen and Marketa this time and they did a cool version of Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" off the PA and down off the stage. It's sort of hard to explain, but there was a fire lane leading to the sound tent and after a pretty short set (which also included covers of Michelle Shocked's "Fogtown" and Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks"), Glen came back and jumped down off the high stage into this U-shaped area between the barricades. Marketa soon joined him and they got the crowd to sing the chorus along with them. Most of the crowd probably couldn't see them and, unless you were along the barricades, you certainly couldn't hear them. I'm no expert on the Swell Season, by any means, but it seemed like a pretty unscripted moment. At least I hope it was, and that they don't do that every show.

Only regret was missing Chuck Berry on the other stage; a good portion of his set overlapped Wilco's and he also had the unfortunate situation of being slotted between The Offspring and Foo Fighters.

Pretty standard festival set, but it's always nice to see Hoodoo Voodoo and the Total Pros being there helped punch up the sound (which sounded pretty muted for the first half of the set, at least where I was). I think the band had a bit of misfortune being slotted right between Citizen Cope and Jack Johnson. Seemed like a lot of fans of the latter couldn't wait for Wilco to get off stage, at least judging from the chatter around me. The line "I know you probably hate me/That's okay with me" in Outtasite never seemed more appropriate...

Saw most of the guys watching Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings' set from a raised platform on one side of the stage earlier in the day and, before that, a couple of them taking in the Swell Season's performance as well.

Setlist:

War on War

A Shot in the Arm

IATTBYH

You Are My Face

Impossible Germany

Handshake Drugs

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Walken (w/Total Pros horns)

Hate It Here (w/TPs)

I'm The Man Who Loves You (w/TPs)

Monday (w/TPs)

Outtasite (Outta Mind) (w/TPs)

Hoodoo Voodoo (w/TPs)

Charleston didn't get anything...but a good show. Pretty interesting crowd, all in all. I think Jeff was amused by many of the people in the front row. He also spotted Lilac Rain again, mentioning her name in the same interlude as the guy with the SNL shirt.

Feels like it was the first show in a long time without A Shot in the Arm.

The complete setlist, as follows:

Sunken Treasure

You Are My Face

Side With The Seeds

IATTBYH

Company In My Back

Blood of the Lamb (w/Total Pros horns-clarinet only)

Handshake Drugs

Impossible Germany

Pieholden Suite (w/Total Pros)

Forget The Flowers

Summer Teeth

Jesus, etc.

Hate It Here (w/TPs)

Can't Stand It (w/TPs)

Heavy Metal Drummer

Walken (w/TPs)

I'm The Man Who Loves You (w/TPs)

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

Misunderstood

Cars Can't Escape>

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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

The Late Greats (w/TPs)

Monday (w/TPs)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind) (w/TPs)

Will you be at the Charleston show?

If you're talking about me, then yeah.

I think they got shut down at 11 by the Theater.

 

--No One Wing, nor Sunny Feeling

One Wing was on the setlist in the first encore, but apparently they decided not to play it. Sorry, Rob! (Great to see you, though!)

And Passenger Side was listed as the intended show closer (as a third encore, I think) but I guess they ran out of time.

Good lord, how I loved that b&b. I want to move in permanently.

Maybe you'd get some semi-live entertainment, finally...

Mike would definitely make you eggy casseroles.