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Hey hey hey...it's (very svelte and certainly not in need of Noom or any of that nonsense) Albert, Having perhaps unfortunately re-entered the boundaries of the cruel country we call Los Estados Unidos approximately a week ago now, I am finally here to submit my firsthand report as it concerns the final show of Wilco's recent jaunt around the Iberian peninsula. Did you believe I wouldn't actually get around to recounting said show? I wouldn't blame you. Does anyone, even your decidedly streamlined and non-obese self, care at this point? Highly unlikely. And yet here I am, because t

Hail to the Tatlock, Oh, Uncle Albert! You won't believe what we accomplished on our first full day in Madrid. We managed to visit not one, not two, but three museums between about 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and all for the price of free (OK, I paid a small price for one of them because I felt kind of guilty...but my two colleagues managed the gratis trifecta)! The first of these was to take in an exhibition about the history of comics in both Europe and the USA. Near the end of that exhibit, we came across a room that featured some examples of feminist comics and there was a publication

Not as many as you might think! Darn terrorists...

A proposition for Señor Tatlock, with apologies to P. Simon: I shall be your bodyguard, you can be my long-lost pal, you can call me Betty and when I call you, I shall call you...well, you know. Just as suddenly as we received the sad news shortly before showtime some days ago in San Sebastián that Mr. Nels would be absent for some shows due to testing positive for Covid-19, we also received joyous word not long before tonight's gig in Murcia that he would return to the stage. And indeed there he was at the Plaza De Toros, like he never left. I'm happy to report that, and also to r

Brilliant work by all you guys! Flipping through that gallery was like going back to that weekend again, and also realizing how much I missed!

My fondest Uncle Albert (or is it Admiral Halsey), Greetings from Valencia, or rather some sort of municipality called Burjassot in the greater Valencia metro area that apparently has at least some form of its own government. This could be significant because should Mr. Jeff or any of the Wilcos somehow turn up missing over the remainder of their Spanish tour, I would definitely recommend sending a search party directly to Burjassot. After all, upon hearing a cacophony of cheering following the band's main set tonight, Jeff re-emerged with his bandmates for the encore, surveyed the

It’d be awfully nice to have my own tour bus to hide these sorts of shenanigans from the general public, but I’m sure you would find me out anyway, Mr. Tatty McTatTat.

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.

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

How do the Welsh rate in terms of cleanliness, in your estimation? Are there also “great unwashed” in Cardiff? Watch yerself now…

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

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

Hopefully they will play more than just London and Manchester this time...

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.

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 s

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 arriv

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 i

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 e

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 aud

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,

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

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

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 Co