bböp
-
Content Count
3,178 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by bböp
-
-
On 11/8/2021 at 6:58 PM, blueyedsoul said:
But I got a message today from my realtor that the offer I sent over to a property owner is being reviewed and all signs point to it being accepted. So, not to get ahead of myself, but thank you VC for the good vibes.
Woo hoo! Being There Coffeehouse mugs 2.0 (fingers crossed)!
-
1
-
-
Hey I heard that this place was turning some milestone birthday today, so I figured I should chime in and annoy you all as usual. Truth is, I don’t think I was quite around here at the very beginning but I’m quite glad that this place still exists (if only as a counterpoint to that annoying social media site whose name shall not be uttered)!
This place basically coincides with my own Wilco fandom, so I’ve met a ton of friends on here since I first arrived — some of whom are still around and many of whom haven’t been on in years probably. But I’m grateful for you all. And I’m grateful for this place giving me an outlet for my various show reports/blatherings/joshings with Tatlock and other personas. Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read or comment or react or whatever we do now.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to read some of the threads and posts from way back in the day, before all of the various crashes and outages, but in whatever form this site still exists, it’s a record of these years in the band’s and music history. Happy birthday, thank you to everyone who’s made it possible and here’s to another 20 years, VC! (I’ll probably come back later to chime in again and annoy some more…just FYI.)
-
8
-
-
I know Tatlock likes it when I throw in the occasional photo, so here’s one I snapped of the stage during the big ensemble finish…
-
I'll probably get to writing something about this "show" at some point, but it won't be a full recap since Wilco was only a part of a few songs. Basically, the format was each inductee had a short video tribute, then was introduced by a fellow artist and gave an acceptance speech followed by a few songs spotlighting their work — either performed by the inductees themselves, or by other artists with or without the inductees or with the house band, which was led by Lloyd Maines on pedal steel (who, as Jeff noted, played on A.M.; for the record, he was on four songs — It’s Just That Simple, Blue-Eyed Soul, I Thought I Held You And Dash 7).
Alejandro Escovedo's segment led off the program, followed by Lucinda Williams' section. Then there was a short intermission before Wilco's portion concluded the evening.
Here was the complete "setlist," as played, for the entire program:
Alejandro Escovedo
-lntroduction by Lenny Kaye
-Alejandro Escovedo acceptance speech
-Algo Azul (Spanish-language version of Something Blue) [Alejandro on electric guitar w/Alex Ruiz on lead vocals, Sheila E. on drums and Lenny Kaye on electric guitar and house band, including string section)
-Sally Was A Cop [Alejandro on electric guitar w/John Doe on lead vocals, Sheila E. on drums, Lenny Kaye on electric guitar and house band, including string section]
-Put You Down [Alejandro on electric guitar w/Sheila E. on drums and house band, including string section]
Lucinda Williams
-Introduction by Jason Isbell
-Lucinda Williams acceptance speech
-I Envy The Wind [Jason Isbell on electric guitar and vocals w/house band]
-Crescent City [Lucinda w/Rosanne Cash on co-vocals and house band]
-Changed The Locks [Lucinda w/Margo Price on electric guitar and co-vocals and house band]
Wilco
-Introduction by Rosanne Cash
-Wilco acceptance speech (by Jeff Tweedy)
-A Shot In The Arm [Wilco w/Lloyd Maines on pedal steel]
-Sky Blue Sky [Bill Callahan on vocals and acoustic guitar and Nels Cline on lap steel]
-One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend) [Terry Allen on vocals and keyboard]
-Jesus, etc. [Wilco w/Michelle Zauner on co-vocals and string section]
-California Stars [entire ensemble, including Wilco w/Rosanne Cash, Terry Allen, Alejandro Escovedo on co-vocals, Sheila E. on percussion, Jason Isbell and Lenny Kaye on electric guitar, John Doe, Bill Callahan, Margo Price and Michelle Zauner on backing vocals]
-
3
-
2
-
-
20 hours ago, Brian F. said:
fter last night, I kind of wonder whether the great Wilco Fan in the Sky might have had a hand in things, because almost the entire front row was populated with some of the band's most passionate and dedicated fans*, and I really think that was a big reason why the energy level for this show was so high. Unlike the previous night, or Santa Barbara last Wednesday, people were on their feet from start to finish last night, and I really do believe that the fact that the Row A crowd was on its feet from the moment the band took the stage kind of forced the issue.
Kudos to you for doing your part in helping put the sitting/standing thing to bed early on. Nice to meet you IRL, as well.
And yeah, thanks also for your comments here. It's nice to have folks chime in on these post-show threads. Makes me hopeful that not everything has migrated over to that one social media site whose name we shall not utter. It took me a while, but I finally got my last show recap posted above if anyone still has interest. It's been nice to have an outlet to do some regular corresponding, so thanks to anyone who's taken the time to read and/or follow along.
-
4
-
-
3 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:
Ta to Bbop for staying safe and well too for this whole tour and keeping up the deluge/trickle (delete as you see fit) of reportage.
Last seen on his way home to a well-earned rest.
Not yet! Still have tonight’s report to file and one more…🤠 -
Not really sure what else to say right now except, "Hurray, they did it!" Somehow Wilco and the Wilcrew managed to resume touring amid a pandemic and get through the better part of three months on the road, criss-crossing the country without a single person getting sick with or testing positive for Covid-19 and without cancelling or rescheduling any shows (*except for one, in Kansas City, due to circumstances beyond their control). In these crazy times, I'd say those things alone are achievements worth celebrating.
And I suppose you could consider this tour-closing, three-show run in Los Angeles sort of an extended celebration. For this correspondent, the final headlining Wilco show of 2021 on the second of two nights at the Orpheum Theatre had a little bit of everything: hellos, goodbyes, collaborations, rarities, banter, laughter, tears. It was better than Cats. I'd see it again and again...
Seriously, though, there's always a little bit more emotion on the final night of a tour — technically, Wilco will make one more brief appearance at the Austin City Limits Hall Of Fame induction ceremonies in Texas in a couple of days — because things will never quite be the same as they are right at that moment. There are goodbyes to be said to a support act, especially one like Faye Webster and her band, with whom Wilco and crew seemed to develop an especially nice relationship over the course of nine shows together (more on Faye and Co. later). And then there are sometimes goodbyes to be said within the Wilco organization itself and that was also true this time with the impending departure of longtime lighting director Jeremy Roth, for whom this show was his last with the band and to whom Jeff gave a personal salute from the stage.
Prior to that, there was one final hello to be said to an audience and, fortunately, this seemed to be one of the better crowds of the tour. Unlike the previous night at the Orpheum, the sitting-versus-standing tension was resolved pretty definitively from the start. From the opening synths of A Shot In The Arm, the vast majority of the attendees were on their feet and would stay that way for the duration of the show. It wasn't just the standing part alone, but you could tell that for one night anyway in a reserved-seat situation, the fates had aligned and there were mostly true fans occupying many of the first few rows.
"We all remember how to do this, right?" Jeff asked rhetorically midway through the set, as he had the night before. "I don't know if it's the first time out of the house in a while for some of you, but you're doing great."
A bit later on, as he also had done on Night 1 at the Orpheum, Jeff also took time out to repeat his message — "to say some of the things I said last night without crying," he said — about returning to touring and the hard work put in and sacrifices made by everyone in the Wilco organization to make these shows possible. And he also thanked the crowd for doing what it had to do to take care of each other by getting vaccinated and wearing masks and the like, even joking that while it might look "dystopian" to play a show to a completely masked audience, he was sure that everyone had probably done much weirder things at concerts before.
Though Jeff apologized early for not talking much because I "just wanna enjoy every second of getting to do this again," Banter Corner was actually pretty active tonight. And it wasn't even all Jeff. One of my favorite moments in the show happened after Impossible Germany when there was sustained applause after a particularly emphatic solo by Nels. Jeff jokingly pointed in Nels' direction and started a brief N-E-L-S, N-E-L-S chant that the audience also picked up. Jeff explained that he just did that "so people stop calling him Nils." (It happens WAY more often than you might think!) But then Nels did something he does about once every five years and stepped over to Jeff's mike, pointed to himself and said simply, "From Los Angeles, California," which of course led to another big cheer. I guess Nels was worried that some younger audience members might not realize that he is a very proud Angeleno, even though he has lived on the East Coast for over a decade now.
On the adjacent Antics Avenue, there were a few things that happened — and didn't happen — worth noting. On the downside, we didn't get one final "The End"-style introduction to Heavy Metal Drummer (which I wonder if we've seen the last of) and we also didn't get either the gorgeous outro solo by Nels on Ashes Of American Flags (since it transitioned right into Art Of Almost) or the full, unabashed windmills by Pat on the show-closing I'm A Wheel (from what I could see, it was only the slightly abridged Townshend). However, we did get the adorable back-to-back maneuver by Jeff and Nels during the breakdown in Random Name Generator, a slightly modified lyric by Jeff on Sunken Treasure with the inclusion of "It isn't the same without rock 'n' roll," and a rare double stick twirl by Glenn on Heavy Metal Drummer (I guess he wasn't satisfied with the execution of the first one). John also reprised his athletic scissor kick move that he had also done at the Hollywood Palladium on I'm The Man Who Loves You.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the collaborations with Faye and her band in the encore. Surprisingly, we got not one but two separate collabs — with several members of Faye's band, including pedal steel ace Matt "Pistol" Stoessel, coming out first to assist on California Stars, and then Faye herself coming out to add vocals on Jesus, etc. Jeff made a little joke that I forget how it started, but basically the punchline was that the 24-year-old Faye probably wasn't even born when Jesus, etc. first came out (which isn't quite true, but close...eek). Anyway, Jesus was a solid choice for Faye's decidedly chill aesthetic, and she, Jeff and John all harmonized together nicely through the middle of the song.
So another year of Wilco touring comes to a close, one that I think everyone can agree was unlike any that came before. I'm really glad to have been able to catch as many shows as I did this year and feel quite fortunate that I was able to stay healthy and of course that the band and crew were able to as well. I realized that for all of my relatively petty quibbles about the weather, audiences or setlists, I ultimately feel a great deal of gratitude for being able to resume some normality again, for all the old friends I got to see again for the first time in a long time, for all the new friends I finally got to meet out there and for everyone in Wilcoworld doing what they do so well. Every time I think about whether or not to go to a show or stand up in a seated theater or sing along or whatever, I think two things: a) What would Scott McCaughey do? and b ) The future's not promised, so do it while you can.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at the Orpheum Theatre (I was told there weren't any changes/omissions from the printed setlist, though I didn't glimpse one myself):
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Muzzle Of Bees
One And A Half Stars
Ashes Of American Flags>
Art Of Almost
How To FIght Loneliness
Sunken Treasure
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
If I Ever Was A Child
Impossible Germany
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Hummingbird
Box Full Of Letters
Everyone Hides
Either Way
Dawned On Me
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Poor Places>
Reservations
----------------------------------------------
California Stars (w/Matt "Pistol" Stoessel, Charles LaMont Garner and Jordan Reynolds from Faye Webster band on pedal steel, percussion and keyboard, respectively)
Jesus, etc. (w/Faye Webster on vocals)
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
I'm A Wheel
-
2
-
7
-
-
1 hour ago, Brian F. said:
Tonight, we're in Row A and will do our best to lead from ahead in the War for Standing.
I'll be there with you. Hopefully we can just take the standing/sitting quandary off the table from the start tonight. Thanks for chiming in here.
-
1
-
-
Haha, I was all set to talk about petty things like sitting-versus-standing challenges and whether Wilco played this song or that song during the band's second of three shows in Los Angeles (and the first of two nights at the Orpheum Theatre downtown), but darn it if Jeff didn't just put things squarely in perspective with some of his earnest and heartfelt comments in the second half of the show — and make me a little bit emotional, too.
Before Jesus, etc., Jeff said he wanted to take a minute to share a few thoughts on the occasion of this being Wilco's penultimate show of the year (technically, the band will play one more show in Los Angeles tomorrow night and then make a short appearance at the Austin City Limits Hall Of Fame ceremony on Thursday). Jeff told the audience that he and his bandmates had been touring since the beginning of August until now without a single member of their traveling party getting sick and attributed some of that to luck, of course, but also wanted "to thank everyone we work with, including our crew, who are the best people in the world" for all of their hard work and the sacrifices they've had to make to keep everyone healthy and safe.
Jeff acknowledged that there's still a long way to go with the pandemic for everyone and thanked the crowd for doing its part in terms of taking care of each other by wearing masks and the like, but you can tell how much it has meant to him to be able to keep the Wilco train on the tracks when so many other artists have had to cancel or postpone shows. And if you couldn't figure it out, well, the fact he got choked up and basically said so — "I'm gonna cry, it means so much to me," he said — clearly told you all you needed to know.
Of course it probably wouldn't be a Wilco show without at least a little bit of snark mixed in with the sincerity. And one other "subplot," as it were, that elicited most of Jeff's other visits to Banter Corner involved someone in the crowd who apparently didn't care for some aspect of the rock concert they came to. As Jeff explained before Box Full Of Letters, "Somebody got up during I think it was Misunderstood, gave me a dirty look and then left and that's what I'm gonna think about for the rest of the night. Just kidding, but...what were you thinking would happen? This is pretty much how it goes." A song later, Jeff clearly still had a few thoughts about the proverbial stick in the mud. "It's a pretty rockin' Monday night," Jeff continued. "Go home and put your slippers on. You've been waiting a year and a half for this?"
(As an aside, it's funny because I had just read this interview that Jeff had given earlier on this tour about his substack newsletter, Starship Casual, and this fit precisely into something he had been talking about: "My natural, evolutionarily-derived instinct is to find the people that aren't enjoying themselves in an audience, sensing danger, like, ‘what's this guy yawning about?’ They could be surrounded by people dancing, and you'll pick them out. It’s just like being on the Savannah, and looking for the tiger. I feel like gazelle.")
Anyway, prior to Jeff's touching display of gratitude later in the set, I was thinking that this might be another audience in the Santa Barbara vein — though it was never that bad — when Jeff had to once again invoke the "don't postpone happiness" line that he also cited last week when it appeared that some folks in his sight line were holding back...or something (he kept gesturing to the first few rows in the front center section where some people didn't stand all night and must have been energy vampires. "Good to see you," Jeff said about 10 songs into the set. "Do we all remember how to do this? Feel free to be as wild as you want to be. ... Someone, when I was in the hospital, told me, 'Don't postpone happiness,' and I think that's something we all need to be reminded of."
As I suggested at the top, obviously this discussion of crowd dynamics is sort of silly in the grand scheme of things when we should all consider ourselves lucky to be able to go to concerts at all. But one of the great things about Wilco is that they clearly feed off of the energy of a crowd (or the lack thereof). They're not robots up there. Fortunately the majority of the crowd at the Orpheum seemed ready to respond in kind to and participate in the performance. And it was a good performance at that, much better on a purely technical level than two nights prior at the Hollywood Palladium, where Jeff botched a few lyrics and it was just kind of a sloppy — though fun — night.
One song that I'm really glad we got to hear in its full glory, even though I wasn't super close to the stage to take it in, was Monday. In contrast with the previous Monday in Oakland, where Jeff totally flubbed the second verse, tonight we got a clean run-through and it sounded great. My only tiny quibble was that we didn't get the "son of a..." transition right into Outtasite (Outta Mind) that appears on Being There, at least not that I heard, but hey, you can't always get what you want, right (as some band once said)?
Generally speaking, I thought the band played well all night even if it wasn't necessarily the most surprising setlist (there weren't any songs in the 1-hour, 52-minute set, for example, that they hadn't previously performed on this run, nor anything "new" from Ode To Joy). Nels seemed to put a little extra into his Impossible Germany solo tonight and Jeff even went over to him afterward and whispered something that hopefully was a positive affirmation, while Pat got his guitar workouts in on Box Full Of Letters, Born Alone and Outtasite. And Jeff obviously was enjoying himself, too, waving up toward his family's box in the mezzanine to his left during I'm The Man Who Loves You.
I'm sure we'll see more than a few swap outs with the setlist for tonight's tour finale, and hopefully we'll also get a little collaboration with support act Faye Webster, as is usually tradition for the last night of a tour. And speaking of tour traditions, well, here's hoping the old adage that "the second night is better than the first" plays out that way. Either way, though, I know it's probably bound to be both a sweet and bittersweet show in more ways than one.
Here was Wilco's complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at the Orpheum Theatre (California Stars was on the printed setlist as the final song of the show, but wasn't played):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Wishful Thinking
War On War
One And A Half Stars
At Least That's What You Said
Bull Black Nova
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Pot Kettle Black
Impossible Germany
Misunderstood
Forget The Flowers
Box Full Of Letters
Everyone Hides
Hummingbird
Born Alone
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Poor Places>
Reservations
----------------------------------------------
Monday
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
-
9
-
-
Despite the show taking place at what has increasingly become a crappy Live Nation venue — more on that later — it certainly wasn't a bad way to kick off Wilco's three-night stay in Los Angeles with some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. And that's exactly what the band ultimately delivered with a back half of the set packed with crowd pleasers and rockers, including a "rock songs, etc." encore during which I'm sure more than a few people lost their you know what.
But before I get into other matters, may I just take a brief moment here off the top — since I don't think I really have yet during this run — to pay proper homage to the wonder that is the live Laminated Cat. Sometimes I wonder why this hasn't become a setlist staple the way a song like Impossible Germany has, where Jeff feels the need to play it every single night, and other times I'm glad that it has remained a somewhat deeper cut that will probably drop off the regular setlist again once the next record comes out and room needs to be made to play new songs. IMHO, it's every bit as stunning live as Impossible Germany even though it doesn't have an iconic guitar solo segment in it (which, along with the fact that it's not even technically a Wilco song, is probably why it's not viewed as one of the band's most famous tunes).
Anyway, at the Hollywood Palladium, Laminated Cat came as the denouement of an early-set trilogy of deeper-cut songs that also included How To Fight Loneliness and Sunken Treasure and continued to be a vehicle for interesting improvisation that has been exciting to watch during this Western tour. The version tonight came to a conclusion with all of the other instruments and sounds fading away until just Glenn's thundering drum beats remained. I was thinking about it, and it was the most classic drum-solo moment I can remember Glenn having during a Wilco show since his actual blatant drum-solo moment on that old chestnut Let's Not Get Carried Away.
I guess classic rock was sort of an appropriate touchstone for a venue like the Palladium, which I'm sure has hosted plenty of those sorts of concerts in its day (as well as probably more than a few big-band shows before that). The 81-year-old place has sort of an old-fashioned ballroom style design with a pretty wide stage, a large open dance floor and a mezzanine level. Unfortunately Live Nation manages it, which means there are arcane policies like you apparently can't bring drinks onto the floor, even water — they said it was because they didn't want people taking off their masks to drink, but it might have prevented at least one person from passing out when the floor started getting more crowded and the temperature went up — and you're constantly getting shooed out after a show. There are a lot more little nits I could pick, but the place is kind of a dump inside at least in the eyes of this humble correspondent.
Los Angeles always attracts an interesting mix of people for a Wilco show, and this one was no exception. You've got a lot of very devoted local fans, of course, but also a lot of people visiting from out of town because family and/or friends live in LA as well as folks from all over the vast area that is southern California and music and entertainment industry people and you just never really know what the crowd mix for a given show will be. For whatever reason, perhaps the addition of Faye Webster as a support act or just the demographics of a general admission show, I noticed a lot more younger people up front than anywhere else on this run.
It's also always a bit of a family affair for Wilco in LA, too, since Jeff's brother-in-law is an Angeleno and often that means that Jeff's wife and/or kids will come to shows here — and Jeff dedicated I Got You (At The End Of The Century) to his wife Susie near the end of the show, so I assume she was there, even though I didn't see her. I did run into Jeff's sister going into the show, so I know she was in attendance. And you also have Mikael, who lives in Ojai now, so his family was probably there, and Nels is a native Angeleno and obviously has a million friends and family and deep roots here as well. (Webster mentioned that her dad was in attendance at the show as well.)
I wonder if all of the family at the show caused Jeff to be a little more distracted than normal because he flubbed lyrics in several songs, including Pot Kettle Black and Outtasite (Outta Mind). The look on his face indicated that he knew he had erred during PKB, when he sang the wrong couplet for the second half of the first verse and wound up singing the "a string I never strum" line twice because of it. Afterward, he spoke the correct lyrics, poking fun at himself by adding, "I know the words, just not when I'm supposed to know them."
Banter Corner was otherwise pretty barren tonight, other than Jeff complimenting someone in the front with a Venom(?) T-shirt but also telling him to put his camera down for a while and, a bit earlier, remarking that he and his bandmates had "been having an amazing time playing music for people again" and thanking Webster and her bandmates for playing with them on this leg of the tour. And despite the fact it seems unlikely we'll get any more Ode To Joy songs than they have already played on the run, I think Jeff reiterated the joke he has often made about these rescheduled/reconfigured OTJ performances about how they were supposed to be coming here "before all the joy came."
But in the end, I guess this one was destined to be more of a rock show than a talk show and to that end, the band came through with a performance fitting for the final full-band GA show of the year. We shall see what the next two nights in LA have in store, but it was nice to have a fun, sloppy night out with some good friends I haven't seen in a long time, so no complaints here (except for Live Nation...they can suck it).
Here was Wilco's complete setlist, as played (apparently Poor Place and Reservations were on the printed setlist at the end of the main set, but weren't played):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Side With The Seeds
One And A Half Stars
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>
Art Of Almost
How To Fight Loneliness
Sunken Treasure
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
Pot Kettle Black
Impossible Germany
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Someone To Lose
Hummingbird
Everyone Hides
Dawned On Me
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
---------------------------------------------
California Stars
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
-
3
-
1
-
-
12 hours ago, nalafej said:
loved the comments about Wilco in Vegas: ‘The Hit’ especially since our hero and rail riding friend partook in the Rod show the evening prior.
Not sure if you're referring to me here, but it was Manilow! Sorry I missed you IRL at the show.
12 hours ago, nalafej said:4. How can you not play Casino Queen in Las Vegas?????
Yeah, that was my initial thought, too. I thought for sure we'd get that one tonight, but I guess they did skip it one other time in Vegas as well (see my post above, which has now been updated).
-
1 hour ago, Brock Landers said:
I thought the crowd was surprisingly good.
I heard there were three dummies in the front who were really making spectacles of themselves (hopefully in a good way).😉-
2
-
-
[Really have no time or energy to come up with anything super witty right now, so I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...for now.]
When a band like Wilco plays a place like Las Vegas, sometimes you just have to surrender to the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, with everything going on in Sin City on a "regular" weekend, I'm sure a working band that has been around for the better part of three decades and achieved moderate acclaim would probably tend to get lost in the shuffle. But on a busy weekend like this — the massive Electric Daisy Carnival, a Las Vegas Golden Knights home game, a Las Vegas Raiders home game, Lady Gaga in the midst of her residency and the world's largest pool tournament were among the goings-on in town — well, you figured the likelihood of Wilco making more than a tiny splash on the cultural landscape was probably unlikely.
Add to that the festival-like atmosphere on the Linq Promenade (the outdoor mall-esque street where the Brooklyn Bowl venue is located), which features activities such as zip-lining and a massive ferris wheel, and you just sort of wondered a) does anyone here even know who Wilco is; b ) who could possibly be going to the show; and c) how would the reception be in a market the band was playing for the first time in more than 12 years?
As you might have expected, the Brooklyn Bowl was far from sold out. I think the capacity of the Vegas offshoot of the chain that has locations in New York and Nashville is around 2,000 and by my admittedly rough estimate, it might have been a little over half full. As with the other locations, there are bowling alleys adjacent to the music room and one question I had was whether people would actually be bowling during the show. Fortunately, the band had the pull to nip that in the bud as Jeff explained about a third of the way through Wilco's set when he first checked in with the audience and apologized to anyone who might have wanted to bowl a few frames.
"We're a bunch of artsy fucking dudes, and that just didn't seem like a good idea," Jeff said after Love Is Everywhere (Beware).
It was one of the few visits to Banter Corner by Jeff throughout the set, but the adjoining Antics Avenue made up for that somewhat. Not sure if anyone else caught it, but a few of the band members started to do "The End"-style intro on Jesus, etc. for a second or two, which was amusing, and of course they later did the full version on Heavy Metal Drummer as they often have throughout this few months of touring. We also got the rare riff ending on the main set-closing Theologians, which is always welcome and which Jeff even seemed to do with a little extra gusto before leaving for the encore break, not to mention several little amusing bits with Glenn — including one moment where someone in the audience complimented him and Jeff relayed the message and Glenn broke into an adorable smile and sort of hugged his heart. And we also got a couple full windmills by Pat on the show-closing Outtasite (Outta Mind), which has been pretty rare this tour, actually — the windmills, not Outtasite.
I think part of what made the show a little better than it probably deserved to be was just the music room itself, which offered those who got relatively close a pretty generous view and a sense of intimacy because of a low stage and the band being set up close to the audience — and pretty excellent sound, to boot. So for instance, to cite one example, we could hear Jeff perfectly when he caught a mistake with one of his pedals just before starting Born Alone and saying to Pat, "Ooh, that was close...wrong setting."
About the only quibble I could make with the show was what appeared to be a missed opportunity in not playing Casino Queen in Las Vegas. I guess that one just wasn't in the cards — wink, wink...I'll see myself out — this time for whatever reason. Jeff and his bandmates did play it the last time they were in town, in 2009 at the venue formerly known as The Joint (at the former Hard Rock Hotel), but they also skipped it during their first Vegas headlining show at House Of Blues in 2002 so it's not always a given. It seems like the only times that song has been played recently has been in St. Louis in honor of Jeff's late father, who always loved that song.
Speaking of favorite songs, one other funny moment came following Forget The Flowers when someone stated that was "my favorite" loud enough for Jeff to hear. And of course Jeff had to chime in, quipping in part, "I won't be hurt if you leave, then," which is part of the joke he sometimes makes about how he would know when to end the show if everyone in a given audience left after the song they most wanted to hear until there was nobody left.
Anyway, here's hoping it won't be another dozen years before the band gets back to Vegas. Although they're still unlikely to make much of a ripple in the massive pond of entertainment options that is this city, I think there is at least some niche appetite for bands like Wilco there, enough locals and/or folks in town to make doing a show worthwhile and maybe finally a decent room for them to play. I know I, for one, would enjoy a return visit in spite of — or because of? — the sheer sensory overload of it all. Yolo, right?
Here was Wilco's complete setlist, as played (didn't get a look at a printed setlist tonight, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Wishful Thinking
War On War
One And A Half Stars
At Least That's What You Said
Bull Black Nova
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Pot Kettle Black
Impossible Germany
Misunderstood
Forget The Flowers
Box Full Of Letters
Hummingbird
Everyone Hides
Born Alone
Jesus, etc.
Hate It Here
Theologians
---------------------------------
The Late Greats
California Stars
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
-
4
-
-
6 hours ago, Lotti said:
Dear Mr Guy Setlist,
I am a lady gent!
Reguardings
Lotti
P.S. PM for pics if you need the proofs.
P.P.S. I can put you in a touch with Professor from Stockholm if you have that preference.
No pics necessary, but please tell…what are proper pronouns for “lady gent?” She/him? -
[As a certain Scandinavian gent might say...this chattering section must now wait for some moments while the fellow who usually enters the informations puts head on pillow for some hours, and oh by the way, do not get feeling of Dancing Queen because you see Kidsmoke on menu of tunes because it was not most excitement version. Welfare!]
I've got to say, of all the shows on this rescheduled/reconfigured Ode To Joy West Coast run, the one I probably had the lowest expectations for was tonight's engagement at the Santa Barbara Bowl. In August of 2007, I was but a wee lad when my friend and I trekked to the lovely central California coastal city to see Wilco on its Sky Blue Sky tour. Despite the complete lack of other people standing in our center orchestra section, we decided to go for it at some point early in the set. For about 30 minutes, or so it seemed, we stood our ground until the verbal assault from those behind us became too much to endure and we finally relented. This is what's known in the fan business as "getting shouted down."
So I suppose I was interested, on a purely anthropological level, to see if anything had changed in the ensuing 14-plus years. The verdict? A little, but I'm afraid that I must report that the Bowl — a venerable outdoor amphitheater with a capacity of about 4,500 and a view of the Santa Ynez mountains — still is not a particularly good venue in which to properly experience Wilco. Unless, I guess, you're the type of people who are just dying to hear Jesus, etc., and then simply turn and walk out or who won't stop loudly chit-chatting through most of the show or who watch the majority of the show with their fingers in their ears (all of which I observed just in the seats right around me tonight). Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
And lest you think I was the only one who noticed the relative lack of energy in the audience, or the indifference or whatever it was, let me just say that it's pretty rare for Jeff to actually say something like he did about halfway through the set, after Hummingbird — which is practically designed to get people to come out of their shells a little bit. "I used to be really shy about asking people" to stand up or participate in the show, Jeff said. "But I have a responsibility up here to tell you not to postpone your happiness. Just fucking let it go. It's all right. What have you been doing for the past two years...that compares to (live music)?" Then he added, jokingly, "I think David Lee Roth said the exact same thing at the US Festival."
Perhaps it was just that point in a tour where there was bound to be a "professional show" but certainly the vibe put out by a good portion of the Santa Barbara Bowl crowd helped make that a reality. I define professional show as one where if you were just seeing one show in a given tour, you would never know that the band was just sort of giving you the bare bones, but if you had been able to see a few different shows, you could definitely tell the difference. So for example, Jeff and his bandmates performed most of the songs you would expect if you were keeping track of setlists from this tour but the performance of them was completely different from, say, Night 1 in Oakland to tonight. Everything from Art Of Almost to Laminated Cat to Dawned On Me was just kind of played plainly, if that makes any sense.
Actually, Dawned provided the other major visit to Banter Corner when Jeff stopped the song after a few bars and took it from the top after saying it "sounded really weird to me." After the song, Jeff said, almost to his bandmates, "I'm really surprised that hasn't happened more often, given that we start that song with no pitch center." He then added, to the audience, "Just to show you it's real up here. You're not watching a movie. It's not Netflix, and I know you all got to the end of Netflix (over the course of lockdown). It's over."
The other evidence that this just wasn't going to be a show where the band was going to go above and beyond — since it wasn't really getting energy back from the majority of the crowd — came in the encore. It definitely was a bit of a surprise that the first song was Spiders (Kidsmoke), but as I commented to a friend in the immediate aftermath of the song, "That was the saddest Spiders ever!" If some of those legendary Brazilian shows a few years ago set the enthusiasm standard for this song — and I've been reminded of this by a certain Brazilian on more than several occasions — then this might have been the flipside of that. Jeff didn't even bother trying to get the "ba ba bas" going and there was sort of a brief, half-hearted clapping attempt made before he and his bandmates quickly brought the song to a conclusion. Then after The Late Greats, it was evident to everyone that there was at least one more song planned when the guitar techs brought out another round of guitars but Jeff simply decided that was enough, waved them off and waved good night.
And before anyone says that a curfew might have been a factor, there clearly was enough time to play at least one more song even if the band had to finish by 10 p.m. After starting a few minutes early, they wound up playing 1 hour, 57 minutes, but were off by 9:54. The Bowl, even though it's an iconic venue, probably isn't the most ideal spot for a rock show, considering the curfew as well as almost certainly some kind of decibel cap on the sound system. The latter is understandable since the amphitheater is located in a residential area, but as far as Wilco concerts go, the sound definitely sounded a bit muted to this correspondent's ears (which makes that lady in the row in front of me with her fingers in her ears kind of inexplicable to me, but I'm trying to be kind).
Since my experience at the Bowl nearly 15 years ago, I guess people have come around somewhat on the standing issue — there were pockets of standers all night in the sections closest to the stage — but standing alone does not an energetic show make. Rather, there has to be some kind of connection between the performers and audience and for whatever reason, it was apparent that Jeff and/or his bandmates weren't necessarily feeling it tonight. Even though Jeff did express several times how nice it was to be back and playing live again — "Concerts are good. Music, right?" he said at one point — I didn't get the sense he and most of the crowd were on the same page very often.
"How's everyone doing?" Jeff asked a few songs into the show with the tone of a slightly annoyed college professor. "Quite a few of you were late for class. Just saying. Glad you're here now." I think, given these weird, pandemic times, Jeff and his bandmates are just happy to be able to do what they do again, and maybe even a little surprised that they've fortunately been able to continue without interruption so far. Whether or not the audience is genuinely with them — or just along for the ride — is kind of secondary.
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Santa Barbara (Heavy Metal Drummer was not on the printed setlist but was played, while I Got You (At The End Of The Century) was listed as the final song of the encore but got cut):
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Side With The Seeds
One And A Half Stars
War On War
Art Of Almost
If I Ever Was A Child
Impossible Germany
Sunken Treasure
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Hummingbird
One By One
Everyone Hides
Box Full Of Letters
Dawned On Me
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm The Man Who Loves You
California Stars
----------------------------------------------
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
The Late Greats
-
2
-
1
-
-
Definitely sad they won't be around anymore, at least not in the form we've known and that has put so much good music out into the world. It's not that surprising that the end had to come — especially if you had been following all of the machinations the past few years — but still a sad day.
-
9 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:
Wilco related fact. Leslie Bricuse - the (British) guy who wrote the Willy Wonka tune Pure Imagination used by Wilco prior to taking the stage on a couple of tours - died yesterday.
Also, taking your advice.
I find a few margaritas sometimes help too.
Yes, very sad news about the esteemed Mr. Bricusse. I always loved the Pure Imagination walk-on music during that era. And thank you for the encouragement (I think)! I have somehow managed to keep my streak of post-show verbiage alive. The quality of said verbiage cannot be assured, of course, but I am indebted to a late-night visit to a nearby In-N-Out Burger for sustenance.
-
[Put your Tatlock in, put your Tatlock out, put your Tatlock in and shake it all about...
Let's park this thread whilst some shut eye happens, and maybe I'll even have some blatherings ready for afternoon tea time.
]
Well, I guess I failed on the cuppa challenge. Honestly, I've been struggling a bit with this one and not just because I had to catch an early flight or process the announcement of Jeff's imminent return to the West Coast while still on the West Coast. I guess it's just because I feel like there's no way I'm going to be able to accurately capture all of the different feelings people probably had about this show. For some, I know it was the culmination of an extended run of seeing the band over multiple nights in several cities; for others, it was their first live show since lockdown; for still others, there was the added anticipation of a hometown gig; and there were more than a few people who had journeyed to downtown Oakland from far-off places because it was a two-night stand in a (mostly) general-admission venue.
I guess you could probably say that it's difficult to accurately summarize just about any show in a way that will resonate with a bunch of different viewpoints and experiences, but sometimes these things really do kind of write themselves. At any rate, if you're one of the handful of people who read these recap things, please just take them with even more grains of salt than usual. They are, after all, just the semi-coherent musings of a guy who's been fortunate to see Wilco a lot of times over the years.
If this sounds like I'm about to bash Night 2 at the Fox Theater, I'm not. It wasn't my favorite show of the run so far, but the high points — the intensity of Misunderstood, the Via Chicago>Laminated Cat cacophony — were right up there with the best of the band's work since returning to the stage in August. There were some struggles, too. For some reason, I just got the feeling that something was a bit off and I'm not sure if it was a slightly subdued Monday night crowd or a tiny level of fatigue with the band or just something kooky with me. Or maybe some combination of the three.
One example of a moment I'm a bit ambivalent about was when Jeff and his bandmates came out for the encore, thanked the crowd for "coming out on a Monday night" and then started into Monday, which rarely ever happens (that you get Monday on a Monday). It's one of my favorite Wilco songs, actually, so it there was joy in hearing it for the first time in a long time. However Jeff flubbed the second verse — I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I know we never got the "Oooh, I shot ya, yeah, I know" line and somehow we got "He's waiting for a postcard" twice — and I'm pretty sure he knew it. "Now I know I made a mistake," indeed. Amazingly, the song didn't totally fall apart as the rest of the band just kept playing. But the show didn't last much longer either, as Jeff waved good night, the band sped through I'm A Wheel and then it was over.
It's a subtle distinction, I know, but I have been wondering if the days of multiple encores are behind us. It's hard to explain, but I always feel like the show seems less rushed somehow when the band maybe plays a slightly shorter main set and then spreads out the conclusion. Remember, there used to be like eight- or nine-song encores sometimes and you were like, 'Wow, they're still playing! This is great!' Anyway, just a thought I had. I fully realize this is something that is totally not a concern — or even a consideration — for approximately 99 percent of people, especially in a pandemic.
Kudos to Jeff for continuing to explore the back catalog a little more each night, though. On Night 2 in Oakland, in addition to Monday, we also got Kamera and She's A Jar for the first time since the band returned to the stage following the world shutting down. By my count, 12 of the 26 songs in the set were different from Night 1 to Night 2 so those who were able to attend both shows got a significantly different set (even if we didn't get a Bull Black Nova appearance either night for our resident monomaniac).
And there were at least a few good visits to Banter Corner on Night 2. My favorite might have been after Everyone Hides when someone in the crowd yelled out, "Glenn, you rock!" Jeff seized the opportunity, saying to his favorite foil, "Glenn, someone says you rock." Then Jeff continued, in perfect deadpan while Glenn cracked up, "I'm glad to convey that message to him. Glenn asks me before every show, 'Jeff, do I rock?'" I think nothing gives Jeff quite as much pleasure on stage as giving Glenn shit from time to time. Of course Jeff can also give himself shit, too. For instance, after playing an especially gnarly, noisy solo at the end of I'm The Man Who Loves You, he quipped, "I consider myself the Segovia of my time," referring to the virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist. "No one cares."
Other noteworthy Jeffbits from earlier in the show included when one audience member shouted, "Fuck, yeah," after She's A Jar (which featured the rare Jeff harmonica performance). "I heard one 'Fuck, yeah,' so that was worth it," Jeff joked. A few songs later, there were some more inaudible shouts from the audience, to which Jeff replied, "I can't tell what you're all saying. Collectively I'm going to just assume everything's OK." When someone closer to the stage then uttered an encouraging, "You're doing good," Jeff perked up slightly, joking that it's always good to hear that sort of positive affirmation an hour into the show.
As for the adjoining Antics Avenue, we got the on-again, off-again "The End"-style intro to Heavy Metal Drummer tonight, which seemed to amuse Bay Area folks who had maybe missed it the other night in San José. I actually wonder how the rest of the band decides whether or not they're going to do it on a given night now that it's a "thing," since it almost seems out of Jeff's control at this point. Haha. More visits to this particular street in the Wilco neighborhood would be, of course, welcome. Viva shenanigans!
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 in Oakland (the printed setlist I glimpsed had Muzzle Of Bees crossed out and replaced with Kamera in the main set and The Late Greats crossed out and replaced with Monday in the encore):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
At Least That's What You Said
One And A Half Stars
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Kamera
Via Chicago
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
She's A Jar
Impossible Germany
Miusunderstood
Forget The Flowers
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Hummingbird
Box Full Of Letters
Everyone Hides
Born Alone
Jesus, etc.
Heavy Metal Drummer>
I'm The Man Who Loves You
California Stars
Poor Places>
Reservations
----------------------------------------------
Monday
I'm A Wheel
-
2
-
1
-
-
Well, as far as first nights of two-night stands go (...by a veteran band halfway through its first headlining tour amid a still-raging global pandemic during which indoor shows require proof of vaccination and masks to be worn...), you'd probably be hard pressed to do much better than what Wilco delivered to a near-capacity crowd at the still-gleaming Fox Theater in Oakland tonight.
I'm not going to confirm or deny that at least a couple of songs in the 26-song set — the longest of the tour thus far, incidentally — might have been influenced by some people standing on a sidewalk in the early afternoon who glimpsed the pasty lower limbs of a certain frontman, but let's just say that a few suggestions were asked for and given. In any case, it was a delightful to hear Pot Kettle Black again (which hadn't been played live by the full band on American soil since 2017 during the final show before the band's 18-month pre-pandemic hiatus and on which Jeff used a 12-string acoustic for the first time that I can remember) as well as old favorites Sunken Treasure (which is sounding as vibrant and vital as ever) and California Stars (which was happily received even if there might have been a bit of concern about it being overly pandering).
Then there was the appearance of the other Mermaid Avenue song in the set, Airline To Heaven, which I'm not sure anyone outside of Jeff expected. I'm not going to liken it to a hen's tooth, but it hasn't exactly been a recent live staple either, having previously been performed only twice by the full band since 2015. As long as there's not a technical issue, it's usually a good sign for the audience when members of the Wilcrew are scurrying around the stage because it means something out of the ordinary is probably going to happen and that was the case here when, in addition to a different guitar, one of Jeff's guitar techs also brought out what seemed to be a lyric sheet and deftly affixed it to one of his monitors.
About two thirds of the way through the set, Jeff glanced down at his planned program and made the observation/inquiry that "we still have a few songs left to play. Is that all right?" (Spoiler alert: It was, indeed, all right.) Anyway, he then couldn't resist having just a little bit of fun with the crowd when he pointed out that someone had said something to the effect of, "Play them all," and he replied, "Sure, we'll play all the songs......that are left on the setlist for tonight." #sickburn
Earlier in the show, Jeff acknowledged he hadn't been talking much on this tour for two reasons. One, that he usually wound up saying "stupid shit" whenever he did pay a visit to Banter Corner. And two, that he and his bandmates were just really enjoying getting to play music together again, so that's what they wanted to do. He then looked out at the crowd and raised his arms triumphantly for a second and added, "We're here! We made it back!" A few songs later, before Everyone Hides, he reiterated the joke he has been occasionally making about how this was another song from Ode To Joy, "the album we were on our way to play for you before all the joy."
(Incidentally, I do wonder by this point in the "Ode To Joy" tour if we'll end up hearing any more songs from that record than have already been played. I suppose Before Us, An Empty Corner or Hold Me Anyway could always pop up in one of the six remaining shows, but it's getting increasingly unlikely that these West Coast gigs will entirely capture the vibe of those shows earlier in the OTJ touring cycle, which is kind of a shame if you really wanted to hear a few more of those tunes, but I'm guessing is probably just as well with most people).
Anyway, as mentioned, Banter Corner was relatively barren tonight, though Jeff did have a couple of small quips to offer as the evening progressed. After a sustained bit of applause for Nels following his Impossible Germany work, Jeff looked over at him admiringly and asked, "Did you whip that up that up this afternoon?" And then before Dawned On Me when there was a brief delay while some issue was sorted out with Nels and his garish white double-neck Jerry Jones Longhorn guitar, Jeff remarked, "We're gonna need a few minutes. (Nels) broke something. It was a flawless show up to this point."
Of course that was hardly true since there are a few little hiccups in almost every show, whether the audience notices or not. For instance, I'm fairly certain that Jeff flubbed some lyrics in How To Fight Loneliness, but it was one of those cases when he only realized it himself just after singing the wrong lyric it and thus didn't "break," as he usually does when he messes up. I doubt too many other people in the crowd picked up on it. Perhaps a few more folks, especially those closer to the stage, picked up on Jeff breaking a string during another intense run through Laminated Cat, which he nevertheless seemed to power through without incident.
Lastly I would be remiss if I didn't least mention the "rock songs, etc." encore, which finally got its Being There flow back after a couple shows with I'm A Wheel in place of Outtasite (Outta Mind). Ironically, it was during the latter that I think I finally glimpsed some abridged windmilling by Pat — which had been absent during its typical spot in Wheel the past couple times out — so I guess it's not a physical thing, at least not entirely. In any case, it was a more-than-welcome sight and capper to a frenetic encore. Perhaps we can do it again sometime...
Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 in Oakland (there were no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Side With The Seeds
One And A Half Stars
Pot Kettle Black
Art Of Almost
How To Fight Loneliness
Sunken Treasure
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
If I Ever Was A Child
Impossible Germany
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Airline To Heaven
Hummingbird
Everyone Hides
Dawned On Me
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Poor Places>
Reservations
----------------------------------------------
California Stars
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
-
3
-
2
-
-
8 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:
He mentioned my name. Swoon . . .
(And I did genuinely laugh out loud reading that, so, you know, ta.)
Well, getting a genuine laugh out of you is virtually my sole aim here, so mission accomplished!
-
[Another day, another thread parked, another Tatlock left twisting in the wind...
]
Well, there is apparently plenty to do in San José on a Saturday night — especially during hockey season, when the hometown Sharks are opening their season at home — but for those folks who decided to spend their evening with Wilco (and opening act Faye Webster) at the San José Civic, the headliners made it worthwhile to catch their show, whether it had been one day or many years since you had last seen them play. Or, indeed, even if you had never seen them perform live before, which I know was the case for at least one young fan in attendance.
Jeff and Co. had actually played the Civic once before, nearly a full decade ago, but back then it was a (mostly) general admission standing situation on the main floor as opposed to tonight's nearly all-reserved seating setup. It's a room with wooden floors, a "framed" stage and horseshoe-shaped balcony that would probably call to mind any number of similar rooms around the country that host things like high-school or small-college graduations. And indeed, my friend — a San José native — said she was almost certain at least one of her cousins had her high-school graduation there.
As you might expect in a room that wasn't built for rock concerts — or performing arts of any kind, I guess — the acoustics left a bit to be desired, at least to this correspondent's admittedly untrained ears. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but from our actual seats in the sixth or seventh row, it kind of sounded to me like the band had a blanket over it or something. Some people later told me that they moved up to the balcony and it sounded better, but I think the PA system in the Civic definitely had some limitations.
Anyway, between that semi-muted sound and a group of people in the front-and-center section that didn't seem inclined to stand at all, except to applaud after a song, it seemed like it might be a pretty mellow night. Which would be pretty understandable, given an outdoor, almost festival-like GA show in Napa the previous evening — to the band's credit, by the way, it changed up nearly half the set (11 songs out of 25) from the Napa show, which it didn't really have to do — and two indoor GA shows coming up in Oakland the next two days. My only gripe with San José was that it initially seemed like it would be a stand-up/sit-down kind of thing where people were up and down based on the tempo of a song, which is a pet peeve of mine. But fortunately, after a while, those of us who had decided to stand just remained standing — and eventually were even able to sidle our way into the front for the encore.
Ah, the good old-fashioned stage rush. Somehow it happened completely organically, without Jeff having to even suggest it , as he sometimes has at other seated venues. All of a sudden, as the band was launching into The Late Greats, a few people decided to make a break for it and then a bunch more did and security mostly tolerated it. That made for a fun end to the show with Heavy Metal Drummer and I'm A Wheel still to come. (Incidentally, I looked it up and it appears that I'm A Wheel has closed all three headlining shows the band has ever played in San José. Wheelco, indeed! Unfortunately, the patented Pat windmills on Wheel seem to have gone by the wayside for the time being. Hopefully that's by choice, and not for any physical reason.)
From a setlist perspective, though, it was an unexpected pleasure to hear Wishful Thinking come out so early in the set — a song that, before tonight, had only been played live by the full band twice in more than five years. Add to that Misunderstood (which my friend had been really hoping to hear since she was, ahem, back in her old neighborhood) and Bull Black Nova with the full effect of the sludgy visuals (sorry, Vince) and it made for a interesting show, as I mentioned earlier, whether you had just seen Jeff and his bandmates in Napa or hadn't seen them in years.
I don't know if I need to start delivering an "antics" report in addition to recounting visits to Banter Corner and engaging in a bit of setlist analysis — check back later — but I can report that Jeff (and I guess, Glenn) held true to the promise from Napa that we wouldn't hear the Green Acres-ending to Forget The Flowers again. On the positive side, however, Jeff did do the big riff ending to Theologians and the band gave us "The End"-style intro to Heavy Metal Drummer to the delight/amusement of the relatively older audience in San José.
On the downside, the aforementioned Banter Corner was probably the most barren it has been on this entire tour so far. Jeff didn't offer much in the way of chat, except to say "good to see you again" and make a little joke about how introducing Box Full Of Letters as being from A.M. was just another way of saying it was a song off the band's first record, which he pretty much says every night. (I did notice, though — and I'm certain I'm literally the ONLY one who did...nerd alert! — that Hummingbird was placed between Box and Everyone Hides tonight, thus disrupting the usual first record/latest record banter. Coincidence? I think not!)
About the only noteworthy comments Jeff did offer came about halfway through the set when he thanked the audience for coming to see him and his bandmates instead of going to see the production of Hamilton at the San José Center For The Performing Arts down the street. Like I said, apparently there's plenty to do in San José on a Saturday night even during a pandemic. It seemed like those who chose to rock out a bit — or at least tolerate those who did — did not walk away dissatisfied.
For now, here was the complete setlist as played in San José (I didn't see any changes or omissions after quickly glancing at a printed setlist):
Bright Leaves
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Wishful Thinking
War On War
One And A Half Stars
At Least That's What You Said
Bull Black Nova
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Impossible Germany
Misunderstood
Forget The Flowers
Box Full Of Letters
Hummingbird
Everyone Hides
Born Alone
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
I'm Always In Love
California Stars
Poor Places>
Reservations
--------------------------------------------
The Late Greats
Heavy Metal Drummer
I'm A Wheel
-
2
-
1
-
-
[A bit of slacking on my part as we reach the pivot point of this West Coast run. Only eight more shows to go. Apologies, Tatlock, and other faithful readers for not having copy ready for morning coffee or afternoon tea time.
]
Here's a new twist on that old tertiary-market thing that I hadn't thought of before tonight: Can a place be a tertiary market if most of the people who attend a given show there aren't even from there? That's one I'll have to give a little more thought to, I suppose, not to mention the simpler question of whether Napa even qualifies as a tertiary market at all vis-à-vis San Francisco or Sacramento, or if it's just a slightly far-off suburb of said metropolises.
Personally, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a show in a place probably known more these days for wine and culinary arts than anything else. It certainly seems like a tourist destination, judging by the steady stream of people eating and drinking and walking around at the various establishments in the afternoon. In any case, we sort of learned the crowd makeup at the Oxbow RiverStage — an interesting outdoor amphitheater of sorts in downtown Napa that is sort of a cross between a park and a street festival setup — fairly early on in the show when Jeff decided to take an unscientific survey of the attendees.
"How many of you are from Napa?" he asked. Smattering of applause. Then, "How many of you are from other points?" Significantly larger response. "That's what I thought," Jeff concluded. "Let's be good guests to the Napa natives."
Whether those of us from points elsewhere succeeded in that is debatable, I suppose, but the show was actually pretty fun overall. There were plenty of familiar faces planted along the rail on the non-VIP side, so it was nice to see a lot of folks from the general NorCal area turn out, whether or not they were actually from Napa. And most everyone seemed to enjoy themselves pretty well as this next California-centric leg of the Ode To Joy tour got underway on a lovely, clear evening with a relaxed opening set by Atlanta-based Faye Webster and her band followed by a solid 1-hour, 53-minute outing by Jeff and Co.
If Napa got a slightly abridged version of the Wilco "show" — with no video screen for background projections or "soapsuds" video, for example, or "The End"-like intro to Heavy Metal Drummer — then at least we got a bit more of what my friend termed a "pastoral" setlist with the inclusion of Company In My Back (bugs!), Either Way (sun!), Side With The Seeds (seeds!) and the requisite California Stars (stars!). Sure, the band might have decided not to precede Art Of Almost with I Am Trying To Break Your Heart as usual, which was sort of jarring, but it also once again took us on an exhilarating journey whose ending wasn't entirely certain during Laminated Cat. And even if Poor Places and Reservations got cut from the end of the main set, probably due to time, at least we still got a version of the "rock songs, etc." encore with Red-Eyed and Blue>I Got You (At The End Of The Century) followed by a slightly surprising I'm A Wheel to conclude the evening on an upbeat note.
The most amusing moment might have come at the end of Forget The Flowers when Glenn finally got in sync with Jeff on the Green Acres-like ending that they had been joking around about for much of the Pacific Northwest run. With a semi-smirk on his face, Glenn went for and nailed it tonight, leading Jeff to immediately quip, "That's the last time you'll ever hear that ending." Then a song later, Jeff shared that when he had made the comment about it being the last time for that ending, Nels had said, "I hope so," which the guitarist didn't deny. Jeff looked at him, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I guess you must not be a Green Acres fan."
Visits to Banter Corner were relatively limited, though Jeff did have a little fun with the divided sections of the crowd after Jesus, etc., when there was some kind of hubbub that led to a big cheer going up from the VIP section to his right. Jeff looked over briefly and asked what was going on over there and then turned to the non-VIP side on his left and asked the people there what was wrong with them (since they weren't cheering as enthusiastically). Finally he said, "I don't want to pit you guys against each other. I don't want to start a class war."
That was about it for repartée with the crowd, except for thanking Faye Webster and her band on a couple separate occasions and also joking as he sometimes does about how he always introduces Box Full Of Letters as being a song from their first album and wondering why he feels compelled to do that. Who knows if Jeff deliberately puts that song and Ode To Joy track Everyone Hides back-to-back in the setlist most nights to give himself an opportunity to comment about the former being one of their earliest songs and then the latter being one of their most recent, but it seems plausible, right? Anyway, I thought Box was especially fun tonight because Pat seemed to have a little extra juice than usual throughout the whole show (despite his lack of windmills on I'm A Wheel).
One last bit of banter came kind of out of nowhere from Jeff as he was leaving the stage for the final time. He waved goodbye, then left the crowd with this thought: "That was not a swing," which was obviously a reference to the controversial ending of the previous night's winner-take-all baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers but which I didn't even pick up on for a few seconds because it was so out of — forgive the pun — left field. Obviously more than a few people did get it right away and it became one final bit of Jeff currying favor with the NorCal crowd since I guess wherever you're from up here, Napa or elsewhere, there's probably a good chance you love Los Gigantes.
Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, according to the printed setlist, it appears that Poor Places and Reservations were cut at the end of the main set):
A Shot In The Arm
Random Name Generator
Side With The Seeds
One And A Half Stars
Art Of Almost
If I Ever Was A Child
Via Chicago
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
Either Way
Company In My Back
Impossible Germany
Forget The Flowers
Hummingbird
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Box Full Of Letters
Everyone Hides
Dawned On Me
Jesus, etc.
Theologians
Heavy Metal Drummer>
I'm The Man Who Loves You
California Stars
----------------------------------------------
Red-Eyed And Blue>
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
I'm A Wheel
-
3
-
2
-
-
1 hour ago, wilcolovesyou said:
Jeff said, "I'm floating on air and my guitar is a (uh) snake." I was feeling like this was another nod to Jim Morrison.
Ah, thanks! My chicken scratch did look kinda like “snake,” but I honestly wasn’t sure. I think I like “gremlin” better, tbh, but I’ll make the edit. -
2 hours ago, calvino said:
I think Offerman and Tweedy touched upon this story during their 'web-talk' for Tweedy's songwriting book.
My wife and I did this trail - he definitely hits descriptions nicely.
In case anyone missed it that might be interested, there’s a virtual book event for this tonight with all three gents. It’s at 8 p.m. Eastern, I believe. I’m sure someone can provide the link.
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, VIA CHICAGO!
in Just A Fan
Posted
I eagerly await the Master of Culture’s alumni dissertation on the merits of Internet message boards.