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For a veteran band like Wilco, the penultimate show of a long tour might be one you could expect to be somewhat offbeat (or at least see some atypical things said/done/happen). After all, you’re so close to finishing off another run, so close to getting home and enjoying at least a little bit of a break, but you’re not quite there yet. You want to present the show you’ve been presenting and yet some amount of Groundhog Day-effect might be starting to set in and you have to try and break through it to connect with another audience. Add to that a venue like the Albert Hall in Manchester, wher

I’m not gonna say Jeff Tweedy got me drunk, but he tried. That’s a sentence I didn’t think I would ever write, but the fact remains that tonight in Glasgow, Jeff redoubled his efforts to procure me a free libation (or several) after my tongue-in-cheek comments here about being spurned in Utrecht a few nights prior. Whether Jeff really sought to see me “rewarded,” merely wanted a funny way of testing his power of suggestion or had other motivations, I can’t say. But unlike the penny-pinchers at the TivoliVredenburg, the punters at the Barrowland Ballroom came through. Well, to the tune of exac

Testy, testy Tatlock.

Once again, I regret delaying the existence of you and nine others...

For the 10s of people who might care, I have updated my post.

No, I saw that seating plan as well when I was buying tickets because I initially bought a reserved seat for that very reason. Only to learn that the entire floor would be standing, which caused me to buy another general admission ticket. So unless I’m mistaken, that’s what I’m counting on...

Surely a Scotsman or a Welshman would help a thirsty brother out...

Apologies to my limited readership for leaving things hanging for a bit with regard to my initial comments about the Antwerp show. I’d like to make the excuse that I was so flabbergasted by what occurred that it took me this long to get my mind around it, but that would be disingenuous. So I’ll just say that the travel caught up to me a little bit… So where were we, rubber chickens and random hecklers? Well, it all started with a stray squeak about midway through the show. Things had been going more or less according to form up to then, but then the squeak could be clearly heard just before

Well, I guess we now know how far Jeff Tweedy's word goes in Utrecht. After he once again outed me for being in the Everyone Hides video, he said something to the effect that someone should buy me a drink after the show and yet I received nary an offer of a free beverage. So Utrecht, I'd like to thank you all for nothing at all... The thing was I really could've used a thirst quencher of some sort after a show that was pretty intense in its own way. While I wouldn't say it was the best show that Wilco has played on this opening leg of the Ode To Joy tour, it was a memorable one for a number

Very funny! Maybe I should also include a spotlight feature on the six people who read these idiotic musings daily?

I’ll take it under advisement...

Gotta change it up to keep it fresh, no? (Don’t expect it to last!)

The pluses: A very intimate, lovely sounding and looking venue (I was told the total capacity was just 1,000, with 600 standing on the floor and another 400 spread over two balconies, and it wasn't even sold out when doors opened); a relatively enthusiastic audience. During the show I remembered that, in my past experience seeing the band there — I have some especially good memories of seeing the band next door at Le Trianon's sister venue Elysée Montmartre nearly 15 years ago — Paris can have some surprisingly energetic crowds. And this one was no exception, with a brief flurry of random co

I think you've probably had too much birra...

Possibly. I think especially when they try to do the HMD>I'm The Man segue, they're switching guitars in the outro to HMD and then trying to get the timing just right to go into Man. I don't know if that's what you're referring to. Also kinda funny you brought it up in this thread since this is the one show they didn't play it. Haha.

Decided to take a personal day, which is pretty ridiculous since these are all personal days, but anyway, that meant not trekking to Padova for this show. So I'd be interested to hear about it from anyone who went, which I realize might be unlikely around these parts, but you never know! Since Wilcoworld has already posted the setlist, I will cross-post it here as usual. (Unfortunately, whoever posts the setlists there doesn't seem to believe in or is incapable of denoting where the encore break happened, so I'm just using my best guess): Bright Leaves Before Us I Am Trying To Break Your H

Well, that's debatable... Aw, too bad you couldn't make it. Have you ever been to the Volkshaus? Definitely one of my favorite venues they play in Europe.

I read it that way, too. And same about the Chipotle stuff. A few years back, I remember I would always seem to hear Theme From Chelsea Walls whenever I used the bathroom at a Chipotle; guess someone there was/is a fan.

Sorry, I just saw this for some reason. Some of their management team reached out to me (as well as some of their other longtime friends around town) and asked if I was free. My parts were probably done in like an hour total, but it was over two days (i.e. the pickup and dropoff scenes were on separate days) so that’s how I also snuck into the movie scene because they needed some extra bodies and I guess I was just randomly in the right place. That was purely by chance that I was visible. No real juicy anecdotes from the filming. They had a pretty quick turnaround on it, so they had a pret

It had been a little while since I'd been to Italy, or at least it felt that way, so I had sort of forgotten about what I think of in my mind as "the Italian way" of doing things. And Milan is probably as good a microcosm of Italy as anywhere else. So reflecting on the Milan show, at least in my opinion, I think it's best to remember that all the elements that make Italy what it is were present — beauty, passion, disorganization, charm, rudeness and more. Oh, and copyright infringement. (No, seriously, Italy seems to be the only place where Wilco is apparently a big enough band to make it wo

Forgot to mention that this show was bittersweet in one sense, because it was the last one on the run for Spiral Stairs and his guitarist Tim Regan as the support act. I had seen them at so many shows and also incidentally on the road, especially in Norway, that they started to feel like old friends. I really enjoyed their set each night and I encourage people to go check them out, especially anyone in Europe this month because after the tour with Wilco, they were meeting up with their rhythm section and touring as a full band for a couple weeks. That should be a fun show. What was cool abou

Just a rando forum user, albeit one who's been around for a long time now. I didn't drop him off until after the movie screened. Get your head around that one... Actually, this could be it (though I know nothing about the Potterverse)...

You'd better get a MEOW cap to go along with your YES one, in that case...

A morbid thought, but no kitties were harmed in the making of my Oscar campaign. I know that Scotland independence leader and cats rights advocate 50footqueenie certainly would nae have any of tha...

Well, as awkward as this might be to write from a personal standpoint, I’m going to try to keep myself out of it as much as possible and stick to the facts (and, OK, maybe a tiny little bit of opinion). On the surface, tonight’s show in Zurich set up as a kind of pivot point — or fresh start, if you will — for this opening leg of the Ode To Joy tour. First, Wilco was hitting the stage again after a rare two-day break likely necessitated by a long bus journey from Warsaw. Jeff looked somewhat freshly shaven and perhaps had even had a little hair trim (or maybe it was just hiding under his St