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Well, thanks for filling in the deets in my stead (and oh so promptly!). I guess I need to start getting a Red Bull or something in me and pumping those reports out more expeditiously... Too bad about the relatively sparse attendance. Wonder if they will play that new room in town next time. What’s it called, Paristown something or other? Or is that too small? Glad to hear people stood, though, and there was no blowback. I wonder what it is about some crowds or venues where people just stay glued to the seats and others where people are up right away. Guess it’s the enduring mystery of the t

He’s currently working for Vampire Weekend, I believe.

Sometimes the stars just align, Californian and otherwise, when it comes to a Wilco show. On a personal level, I was happily able to upgrade a mediocre seat in the back half of the room to a third-row center seat when a ticket magically became available just hours before the show. And on a general level, for a Tuesday night show in a reserved-seat auditorium, things went pretty much as you would hope and expect they would. That is to say that if you could script a show on this Ode To Joy tour that you would want your parents to see or if you were introducing a friend to Wilco, you might cons

Thanks for preserving that one! That's why I wanted to quickly quote the other one...

This might be the single best post on VC ever.

Well, the cold, chilly climate in Charlottesville certainly caused some chompers to chatter...ah, never mind. (Is anyone alive out there? ) Anyway, more when I get a chance, but for now, here was the complete setlist as played (didn’t get a look at a printed list, so not sure if there were any changes): Bright Leaves Before Us I Am Trying To Break Your Heart War On War One and a Half Stars Handshake Drugs At Least That’s What You Said Hummingbird White Wooden Cross Via Chicago Bull Black Nova Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season) Random Name Generator We Were Lucky Love Is Everywhere (Be

I don't pretend to know everything about how shows get booked, but I'm sure a lot more goes into it than we know. First off, the band has a booking agent for a reason. Wilco obviously could say yay or nay to a venue, of course, but I'm sure they specify the types and sizes of venues they're looking to play and then leave the specifics up to High Road Touring. It could be that a market like Pittsburgh doesn't have a suitable general admission venue (a November show at Stage AE isn't a possibility, I'm guessing?) of a certain size to fulfill Wilco's requirements. Or it could come down to availab

Well, a man has to retire sometime...

Haha, that is weird! Well, as evidenced by my full report (now updated above), I'd say that the crowd was definitely on the wrong end of the deserving this time. If I might ask, what pray tell prompted you to go back and seek out that old recap?

Although Pittsburgh has historically been a preferred place for Wilco to play, I would have to say that a group of pretty passive patrons — not to mention some possible potty problems on Jeff's part — probably played into tonight's performance being the closest to a professional one thus far on the Ode To Joy tour. And in this case, "professional" did not necessarily produce a positive payoff. Picture a relatively perfunctory production...if you please? In other words, if you don’t do alliteration, the band always enjoys playing in Pittsburgh but the audience didn’t really bring it this tim

And then there was one...songs from Ode To Joy left to be performed live, that is, after Wilco finally debuted Citizens tonight before a crowd that probably didn't deserve that honor — or, frankly, as good a show as it got. But c'est la vie, I guess. And you could also make the point that this was the first OTJ audience, I believe, to miss out on Everyone Hides... One does wonder why Jeff decided this would be the night to finally play a song I heard the band has been soundchecking since at least the Boston shows nearly a month ago. I guess I’m just glad I was there to hear it, since you ne

yeesh indeed

People seem to dig them. They should be right up my alley, but they've never really done it for me for some reason. They definitely do all the things an indie band should, though. Like playing hard and seeming to care. Like paying attention to their stage presentation (i.e. the lit sign with their band name on it and their frontwoman standing atop it for her guitar hero moment). Like hanging out at the merch table afterward. I'm sure they're very nice. It's just that none of their songs really grab me.

I like how you can sort of date when they taped this by Jeff's facial hair growth. Not quite carbon dating, but still... (If I had to guess, they did it Oct. 14 — the day after the Brooklyn Steel show — though that seems like an awful long time for the Late Night show to sit on it. I just don't see when else they would have taped it unless it was the actual day of one of the NYC shows.)

Just realized that no one ever posted a thread for this show. I wasn't there, unfortunately. But just for record keeping's sake, here was the setlist from Wilcoworld: Bright Leaves Before Us Company In My Back War On War One and a Half Stars If I Ever Was A Child Handshake Drugs At Least That's What You Said Hummingbird White Wooden Cross Via Chicago Bull Black Nova Random Name Generator On And On And On We Were Lucky Love Is Everywhere (Beware) Impossible Germany Box Full Of Letters Everyone Hides Jesus, etc. Theologians I'm The Man Who Loves You Hold Me Anyway Misunderstood ---------------

Named and checked, even. That's what happens when you go to Godot!

Can't even get a free made-up cocktail...story of my life.

Through the magic of automotive transport (not to mention Eastern Standard Time), I am currently typing in the setlist for tonight's Wilco show whilst watching the band perform Love Is Everywhere (Beware) on Late Night With Seth Meyers...whoa. Mind blown. Anyway, as for the show that happened in real time, I guess a Monday night in Grand Rapids wasn’t the worst place in the world to kick off this next leg of the Ode To Joy tour. It certainly wasn’t dull. Jeff even remarked of the quality of the crowd singalong to I’m Always In Love that it “was Wednesday night singing.” High praise, indeed.

Touché, sir.

Thanks for the info. Full recap has been posted above.

The fever!

If a Wilco show happens in Austin and I don’t write about it for a week, does anyone other than Albert Tatlock (or one or two of his lovably psychotic brethren) give a rat’s ass? Well that’s what we’re attempting to discern here, folks, and I sincerely apologize to anyone whose breath might have been bated whilst waiting for this glorious prose. So despite my head still spinning at how quickly seven days can seemingly pass by, if I might rewind to this time last week, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one still shaking off the cobwebs from the second night of a back-to-back Wilco stand at ACL Live

After a “pretty weird” last few days in Texas, it must have been nice for the Wilco band and crew to wrap up this leg of the Ode To Joy tour in one of their homes away from home — Austin — where they have played as many shows over the years as anywhere outside of Chicago, New York and San Francisco. And, more importantly, where they knew they would be performing in a relatively familiar venue with mostly their kind of crowd behind them. ACL Live at the Moody Theater is probably the ideal type of venue for a band like Wilco, not overly cavernous, with general admission standing room on the fl

It was hardly Joni Mitchell at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 telling a crowd to "give us some respect," but in his own way, that's what Jeff was asking for tonight at Houston's Revention Music Center when he expressed his feelings about a segment of the audience conflicted between being engaged by the performance they were attending and checking their phones for updates on how the hometown Astros were faring in Game 3 of the World Series. Almost from the first time Jeff addressed the audience, following Ode To Joy track One and a Half Stars, he decided to confront the proverbial elephan

I’d go for some Marmite on toast myself.