bböp

Just one big lawn. You can't really see the stage very well unless you're at the very front of the lawn area, which would probably require getting in line fairly early. There is a huge screen that may or may not be used, so that could help with viewing from the lawn. Any reserved seat in the pavilion will have a view of the stage, but it's a pretty wide stage so closer to center would be ideal (obviously). The 200s should be fine, depending on how close you need to be for your definition of a "great" seat. If you're used to being pretty close, then probably something in the 100s would be bet

Unfortunately not! Sounds like that was a bad one to decide to sit out, given the number of cool people I know who are going, but something had to give. Thanks for the offer, though!

Sometimes you walk out of a show on a cloud, just knowing deep down that it had been a thoroughly satisfying, life-affirming performance. And then other times, you walk out with a bit of a sour taste in your mouth for whatever reason. Usually these feelings are utterly personal, based on your own perspective, your reaction to the music itself, the talent of the performer, the energy of the audience or any number of other factors. A great show to one person might be somewhat disappointing to another. So feel free to take this with a grain of salt, but for me, this show at the Fabulous Fox just

Managed to sneak into the in-store performance and signing at Euclid Records that just concluded — the band might still be signing autographs out back — so I figured I'd post this quickly... This was a relatively short (28 minutes, by my watch), acoustic (mostly), mid-afternoon set (prior to the Fox Theatre show later that night) by the band before a crowd of about 175 folks who had pre-ordered Wilco Schmilco. Jeff said it was good to be back and remarked that he never worked at this store location but had worked for Euclid Records once upon a time (and was fired). It was pretty steamy in th

Very nicely written and summed up, I must say. Not always easy to convey Jeff's banter, but good job with that. Anyway I didn't want to quote the whole thing again, but kudos to you. We need more of this around these parts!

Not my best, but thanks as always!

Very sad. The man was one of the greats in jazz. Love his Blue Note work, both as a leader and sideman.

Don't have time to write much of a recap right now, but on a typically steamy summer evening, the enthusiastic crowd gathered in the relatively intimate backyard confines of CrossroadsKC finally got a chance to see some of Star Wars performed live. It was at this venue, after all, just over one year ago when Wilco played its final show before the surprise release of the record, the songs on which have formed the backbone of the band's sets for the past year or so. One must keep that fact in mind when looking at the setlist below, which on the surface resembles the one the band has more or le

And We've Been Had.

Oh, thanks for the info! Jeff's comment makes much more sense knowing that (though his clarification of said comment last night then might be a bit more confusing in light of that ).

Man, I really have to get some sleep. These Pickathon late nights that go past 2 a.m. are doing a serious number on my ability to recharge the proverbial batteries. But before I turn in, I feel compelled to at least write a few words by way of trying to recap Jeff's second (and final) solo performance at the festival. Of course, by the wee hours of the morning, Jeff was long gone from Pendarvis Farm and probably resting comfortably in a hotel bed somewhere. However, before he left, he turned in a delightful 68-minute set of songs on the much-adored Woods stage that is arguably the most distin

I've been told by a reliable source that song was "Nope."

Don't have time to write much of a recap and anyone who's that interested probably watched the live stream anyway, but since no one's started a thread yet... On Day 3 of this year's Pickathon Music Festival, Jeff closed out the "main stage" (called the Mt. Hood Stage) lineup with a pretty intimate-feeling 70-minute solo set in which he performed several songs from Wilco's forthcoming Schmilco album publicly for the first time as well as a selection of songs from throughout his career. Playing on his 21st wedding anniversary, he was in a joking mood for most of the set with various snarky c

I'll post the setlist in After The Show. The only song title I'm not sure of is the Dylanesque one he played to start the encore.

This isn't Friends...

Bloody Milennials.

#bangerz (and mash?)

Yeah, this fest sounds pretty awesome (though not necessarily for the middle-of-the-road Wilco fan). I also noticed that there will be a couple of extremely rare performances by some cult artists of the past like the '"mystical jazz singer" Patty Waters and Scott Fagan — Stephin Merritt's father, I believe — performing his lost classic South Atlantic Blues. More details here.

Fwiw, Jeff has actually played what I think is Happiness before ... at Second City last year. I jotted down a couple of lyrics at the time: "My mother always says I'm great and it always makes me sad... "So sad it's nothing/Happiness depends on who you blame/So sad it's nothing/Absolutely nothing."

Personally I don't get why so many people have such a strong reaction to the title of a record, or say that they can't "take the band seriously" because of a given title (or series of titles). What would you have them title it? "This album is a collection of songs and is meant to be taken seriously, thank you very much?" Seriously, though, maybe it would help me understand if folks would cite some album titles that they do like/love...

Are you asking me? If so, I say yes. Just to make you happy...

Just a quick follow-up to say that it was cool to see Wilco and Lucinda finally share the same stage. Not totally sure if it was the first time, but if not, then it has certainly been a good while. If memory serves, Lucinda was supposed to open for the Tweedy band at the Taste of Chicago a couple of years ago (or was it just last year?) before the show was unceremoniously cancelled due to rain that never really seemed to arrive. Anyway, in Dublin, she played almost exactly an hour, backed by her veteran band of Butch Norton on drums, Stuart Mathis on guitar and David Sutton on bass. For an

A mist of rain, alternately lighter and heavier at times, fell over Dublin's Iveagh Gardens during Wilco's final show of this summer's European tour, but that didn't seem to bother its frontman all that much. Actually, he thought it kind of fitting. "I think this is appropriate weather for a Wilco show," Jeff Tweedy observed after Jesus, etc. "It always feels bad to bum people out when it's sunny." Jeff needn't have worried too much about the sun rearing its ugly head on this night. Indeed, the weather conditions made it feel more like an early spring or late autumn gig but that didn't keep

Another "better late than never" post on this festival gig from the other night. Not too much to report, really, except that it was just a weird show... Wilco technically was the headline act on the first night of the three-day Cactus Festival that is held in a lovely park in Brugge (aka Bruges) not far from the train station, but by the time the band took the stage for its 11:30 p.m.-1 a.m. set time, it seemed like most of the crowd had already seen what it had come to see. Part of that might have been attributed to the immediately preceding band, Black Box Revelation, who were hometown her

Haven't been able to find much spare time to sit down and write something, which is what happens when you're constantly on the go, but I figured I should at least get something down about this one (especially after I walked about five kilometers on a very muggy night to find this venue and get back to my accommodations). Better late than never, I guess... To make a long story short, the venue for this show was a lagoon-esque site in the northern end of the second-largest park in Rome where they have an annual summer festival ("Roma incontra il mondo," which I think translates to Rome vs. the