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I think they're still getting over Bowie...

Thanks a lot! Great to get to hang out with you guys for a bit! And thanks to all for the kind words about (and for reading) my blatherings.

Well, I was going to start a new thread for the show itself — with the preferred title style — but I'm too lazy at this point so here goes... An interesting show tonight in that I couldn't tell if Jeff was annoyed with, pleased by or bemused at the crowd at the State. Probably a little of all three. Just before the end of the show, he came up with a perfect summary of the show when he told the audience, "I have to say, what you lack in attentiveness you've made up for in spirit." He added half-jokingly, probably referring to the very loud screaming lady from either the balcony or the back

Is that a Devil's Device in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? FYI, I've attempted to supplement my report with some additional details. Not my best, but I try. Thanks for reading, as always, sir!

Don't have time to put together a decent recap right now, so hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts soon enough. Personally I felt a little like tonight's show was more akin to a recital than a rock concert. But maybe that's how shows at the Flynn are, or it's that classic New England stoicism coming through. Whatever the case, people around me seemed to largely embrace their seats and have more of an observational — as opposed to participatory — mentality. (I was later told that most of the audience stood for a good part of the show, but that definitely didn't seem to be the cas

Wow, we missed that announcement. Given that, it's remarkable they allowed as much standing as they did! I stood until I got "shouted" (more like politely asked) down, but it definitely felt more like a recital than a rock concert at times.

Closed on Mondays. I went to the Attic in Millvale instead! Yinz know.

Showtime for Pittsburgh was listed as 7:30 and William Tyler went on right then. Wilco went on right at 8:30. Tonight is listed as an 8 p.m. show., so I'd expect the set times to move accordingly.

Actually, they played consecutive nights at Stubb's in Austin to close out 2015's touring calendar. And I'm afraid they played SW both nights there. You can't really blame them since that's what they're promoting and the vast majority of people at any given show haven't already seen multiple gigs like we have...

It's always a mixed blessing to attend the first show of a year (or first after a decent-length break) with a band like Wilco. On the one hand, you have the excitement that goes along with the start of a series of shows and the first crack at seeing what, if anything, will be different in terms of production, song selection, etc. On the other, you know that a working band like this will only continue getting better the more time they have to play together and rehearse and get into the proverbial groove. Such was the case for tonight's 2016 opener. It probably didn't help in terms of crowd en

That's because the chorus is all anyone knows of that song(!), but you already knew that... Thanks for the Bowie update(s). Too bad about the AD. Rhett is a huge Bowie fan — you should read his recent piece for salon.com if you haven't already — so I'm glad that he nailed Life On Mars. Sounds like it was quite the weekend down there. I'm sorry to have missed it.

Excellent! Figures they would blow it out a little bit to close things out, and that's cool that the dumbasses/chatterers/etc., were mostly gone by the end. I must say, also, kudos for the super detailed reportage. It can be tough to keep up with all the details in sets like that, so well done. You can take over for me anytime... So what are we going to call this group? The Minus Tweedy Zeppelin Defense? (Incidentally, did the Autumn D guys do anything out of the ordinary this weekend? Any Bowie tributes?)

Nice! Looks like a cool little set, and especially with everyone joining in. Too bad about the crowd, though. Ugh. Glad you enjoyed in spite of that, and gracias for the report! Haven't heard of Cry All Day before, so I would have to assume that's another new one...though I guess it didn't get played.

I don't have my setlist from Second City in front of me — hey, I'm in Thailand at the moment — but I'm pretty sure he played a new song there that he said was called Normal American Kids [edit: he must've mentioned NAK somewhere, but the song he played at Second City wasn't it]. So judging by the reports thus far, I'd say it's pretty safe to say that's what the mystery song is. He also played the Jose Feliciano cover he did for Fargo at Second City, so maybe that will get played at some point — especially if he has two more sets. Thanks for the setlist reporting in my absence! And enjoy th

Glad you got it sorted out. Also, no one's mentioned this yet that I can see but it seems that Wilco will be doing a half-hour acoustic set in Charleston, WV, as headliners on Mountain Stage on Feb. 14. Also on the bill, among other acts, is Gary Louris' new project Au Pair. It seems that tickets went on sale today, but are already sold out. http://wvpublic.org/post/wilco-appear-mountain-stage-valentines-day

FYI, whoever's keeping track of this, the latest edition of the Live on WXRT charity comp — Volume 17, I think — came out today (at Chicago area Targets) and the first track is a live performance of Box Full Of Letters from the Riv Winterlude shows on 12/6/14.

Probably Crowdsurge?

Lol, Wolf Of Wall Street. I just hope that it's not some rich d-bag and/or some sort of corporate gig because either would be terrible for Jeff. At least they built in some "protection" for themselves (by requiring travel and accommodations for Jeff and two guests). Not enough, probably.

Well, they agreed to do three shows at the Second City live event the other week. So a total of four. Crazy how much the online one went for, though! I figured it would hit the stratosphere once they opened it up online, but this even exceeds my expectations. There are some people with crazy dough out there. Great for the organizers and the charity, though. They might end up raising more than a quarter of a million, just this year. Amazing how far it's come!

I guess we don't find out (at least not on the Charitybuzz page) how much the show finally went for. Once it closes, it seems, the amount disappears. I saw that it was up to $43,500 with about five minutes left, though. Wonder if it got up to $50,000, but in any case, the four shows they agreed to do next year will wind up raising well over $125,000(!). It's amazing how much these shows pull in, year after year, and amazingly generous of the Tweedys to keep doing them. They are the best.

Yeah, made the clarification. Thanks! Just as a point of discussion, I found it interesting that you said you enjoyed this setlist much more than the annual Vic shows. Just because you're probably someone who's seen a fair number of solo shows at this point, so I'd think you'd want to hear Jeff play songs that he almost never does (and which typically only happens at the Vic shows). I don't know. I guess I just don't really feel like songs like The Ruling Class or Pecan Pie are really "deeper cuts" at this point, certainly not to someone who's more than a casual fan. Those, to me, are just

Thanks for the clarifications. I wasn't sure whether the guy who played with Dowd was the same as the New Riders guy, but when I looked up the name, there it was. Would have been a weird coincidence, but I've seen weirder. Anyway. As far as right vs. ripe, I take your word for it. I heard the former, obviously, but I think the sentiment was similar. Too bad we live in an age of camera phones, lack of etiquette and the like because I think it does preclude hearing new material and/or songs in development the way we used to.

Glad to be in the plus column, haha. Nice to see you as well! Poor guy to drive up all that way with the winter weather rolling in only to have to endure a lot of that nonsense. FYI, I added some more details to my initial post above so thanks for helping recount some of those (and definitely capturing better than me the feeling of Jeff being genuinely uncomfortable up there when that lady had snuck on stage during the encore break). I realized I didn't really offer anything from Banter Corner, though there were just too many little moments —especially involving the weird crowd interaction

The only good thing about that "Residual Kids" guy was that he unwittingly led Jeff to reveal the title of a new song that he's been working on: Normal American Kids. Despite a few audience shouts for him to play it, Jeff said he wasn't going to because it wasn't right for the situation. And yeah, I felt pretty badly for Gerald Dowd (who is a very respected musician locally, drumming for Robbie Fulks, Justin Roberts and many others, and putting out a well-regarded solo record last year). The din of crowd chatter during his set, which he performed with guitarist Dave Nelson (who I had no idea

Take some relatively affluent suburbanites, give them a healthy amount of booze and put them in a venue that's too accessible but doesn't have very good security and that's maybe what we should've expected out of tonight's benefit show for the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. Still, even I was little taken aback by just how embarrassingly bad a lot of the crowd was. Aside from the stage jumper (sidler?) who tried — and failed — to negotiate Jeff leading an audience singalong of Happy Birthday to her husband in exchange for making a donation to the charity, there was the drunk woman in the