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Should be some interesting listening (hopefully present company included) over at Wilcoworld.net for a week starting tomorrow morning...

Here's the broadcast sked lifted from over there:

13 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Your incomplete Ta transaction has timed out.

Please log out and recommence the payment request..

Haha, I was waiting for the time out. Guess I'll just have to do it for free now. Thanks for your indulgence.

39 minutes ago, u2roolz said:

Yeah, I made an edit which didn’t save for some reason. Then I edited it yet again to mention that “Nothing New” is listed as Having A Hard Time on WilcoWorld.
 

The title Nothing New is claimed to have been seen from a setlist for the show on the 5th. That’s where the issue came from. I took a look over at Setlist FM to look into the new songs to see if anyone saw a setlist. 
 

I deleted it all figuring no one would ever see it. Lol! It got confusing. Guess it’s always best to check WilcoWorld over Setlist FM. 
 

edit: I guess it could be any song, actually. As far as I remember, Jeff uses a list of songs (in no particular order) to choose from during his solo shows. So maybe it is a new song that he hasn’t gotten around to playing yet. Or Setlist FM is wrong. 

Just for the record, I went with Having A Hard Time for the title of the song in question because Wilcoworld actually posted the setlist for the first Largo show on Jan. 5 before I finished my recap/setlist post here. I originally called it "It's Nothing New" as well, but changed it in deference to what Wilcoworld had. I hear that someone may have seen a song listed as "Nothing New" on a physical setlist at the show, which is almost certainly where the confusion stems from. So until Jeff clarifies it or the song is released with one title or the other, we won't know for sure.

Either way, I wouldn't completely trust Setlist.fm on anything. It's a nice resource to have, but I'm sure there are also errors on there as with any Wiki-type database that anyone can contribute to or change. Very occasionally Wilcoworld has an error, too. Nobody's perfect, but I would tend to defer to Wilcoworld on song titles unless Jeff himself clarifies it either during a show, on the Tweedy Show or on his Substack.

[Since anyone can watch this show for themselves, courtesy of the now-exhausted hand and arm muscles of one Susan Miller Tweedy, and the fact that I have an early trip to the airport to try and get home before another bad-weather phenomenon hits the West Coast (not to mention the fact that our resident Tweedy Show chronicler has already covered the basic outline of tonight's live stream), I don't feel too badly about postponing my final recap of Jeff's 2023 Largo run in favor of a little bit of shut eye. I shall put finger to keyboard in due course, either when I get home or at least have a little more time.

Consider this post temporarily parked until then, though obviously people can comment on their own if they want to...]

OK, I'm finally getting back to this. Basically because I already accepted the half 'ta' deposit from Herr Tatlock and I don't want to let him down. Nothing like writing about a show that happened more than a week ago and that anybody who's interested enough to read a recap about has almost certainly already watched for themselves. Actually, maybe that should be liberating in a weird kind of way. In any case here we go, back in time to those halcyon days of early January 2023 , for a report from the fourth and final night of Jeff's de facto-annual run of shows at Largo. Put some M 'n' Ms in your popcorn like they apparently do in L.A., pull up an Internet-enabled device and join me, won't you?

Ah, Night 4 at Largo. The night Jeff gaslit us with a banjo (or did he?) The night he tied up most, if not all, loose ends. The night that the Tweedy Youth finally joined Papa Tweedy on stage for a few numbers. The night that Jeff certainly played a bit more to the camera that he knew would be running somewhere in the Largo theater...

Let's start with this banjo business. On Night 1, Jeff had explained away a small goof during New Madrid by saying that he had gotten distracted by thinking about how he should have played the song on the banjo, which he apparently had learned how to do. He said he had forgotten the banjo in his hotel room, but teased that it might make an appearance sometime during the run. Of course Nights 2 and 3 go by and still no banjo, so not long before Jeff took the stage for Night 4, it was impossible not to notice when Jeff's guitar tech brought out a stand with a banjo on it and set it up behind where Jeff would be standing. Whereas Jeff used to play solo shows in years past with a number of guitars on stage set up on stands behind him, the banjo was the lone instance of that at Largo. Still, the entire show went by and Jeff didn't look at or even mention said banjo until he grabbed it and took it with him after finishing his first encore.

Of course, someone couldn't resist taking the bait and yelled out, "Banjo!" as Jeff returned for one final song. "Banjo?" he said, milking the moment with a wry smile on his face. "I think you're seeing things." Well played, Mr. Banjo Gaslighter, well played. There would be no banjo pickin' on this night — or any night, of this run anyway.

What we did get on Night 4 was a nice distillation of what Jeff had basically given us on Nights 1-3, which included some new songs, a couple on the gorgeous-sounding 12-string guitar he would use for a tune of two each night and a cover or two (including a somewhat surprising and delightful Kooks, in honor of David Bowie's birthday. Even though he struggled a bit with the lyrics — there are a lot of them in that song — toward the end, he managed to get through it relatively unscathed, jokingly quipping, "Nailed it," afterward. Which is kind amazing to me that he can pull out that song sort of off the cuff, but not seem to remember some of the lyrics to his own songs that he must have played hundreds more times. But I digress.)

As I mentioned, Jeff also tied up some loose ends on the final night of this year's Largo stand (with Judd Apatow once again providing comedic support, assisted by Second City improviser Ryan Asher, as he ran through jokes for his upcoming Directors Guild Of America hosting gig). Relatively early on, Jeff addressed his comments at an earlier show about his pooh-poohing of people who woo at his shows. Apparently Susie had told Jeff that by "shaming" the wooers, it kept the crowd from enjoying the show.

"She thought that I inhibited the performance, the joy that the audience can have in the room with me here," Jeff said, as people took his comments as encouragement to woo. "Now I think that maybe she was wrong and I think that you're just fucking with me and I think I was right in my assessment that the woos sometimes read as patronizing. ... Maybe we should just get them out of our system, (which led to more loud woos from the audience). That was even worse than I imagined. I guess we'll just have to live with it. Guess we're just gonna have to be tolerant. It's not something I would ever do. Keep doing it; watch how this show goes downhill really fast. I'll show you. But God forbid I ever play to an audience entirely made up of people like me — it'd be dead silent. I don't think I've ever clapped at a show. I'm having the time of my life. It doesn't occur to me to just (clap). What is this? So don't be like me, but don't woo."

The biggest loose end, of course, was the guy who attended all four shows and would, at some point, during each show make a loud request for I'll Fight. Jeff deflected the request on Night 1, suggesting that he might get to it by the final show. But each night, the same gentleman — no matter where he was seated — would make his request. And so he did again on Night 4, earnestly but firmly. Jeff wasn't surprised, pointing in the man's general direction, as if to say, "There it is."

"You know, I wasn't gonna play that song," Jeff said. "(Actually) I was gonna play it if you could restrain yourself from shouting it out for the fourth night in a row." After a little more back and forth, much to the amusement of the rest of the audience, Jeff sarcastically informed the guy, "You're gonna get your request, but I'm gonna play it with spite," and began singing the song in a sort-of-dour voice and while strumming in an exaggerated motion. Then he started to play it for real, before stopping again to tune briefly. "I just wanna get this song over with," Jeff deadpanned. "It's gonna be smooth sailing after this one."

That sequence led to another brief visit to Banter Corner when Jeff joked about performing the following day at the College Football Playoff national championship game between Georgia and Texas Christian, which was being played at SoFi Stadium the following evening. "I'm playing halftime tomorrow at the big game, so thank you for letting me do these shows to warm up," Jeff joked. "It's a big stage, but I think I've got the songs picked for that." Helpfully at that point, someone yelled out for California Stars. Which gave Jeff the perfect retort: "That one didn't even occur to me."

Of course you knew there was almost no way Jeff was walking out of Largo without playing one last California Stars. He did jokingly adopt his dour voice again briefly, showing he is fully aware of the blatant crowd-pleasing nature of that song. But he's still not able to be a complete curmudgeon and not play the song(s) that the casual (read: majority) of fans want to hear. And with the camera rolling on another episode of "The Tweedy Show," you also knew there was no way that Sammy and Spencer weren't going to make an on-stage appearance either. It was a pretty modest one, with the two just helping out on a pair of comfortable, safe numbers — Save It For Me and Evergreen — in the first encore. Despite not being especially deep cuts, though, Jeff even had a bit of a lyric struggle on the latter, muttering an exasperated "Goddammit," under his breath, before Sammy came to the rescue.

Ultimately, though, it was another fun run at Largo. I'm glad that Jeff continues to feel comfortable playing there, and that the Largo powers-that-be keep bringing him back. At this point, after a decade, it's become almost tradition. And while to a certain extent that might take some of the "specialness," for lack of a better phrase, out of these shows, that is certainly replaced by a sense of gratitude that they continue to happen and a level of enjoyment at seeing a performer in the same setting year after year continuing to evolve.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 4 at Largo (2023 edition):

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You [Bob Dylan]

Having Been Is No Way To Be

Gwendolyn

new song-The Tunnel At The End Of The Light

Family Ghost

On And On And On

I'll Fight

Normal American Kids

Radio King

In A Future Age

Kamera

Impossible Germany

Story To Tell

new song-Evicted From Your Heart

Kooks [David Bowie]

Jesus, etc.

---------------------------------------------

We've Been Had

Save It For Me (w/Sammy Tweedy on backing vocals and Spencer Tweedy on backing whistling)

Evergreen (w/Sammy and Spencer Tweedy on backing vocals)

----------------------------------------------

California Stars

That Jeff enjoys performing at Largo at the Coronet Theatre is, by now, pretty evident. Or if it's not, it should be. Now approaching 20 concerts in the intimate room over the past decade, Jeff told the audience gathered there tonight to watch him play the third of his four solo shows this week as much, noting near the end of his 90-minute set what a great time he was having before asking if anyone had any questions and amusingly bantering with people on subjects ranging from New Year's resolutions to the difference between hiking and walking to Wilco's upcoming residency in Iceland.

"This is fun," said Jeff, blaming the Q&A session on his wife Susie, who he said told him after the previous night's show that he hadn't talked enough. "Music is hard sometimes. I fucked up a lot tonight. I'm sorry about that."

It wasn't the first time Jeff would apologize over the course of the evening, though all in all, I'd say he did pretty well. He had a couple of minor hiccups during the wordy Remember The Mountain Bed; possibly sang a wrong lyric in the new song Having A Hard Time — the only song to be played all three shows so far, it seems to feature a chorus that goes "I'm fine/I'm having a good time/I'm lying/I'm having a hard time, too/It's nothing new," except that tonight Jeff sang "I'm having a hard time" twice, perhaps without realizing it; and once again couldn't or wouldn't grant someone's request for I'll Fight for the third straight night (yes, that guy asked again).

But there were more than a few highlights as well, including what I believe was the live debut of a new song called Not Saying Anything. Jeff shared the demo recording of the song on his Substack last April, but I don't think he had ever performed it in front of an audience before. Tonight it was the one song on which he used a 12-string guitar, which sounds so good in the Largo main room. Since the song features a longer-than-usual instrumental lead-in, we really got to hear that instrument shine as Jeff's fingers danced over the strings before the lyrics kicked in. Another "new" song that Jeff played for the first time on this run, though not for the first time at Largo, was Out For A Walk. Can a song really be called "new" if it debuted almost a year ago or "unreleased" if a demo version of it has been shared? I'm not sure, so feel free to categorize it as you like, but in any case, I was happy to hear it again.

Speaking of hearing songs again, it's evident that Jeff is trying not to repeat many of them during this series of Largo shows. But the shows haven't been entirely repeat free. As I mentioned, the new song Having A Hard Time has been played all three nights, and tonight Jeff also reprised Many Worlds and Laminated Cat from Night 1. Jeff mentioned that Susie "claims it's not fair that I only play the good songs the first night" and took an unscientific survey of the audience that seemed to indicate a majority of tonight's crowd was only attending one of the four shows. That led to a visit to Banter Corner in which Jeff expressed some frustration at being in a band where people say things like, 'I saw them three times, and they only changed six songs or something.' "How many songs do you know?" Jeff asked rhetorically. "Fuck you, man! We're not a jam band." He then proceeded to show off the setlists from each of the shows thus far and offered a quick, sarcastic analysis before letting the subject drop.

Perhaps that gripe about some fans' expectations shares at least a little bit in common with what Jeff's pal Nick Offerman sings about in his song "I'm Not Ron Swanson," about how he's not the same person as his beloved mustachioed character from the TV series Parks and Recreation. Tonight's unannounced comedic support act, Offerman performed that song as well as two others during his 20-minute set (and, for what it's worth, also became the second opener in three nights to mention anal sex).

Though he wasn't nearly as explicit as his friend, Jeff did have several comedic bits of his own over the course of his set. Apart from the ones I've already mentioned, he also had a funny rant early on about how audience "woo-ing" during a little guitar break in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart had nearly derailed his performance of the song the previous night. "It's a miracle I made it through the show last night," he said. "I can teach you all how to do that (break) in about four minutes, so it's really not woo-worthy." And a bit later, he shared a story about how he once played a show in Pittsburgh where the audience was so brightly lit that he could actually see someone woo-ing — he gave a demonstration of what it looked like — and remarked that "it was really disconcerting."

One other noteworthy visit to Banter Corner came when Jeff said he had been trying to play some of his happier acoustic numbers. "You'd be surprised how many festival-type things I get asked to play with these fucking (sad) songs." He related how he once had been invited to play an outdoor event celebrating the inaugural of the new president of the University of Pennsylvania — there were "tartan blankets, apple cider and me" — and introduced a song he had played at that event, Evergreen, being about his father dying.

I sometimes wonder how many solo shows Jeff has played over the course of his career when he comes off stage truly feeling like he has perfected the recipe. Probably not too many, since there always seem to be a few tweaks to be made to the proverbial stew. Did he talk enough? Too much? Repeat too many songs? Play enough songs that people know? Strike the right balance between upbeat songs and quieter, introspective ones? Did he feel well physically? Mentally? How confident did he feel playing songs from across his vast catalog? Was the audience too rowdy, or too sedate? I guess, in a way, all of those variables are what keep each show interesting — and keep some people (ahem) coming back for more. Here's to one final attempt this year to find the right combination at Largo, and though it once again might not come out of the kitchen 100 percent as planned, I already feel comfortable sending my compliments to the chef.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 3 at Largo (2023 edition):

Bombs Above>

Some Birds

new song-Out For A Walk

Sunken Treasure

Love Like A Wire [Diane Izzo]

Story To Tell

Remember The Mountain Bed

new song-Not Saying Anything

Hints

You And I

If I Ever Was A Child

Many Worlds (w/harmonica)

Evergreen

Guess Again

A Shot In The Arm

new song-Having A Hard Time

--------------------------------------------------

Let's Go Rain

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

I'm Always In Love

About halfway through the second of four sold-out shows at the venerable Largo at the Coronet Theatre — which, incidentally, is located at 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA; GPS coordinates: 34° 4' 40.548'' N, 118° 22' 34.032'' W — Jeff paid his longest visit to Banter Corner for the evening in response to an audience member's request for the song I'll Fight and a few other requests that were subsequently yelled out. At first, Jeff suggested — in a nod to the chaos that has transpired in the U.S. House of Representatives this week as it attempted to elect a new Speaker — that each person with a request should raise their hands, ask for some time, be given the floor and make a speech in defense of their request.

Then almost as quickly, he changed his mind, reconsidered his idea and decided to reclaim control of the show. "Let's face it," Jeff said, drily, "the only people who have a request loaded up and ready to go are people who have a need for a very specific song for a very specific reason and (this) is the only way to keep me from playing requests that are dogshit." He went on to try and reiterate a point that he had made the previous night, which is that during this point in a recording cycle when he has recently been in the studio working on new material, he often could not remember many of his older songs off the top of his head. "I have reached a threshold of songs that  I can remember, and it's a fucking lot. I think I have an aptitude for remembering songs," but want to be transparent about not playing certain requests or messing up some songs.

That dynamic made for an interesting show on Night 2, when nearly half the setlist (nine of 20 tunes) was comprised of either material from Wilco's most recent album, Cruel Country and new and/or unreleased songs. The upside was that apart from one of those new/unreleased songs, the wrenching Having A Hard Time, and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies that likely only came about because someone in the front row gave Jeff a 7-inch record with that song on it as a gift for his jukebox and Jeff decided to thank him by playing it again, the rest of the set featured no other repeated songs from Night 1.

Of the new/unreleased material, both the show-opening Say I Love You Again and Infinite Surprise were played more than once on The Tweedy Show and of course we heard the debut of Having A Hard Time the previous night, so the only new, new song — I'm pretty sure — was one that I'll call Evicted From Your Heart (though I'm usually terrible at guessing what actual song titles end up being). This was, to my ears, almost a power-poppish tune with a catchy chorus that featured the lyric "I'm evicted from your heart/I deserve it," and in which the narrator asks "Am I ever gonna see you again?"

Following the repeat performance of Having A Hard Time in the first encore, it wasn't immediately clear whether or not Jeff would even come back out for a second encore. After the main set, he had sort of peeked out from behind one of the stage curtains before returning to the stage and remarking, "Admit it, it would be pretty cool if I just didn't come back," before confessing, "I don't have that kind of fortitude." But a second encore was even less assured than the first. Fortunately for the audience, Jeff didn't take too long to re-emerge again and close out what had been a fairly sedate set with a couple of crowd pleasers to restore some proverbial balance to the Force. (During the show-closing I Got You (At The End Of The Century), I couldn't help but think how cool it would have been if the comedian/musician Fred Armisen, who performed an unannounced 20-minute opening set of musically inclined jokes with an electric guitar, suddenly burst through the doors at the side of the theater and started windmilling. Or something.)

Actually it was one of Armisen's bits about how guitar players were cheating by using capos, which he called a crutch, that provided a couple of other quick visits to Banter Corner by Jeff. In his first real comments of the show, five songs in, he noted how he had already "played a bunch of songs without a capo." And later, during his aforementioned lengthy chat with the audience, Jeff shared, "I told Fred I was gonna play the entire show without a capo just to fuck with his joke, but I need a crutch."

I'm no guitar player, but Jeff certainly didn't seem like he needed too much assistance on what were a couple of personal highlights of this Night 2 set. There was the unexpected and rarely played Venus Stopped The Train, a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot outtake that Jeff wrote about in detail on his Substack a few months back. After learning some of the real inspirations behind the song, which was always pretty devastating anyway, it made it even more intense to hear it played tonight. Also in that category was an almost equally rare solo performance of Everlasting Everything, which Jeff also discussed on his Substack a couple of months ago. That's another tune I don't expect to get tired of hearing anytime soon, even though it is not exactly a barn burner.

Of course, not everyone got what they wanted to hear during the just-shy-of-90-minutes duration of Jeff's set tonight. What, you might ask, ever became of the gentleman who had requested I'll Fight and kicked off what turned out to be a prolonged set of remarks by his troubadourial tormentor? Well, after an extended visit to Banter Corner by Jeff, the requester had the cojones (or was it simply determination?) to raise his voice and firmly ask for I'll Fight a second time.

An amused Jeff, after reclaiming the floor, asked if the man had been in attendance the previous night. He replied that he had been, and confirmed he had also requested I'll Fight then. Jeff continued, asking if he would be at the show the following night and the night after that. (Yes, and yes.) Finally, Jeff relented and conceded that, "I'll maybe play that song Sunday." Something tells me that the gentleman's persistence might eventually pay off. We shall see. If that doesn't keep you tuning in to these proceedings — and I know a certain A. Tatlock will surely be waiting with bated breath — then I don't know what else would.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at Largo (2023 edition):

new song-Say I Love You Again

I Know What It's Like

new song-Evicted From Your Heart

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Venus Stopped The Train

Ambulance

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

Even I Can See

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

Hearts Hard To Find

Please Be Wrong

Everlasting Everything

new song-Infinite Surprise

Falling Apart (Right Now)

-------------------------------------------

Little Lies [Fleetwood Mac]

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

new song-Having A Hard Time

-------------------------------------------

Pecan Pie

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

59 minutes ago, Brian F. said:

For the record-- and I believe this has come up before-- Largo is not in West Hollywood. It is in the city of Los Angeles. The West Hollywood/Los Angeles line snakes in such a way that everything on La Cienega from Rosewood Ave. (where Norm's is) south is in L.A.

A surveyor I am not. You win.

For as long as some of us had waited and hoped for the Jeff Tweedy and Largo universes to collide (and for that collision to produce, if not sparks, then at least a strong mutual admiration), it's important not to take what has seemingly become an annual ritual for granted. Sure, now that Jeff has been playing multi-night solo runs at the beloved West Hollywood venue for a decade, there's less speculation about the format of the shows or wonder at simply seeing him perform on a stage shared by so many musical and comedic legends.

And though there's always a danger with more than a few performances of one blending indistinctly into the next, it's a testament to both Jeff and Largo that each night still leaves room for a special blend of surprise, sincerity, snark and songcraft. Certainly tonight, on the first night of this year's four-night run, we got all of that in spades.

Following an unannounced and rather graphic opening set by comedian Margaret Cho that featured a story about anal sex and the need to clean one's, ahem, rectal opening, Jeff set the tone for his 85-minute show by walking on stage and announcing that he "would've been out sooner, but I needed to wash out my asshole." The first of many well-played comedic segues over the course of the evening. Another came five songs in when Jeff's guitar tech came out for the first time to hand Jeff a different guitar. The tech, Cash, wore a dark knit hat, dark shirt and dark jeans very reminiscent of Jeff's outfit, a fact which the latter could not let go uncommented upon. "I make everyone who works for me dress like me," Jeff quipped, making Cash come back out for a side-by-side comparison as the crowd cheered. "Some people think it's a power trip. I just think he looks nice."

As the show progressed, Jeff had minor flubs with a couple of songs and discussed them as only he can. For instance, after he seemed to stumble on a lyric in New Madrid, he paused briefly and did a few comical lunges as if he needed to stretch out more and then explained that what really happened was he had started to think mid-song about how he had been playing the song on banjo earlier — "because that's something I know how to do now" — and that he started to wonder why he wasn't playing it on banjo during the show, which is something new that people might want to see instead of seeing him play it on acoustic guitar for the five millionth time and that ultimately led to his flub. Jeff suggested that he might indeed perform the song on banjo at some point later in the run.

Of course then came, almost certainly, the musical highlights of the show — but not before a bit more amusing banter. Jeff had put on his harmonica rack, which always draws a few murmurs from the audience and often that leads Jeff to discuss how "stupid" harmonicas are, his belief that anyone in the crowd could play one and that he always feels a bit embarrassed for getting a big cheer when he blows, like, two or three notes. He said he was knocking everyone from himself to Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and someone in the audience mentioned the name of Blues Traveler frontman and harmonica player John Popper. That got Jeff onto a tangent, during which he shared how he had toured with Popper during the late 1990s on the H.O.R.D.E. Festival tour, and how he had developed "one of my steadfast axioms: If you can play Flight of the Bumblebee on any instrument, you should stop." Apparently Jeff got sick of hearing Popper play the Rimsky-Korsakov composition every night during the tour and also shared how Popper had apparently skipped him while handing out cigars to other performers as post-tour gifts. That got Jeff even further down the rabbit hole of saying cigars were bad for you anyway and, like Flight of the Bumblebee, if you smoke them, you should just stop. (He also took a similar shot at golf, haha.)

"I'm sorry, now I'm in a mood," Jeff told the audience. "I fucked up a song and now I'm taking it out on you."

But he more than made up for it, first with a lovely performance of Many Worlds augmented by the aforementioned harmonica around his neck (after a very brief back-and-forth with a front-row nerd, Jeff confirmed that it was the first time he had performed that song by himself). Then he switched to a 12-string guitar and followed up Many Worlds with another Cruel Country deep cut, Country Song Upside Down, and then the crowd-pleasing Pot Kettle Black. The latter, Jeff admitted, was "gonna be hard," but he performed it without a hitch, and I have to say that the 12-string really sounded great within the intimate Largo confines. (Jeff, of course, had to subsequently, and jokingly, chide the crowd for being so "typical" and liking the song off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and then noted how weird it is that a 20-year-old album is nominated for a Grammy for best historical recording, which made it sound like "it's a wire recording of Carl Sandburg.")

Then, once again, the show shifted gears as Jeff got into his most earnest mode and shared something that I can't remember hearing him say before, which is that he really wanted people to think of some of his newer and quieter songs as being played by himself on a piano. He admitted that he couldn't play the piano very well at all, but that was the effect he was trying to get across on a very gently played guitar. He said this by way of an introduction for a new song that I don't believe he's played before (or at least that I don't remember hearing) that apparently is called "Having A Hard Time," and whose chorus seems to hint at a continuing struggle with mental health: "I'm fine/I'm having a good time/I'm lying/I'm having a hard time, too/It's nothing new." Jeff sang it in almost a falsetto voice, and it really packs an emotional punch (which, naturally, Jeff had to joke about afterward, snapping his fingers sarcastically while saying, "That's a happy little song. I'm gonna pep it up; whistle that on your way home.")

Almost certainly I'm missing some additional visits to Banter Corner or other noteworthy moments — there was, for example, one very well-executed dig at the ongoing circus that is the U.S. House of Representatives — but hopefully I've hit the highlights. Suffice it to say there was a lot of music and chat packed into a relatively short amount of time, and if tonight is an indication of how the rest of this year's Largo run will go, then I'm excited to see what the next three nights have in store.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at Largo (2023 edition):

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

The Universe

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You [Bob Dylan]

Gwendolyn

Little Lies [Fleetwood Mac]

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Dawned On Me

New Madrid

Many Worlds (w/harmonica)

Country Song Upside Down

Pot Kettle Black

Don't Forget

You Are Not Alone

new song-Having A Hard Time

Hummingbird

I'm The Man Who Loves You

----------------------------------------------

One True Vine

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Passenger Side

Admittedly, I slacked off last month and never got around to starting a thread for or writing anything about this one-off show — if only for record-keeping purposes. Sorry about that, VC fam. It was a busy time and I just never quite got around to it. And anyway, the good folks over at Jeff Tweedy HQ eventually posted the setlist so that made it seem even less vital that I do so here. But since it's a new year and Jeff's now seemingly annual run of solo shows at Largo has begun, I felt like this show at least deserved to have a thread of its own.

Here was the complete setlist, as played:

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You [Bob Dylan]

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Via Chicago (w/harmonica)

One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

Little Lies [Fleetwood Mac]

You And I

Gwendolyn

You Are Not Alone

Don't Forget

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Normal American Kids

New Madrid

Ambulance

Dawned On Me

The Universe

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Hummingbird

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Falling Apart (Right Now)

------------------------------------------------

Passenger Side

Jesus, etc.

I'm The Man Who Loves You

4 hours ago, dasradiohead said:

11 P.M.

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You (Bob Dylan)

 

She's My Rock (Stoney Edwards)

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Give Back The Key To My Heart (Doug Sahm)

A Lifetime To Find

U.S. Blues (Grateful Dead)

Reincarnation (Roger Miller)

 

Please advise on first half of the 11 P.M. set

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for the 11 p.m. set:

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You [Bob Dylan]

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Far, Far Away

That's How I Got To Memphis [Tom T. Hall]

Forget The Flowers

It's Just That Simple

New Madrid

Story To Tell

Someday Soon

Hesitating Beauty

She's My Rock [Stoney Edwards]

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Give Back The Key To My Heart [Doug Sahm]

A Lifetime To Find

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]

Reincarnation [Roger Miller]

6 hours ago, Boss_Tweedy said:

 

I thought the crowd was pretty lively although everyone around me save for one had traveled from out of state for the shows. I was in the front though with people who all seemed very much into the performance. I'll take a little bit subdued over some of the more rowdy and even aggressive crowds I've encountered at shows here recently. At the Afghan Whigs show a week and a half ago people were being dragged out of the venue by security, and it seemed that some people were jonesing for a fight. I vacated my spot near the front at that show because it just wasn't enjoyable. Not because of the band but because of the people around me.  

Fair enough. It definitely seemed like a very respectful crowd. Sometimes too respectful doesn't make for quite as memorable a show as far as banter goes — Jeff usually does well when he has a foil or two — but I agree that a tad subdued is almost always better than overly aggro.

Once again, just doing a little housekeeping since there doesn't appear to have been a post for this show yet. Of significance, this was the first show that was cancelled on the tour Wilco was on when the pandemic shutdown hit about two and a half years earlier so it made sense to get back to Western Canada at the earliest possible opportunity.

Unfortunately I couldn't attend this one, so just cross-posting the setlist from Wilcoworld for the record:

Handshake Drugs

The Universe

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I'm Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

-------------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Don't mind me...just doing a little late housekeeping for the VC record to make sure we at least have a thread for all the shows. To be honest, I'm a little surprised no one started one for this show at what I presume is the venue formerly known as the Les Schwab Amphitheater (please correct me if I'm wrong!) since I know Scott McCaughey sat in with the band on a couple of songs.

Plus, despite not being in attendance myself, I sort of broke my own rule and picked up the poster for this show since I loved it so much as a document of the Cruel Country era (which will probably be gone before we know it)!

Anyway, here was the setlist as played, according to Wilcoworld (notations are mine):

Handshake Drugs

The Universe

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I'm Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

-----------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead] (w/Scott McCaughey on keyboards)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century) (w/Scott McCaughey on keyboards)

5 hours ago, Boss_Tweedy said:

It had been one day shot of five years since my last proper Wilco show. I last attended a non-festival performance at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis on October 5, 2017. Last night's show more than made up for the gap in time. In fact it may have been the most energetic Wilco set I've ever witnessed. And I was psyched because they're playing in my backyard (NOLA) for the first time in a while. Local favorites Quintron & Miss Pussycat opened and delivered the goods as usual. It was the first Wilco concert for the woman in front of me. She picked a good one for her first. It was an incredibly fun night, and I hope the set will be offered as a Roadcase. I was hoping they'd play "A Lifetime to Find,." They did, and the rest of the setlist wasincredible. I'm so wired from the energy coming from the band and the crowd that I'll have trouble sleeping tonight. I hope the energy registered with everyone watching from home.

 

Can't wait for tomorrow night! I hope the people immediately around me at tonight's show are near me tomorrow night because they're awesome. 

 

Per the band's website here's the setlist (which seems accurate to me):

Happy to let a local (and veteran VCer) take the lead on this one. Just chiming in to confirm that the above setlist was indeed correct, and that I'm pretty certain there weren't any changes/omissions from the printed list. A little birdie told me that there had been at least some consideration given to opening the show with Poor Places, but I guess that didn't even make it to the printed list. Perhaps tonight!

Almost certainly a healthy portion of the set will be different for Night 2 because they didn't play such Cruel Country staples as I Am My Mother, Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull or Falling Apart (Right Now), not to mention Impossible Germany and a few others that have been in fairly regular rotation on this tour. Instead, we got a number of songs that really haven't been played much — if at all — this year. Can't remember the last time I heard Far, Far Away, and it's been a while since Cry All Day, Whole Love and Born Alone as well.

I said to a couple of folks afterward that this didn't necessarily feel like a "standard" Cruel Country show, at least like the ones the band has been playing since the summer, and I felt a little sad for one of the people I was talking to who wasn't going to be able to make it for Night 2 to see things like the jam on Bird Without A Tail... or Pat's guitar work on Falling Apart. Then again, you're basically damned if you do, damned if you don't with multi-night runs, right? If you don't spread things out and change the setlists up from night to night, then people bitch and moan about the lack of variety. But if you do change it up and throw some curveballs in there, folks who can only make it for one night maybe don't get the full experience of the show you want to present at a given time.

On another note, before Wilco took the stage, a few of us — OK, mostly me — were trying to figure out the last time Wilco headlined an indoor show in New Orleans. I had the distinct memory it was at another downtown theater that was celebrating a recent renovation/reopening, but when we walked into the Civic, I knew it wasn't the same room. So after some phone research, it appears the show I was thinking of happened way back in 2015 at the more spacious Orpheum when Jeff And Co. were still supporting Star Wars by playing the entire album in its entirety to start the show. And it was only one night, not two. Could it really have been more than seven years since Wilco had headlined a show here? I guess it had. Even with the sense of lost time caused by the pandemic, it still felt like *so* long ago. Weird. That said, the cozy Civic was a very nice place to see the band. The Internet tells me that capacity is just 1,200, and the relatively low stage made the show feel even that much more intimate. Given some of the sheds I've seen the band in, you just can't take venues like this for granted.

As for Banter Corner, Jeff didn't pay too frequent a visit on Night 1. He didn't say anything at all outside of a quick thank you for the first half of the set, then pointed out someone in the front row wearing a "Wilco participant" ribbon — apparently some folks with a Grammy-related program had visited during soundcheck or something, as per the band's social media — and joked about wanting to give participation trophies to audience members. Except that Jeff said something to the effect that he wouldn't give them to people who looked like they were trying too hard but instead would find folks who were just kind of present, singling out another guy in the front wearing glasses who didn't appear to be too demonstrative.

About the most Jeff had to say all night came before Love Is Everywhere (Beware) when he talked about how it wasn't "easy to define things you love...it's easy to define things you hate," but how he and his bandmates loved "this thing so much," gesturing out to the audience and thanking those who had come out for being a part of it all. And during the breakdown of Spiders (Kidsmoke), Jeff also delivered some variation of his "don't postpone happiness" remarks that he has been giving on this tour about how he empathized with those who might not want to participate during a rock concert but that he also thought it was unlikely that people would look back on their lives and say they were glad they didn't, say, clap along at the Wilco concert.

To be honest, I didn't really look around much to see the extent to which people were or were not participating so I can't say for sure. Personally it didn't feel like the most participatory audience ever, but hopefully people warmed up toward the end of the main set and into the encore (which featured a rollicking U.S. Blues cover to close, and that is certainly one song that will define this tour after its surprise debut nearly a month ago).

I'd be interested to hear if the locals thought this was a good crowd, or a little bit subdued. At any rate, New Orleans is a special place for me as far as Wilco goes — it was the first place I ever traveled to see the band out of town, back in 2002 — and the shows here have always been memorable. So glad to finally get to see local legends Quintron and Miss Pussycat do their thing, which was a lot of fun. I'm a little surprised it's taken them so long to open for Wilco here, to be honest. However, no mention of John Stirratt's local roots, at least during the show. Obviously that's well known so maybe it no longer needs to be mentioned, but long live "John Stirot's Fan Club." #IYKYK

P.S. Can we get a little Kicking Television to close out tonight, Jeff? #Kthxbyeeeeeeee

Back on the bandwagon for the last show of this run before a little break prior to the last Wilco touring of the year, and couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise in Bozeman. Of course, the show itself was indoors at the new and intimate venue The ELM, so that didn't especially matter. But it was nonetheless a nice way to wrap up another few weeks of shows in support of Cruel Country, and one of the longer (maybe even longest?) show of the tour thus far at about 2 hours, 17 minutes.

As usual, no time to write further right now but will try to flesh out the details for the sake of Tatlock a bit later on.

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (it appears the only change from the printed list was the addition of Outtasite as the final song of the show):

Handshake Drugs

The Universe

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I'm Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (with members of Kamikaze Palm Tree on drums, electric guitar and tambourine)

--------------------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)
U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

21 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Suppose this is nothing compared with Bbop's history of queuing.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/15/the-most-british-thing-ever-huge-queue-of-royal-mourners-sparks-memes-and-gentle-humour

 

 

But who's got the "Queue Commences Here" sign? #EarlyFreaks

Wilco’s 10th time playing the venerable Red Rocks Amphitheatre (I researched that!) and it was a solid show, complete with the requisite guest turn from support act Margo Price in the encore.

Will add to this as time permits, but as Jeff has been exhorting on this tour (and for a long time, actually), “don’t postpone happiness.”

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (didn’t get a look at the printed list, so can’t say if there were any changes/omissions):

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That’s What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

Heavy Metal Drummer>
I’m The Man Who Loves You

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

—————————————————

Falling Apart (Right Now) (with Margo Price on backing vocals and shaker)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead] (with Margo Price on backing vocals and tambourine)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

3 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

I am not proficient in your memes or clip art or whatnot, but I will just say...you can hit unpause now!

Or not! Whatever floats your tenter hook...

Wilco made its long-awaited (by me, at least!) return to South Dakota tonight, four days shy of 19 years since its one and only previous show in the state and in (I think) the very same room. I look forward to another performance in the Mount Rushmore State sometime in, let's say, 2041! Come on, Jeff's hips...hold on!

All kidding aside, though, I'd say this was about as enjoyable a show as one had any reason to expect on a Monday night in a way-beyond-tertiary market. The Washington Pavilion Of Arts And Sciences — for the record, the event actually took place in the 1,800-capacity Mary W. Sommervold Hall, the centerpiece of the Husby Performing Arts Center located within the WPOAAS — was far from sold out, but those in attendance were on their feet from the start and seemed enthusiastic enough. A few folks even had some direct interactions with Jeff that ranged from amusing to cringey.

For instance, after saying next to nothing for the first half of the set, Jeff acknowledged the crowd before Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull. "Thanks for inviting us here," he said, with arms outstretched. "It's a pleasure to address the Galactic Council in person." It's a line he has used before in venues that are particularly steep-looking, almost forboding, which this room was, with its concrete balconies looming over the main floor. Anyway, it didn't take long before someone in the audience corrected Jeff that the term is actually "Galactic Federation." To which Jeff replied, with a smirk: "Nerd. ... Nerd recognizes nerd. What does that come from, one of your space movies? I don't know anything about that." That interaction seemed to open up the floor for other people to yell out, which of course led Jeff to say, "Guess we're gonna have a conversation. Let's go one by one..." And that, in turn, seemed to cause people to pipe down. "That worked out well," Jeff said.

A few songs later, Jeff gave tonight's version of the pep talk he has been delivering lately about how he understood some people not wanting to participate in a show through actions like clapping or singing along. "If I was here seeing me, I'm a little reserved in general," Jeff said. "I'm not the life of the party, you know?" But he added that recently he had been trying to open up a bit more and that folks in the audience should too, because "you're not going to go to your death bed thinking, 'Wow, I'm really glad I didn't clap along at that show in Sioux Falls.'" He added that the band came with a little spirit in the form of their music and they fed off the spirit of the audience and that exchange is "not like anything else on earth." (Sincere moments like that are usually tinged with at least some humor, though, as Jeff qualified his remarks a song or two later by joking that "people going 'Whooo' might regret that on your death bed.")

Just before Jeff and Co. started the next song, however, some guy yelled out for the band to "play some Son Volt." Why do people still do that? Is it just because Wilco hasn't played here in two decades that some of the heckles are also approximately two decades behind? I can't remember if Jeff said anything in response, though he clearly heard it. I also don't know if it was related, but I noted that just then Jeff called an audible for a bit later in the set when he spread the word to the crew and his bandmates that they would be switching from the planned Passenger Side to Box Full Of Letters. (I was standing right in front of John and Pat and I could clearly see John mouth to Pat, "Box, not Passenger.") When that slot came up, Jeff said to the crowd, "Wanna hear a song off our first record? Probably as close to Son Volt as we're gonna get."

From that point on, as the rest of the main set wound down, the band seemed to get progressively looser and/or goofier, culminating with I'm The Man Who Loves You. No, person who cares about such things, Glenn did not stand on his drum stool or engage in other shenanigans that you might enjoy, but this was an especially goofy version of the song. First, Jeff started playing slightly early, while the outro to Heavy Metal Drummer was still finishing — usually, they make that transition pretty seamlessly — and then for some reason, Pat went over to Glenn during the opening chords and the two were sort of having a little stare-off until Jeff noticed and gave them a look, like, "What's going on?" Pat simply replied with a shrug and a little smile. I'm pretty sure John and Pat also both collectively forgot to sing the first set of "ooh oohs" as they've been doing while playing the album version of the song, but then both recovered to execute the subsequent "woo hoos." Almost no one notices or cares about this part except me, I'm fairly certain.

The encore, meanwhile, was another series of moving parts. I didn't actually notice this myself, but I guess the techs initially brought out guitars for Jeff and Nels that could possibly be used for a certain song suggested by the show's official poster — which caused one fan in particular who was right up front within earshot of Jeff to comment that he liked that combination of instruments. To which Jeff replied, "It's not what you think." Haha. Anyway, the whole thing became a moot point anyway, when the techs were sent scrambling to bring out a different set of guitars for another song entirely.

And then the show came to a close with what I secretly hoped it would: the Monday>Outtasite finale. Monday on a Monday should always be a thing, no? I vote yes. Anyway, Jeff didn't utter the "son of a..." transition, but Glenn might have. It was a fun way to close out a pretty representative set for this Cruel Country run — though, ironically, it was also the exact same way the other South Dakota show concluded back in 2003 — even if it wasn't actually planned this time. Sometimes I wonder what causes Jeff to change his mind like that in the moment from what he had planned on doing earlier on. Is it just reading the crowd and/or the room, or something else? After all these years, there are still Wilco mysteries to unpack, which, I suppose, is a good thing.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (there were several changes from the printed list, including a shakeup of the encore, which was listed as The Late Greats>Falling Apart>I Got You, as well as the aforementioned swapping-in of Box Full Of Letters for Passenger Side):

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

How To Fight Loneliness

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

Box Full Of Letters

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

----------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I realize the limited audience for these little blatherings of mine, and I further realize how that audience likely diminishes the more days go by without my getting these blatherings on screen, but this show at Fargo Brewing Company deserves a proper accounting (or at least as proper as I can achieve) and I know that at least a few souls out there will probably get something out of it so, three days later, here goes nothing...

Sometimes with Wilco shows, you find yourself in some global metropolis in a legendary venue with plush velvet seats, ornate decor harkening back to a more glamorous and civilized age and many years of history and tradition behind it, and sometimes you find yourself standing in the relatively cozy fenced-in parking lot of a brewing company in North Dakota. And often, as it turns out, the performance that ends up being the more memorable — at least as far as the more experienced fan is concerned — is in one of those classically tertiary markets.

It's not as simple as that, of course, since the energy of the crowd and the mood of the band and a number of other factors such as the weather also have something to say about elevating a show above the fray. But when all or most of those factors come together in a positive way, you can end up with a really fun and memorable evening as took place in Fargo the other night.

Although the concert area outside the Fargo Brewing Company was actually quite nice as far as those kinds of setups go, you nevertheless could close your eyes and get the feeling of being out in the middle of a field in a vast expanse of open land, especially when a train rolled by very close to the stage. If you've been to the Solid Sound Festival and experienced the proximity of Joe's Field to the nearby railroad tracks, well, this was even closer. I almost couldn't believe how close the train came to the concert area, and perhaps Jeff felt the same way about being out in this expanse when he and his bandmates took the stage and began playing the plaintive opening chords of Cruel Country closing track The Plains. It was only the second time the song has been played live — Nels added a nice little solo on one of Jeff's rubber-bridge guitars — and it set a tone for the evening.

To be continued...

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (Outtasite was on the printed list as the final song of the show, but wasn’t played, which I think was the only change/omission):

The Plains

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)

Shouldn’t Be Ashamed

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I’m Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

————————————————

Falling Apart (Right Now)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

12 hours ago, Shug said:

Wilco-loving Deadheads gotta stick together! .  For us, victory and surrender are concepts that don't apply to music, not a battle, no borders or boundaries, only music that moves you or doesn't.  This was gonna happen sooner or later, ha ha ha!!!

#FuckingHippies  

Once again, I *really* could use a couple more hours of sleep but let me at least put finger to keyboard and try and get down a few thoughts before the ol' noggin starts to shut down...

Things I've learned so far on this trip to Minnesota: 1) There's a Grand Rapids here, too. Who knew? Take that, Michigan! For the record, it's a smallish, but charming city that sits on the Mississippi River about three hours drive north of Minneapolis. 2) Minnesota Vikings fans really like to yell, "Skol!" at every opportunity, but especially the day before the season opens against the Green Bay Packers. 3) There aren't nearly as many Culver's as you think in northern Minnesota. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, 4) Wilco still has the power to surprise after all these years.

Not to bury the lede further, but I can't say I had the highest of expectations for Wilco's headlining set at the second annual Grand Rapids Riverfest. Coming less than 24 hours after a pretty compelling show in Madison, Wis., it would have been easy for Jeff and his bandmates to deliver a solid, respectable festival performance and move on to the next stop. I confess to almost having my story written, at least in my head — something about consistency and the fine line a band must sometimes walk (particularly when supporting a new record) between presenting the show it wants to present night after night after night and things getting stale.

I also had gotten it into my head for some reason that the festival would be taking place at a little amphitheater on the river or something like that, so when I arrived and saw that it was actually a conventional outdoor stage setup in the parking lot between the Grand Rapids Area Library building and its front lawn, well, it was honestly a little bit of a letdown. To be fair, there was a nice little "Riverwalk" behind the library that offered some lovely glimpses of the legendary waterway. Still, it was not exactly what I had envisioned.

So the show begins and it's going along pretty much as expected. Jeff had his usual first check-in with the audience about six songs into the set, saying "What a lovely thing to get to do. Thanks for inviting us." Then he asked how many people "actually live here," and thanked them especially and "not all these carpetbaggers," before relenting and admitting that he and his bandmates love the carpetbaggers, too. During this crowd interaction, Jeff also had to take the time out to somewhat gently scold someone to his right who had apparently been a bit overserved and was "jostling" other folks in an attempt to get closer to the stage. Fairly typical festival stuff, more or less.

Other visits to Banter Corner included Jeff thanking the crowd for clapping during Hummingbird, saying that the previous night's audience needed "a pep talk to get involved in the show, but you don't." He added that if if they had participation trophies to hand out, everyone would get one..."but, you know, supply chain issues." (This was also the point when a "Skol!" chant broke out, which also happened multiple times on my flight to Minneapolis earlier in the day.) A bit later, Jeff also had another funny bit where he asked, "Do the bugs ever go to sleep? I feel like Pigpen. I've only been on the road for two days; I shouldn't have this many flies around me." He added, jokingly, that it must be "part of my persona...that guy who smells bad. Ziggy Bratwurst." You probably had to be there.

Another interesting bit that I don't remember ever hearing before came when Jeff introduced A Lifetime To Find. He said that when he was producing the forthcoming album by northern Minnesota band Trampled By Turtles he offered them the song to cut for their record, which they apparently did. But because the album has taken so long to come out, Jeff decided to also record it with Wilco and put it out on Cruel Country. He compared it to Hank Williams writing Hey, Good Lookin' for Little Jimmy Dickens back in the 1950s before cutting it himself (though Jeff was definitely self-deprecating when telling the story, not trying to compare himself with Williams).

As for the setlist, well, I thought it was a nice nod to a festival audience that Wilco decided to close their main set with some old favorites like Heavy Metal Drummer and I'm The Man Who Loves You. (And since I know there's at least one lady who's going to ask, no, Glenn didn't stand on his drum stool before and they played the album arrangement with the ooh, oohs restored and Jeff singing the second "writing this letter to you.")

I had figured we weren't going to get Kicking Television again, either, which is understandable, so the only remaining drama was how the show would conclude. I knew something unusual was up when I saw one of Wilcrew put down a cheat sheet at Jeff's station during the encore break. However, I could not have predicted that the second song of the encore would be a full-band version of the Grateful Dead's U.S. Blues. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that after learning a number of Dead songs for the Philco set(s) that Jeff and Nels performed with Dead bassist Phil Lesh a couple of weeks ago at the Sacred Rose Festival in Chicago — of which U.S. Blues was one — that one or more of them could conceivably pop up during a Wilco show. I just didn't expect it to be this one — and since it wasn't on the printed setlist, we can assume that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

So there you have it. It might not happen as often anymore, but if nothing else, this Grand Rapids festival show demonstrated that Jeff and Co. can still surprise and delight even the most seasoned onlookers/longtime fans from time to time. And even though I'm not quite ready yet to fully embrace the Dead's apparent "victory" over the generation of punks and new wavers who initially rebelled against them, well at least I'm glad that their music has provided some new frontiers for Wilco to explore.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco's set at the Grand Rapids Riverfest (as mentioned, U.S. Blues was not on the printed setlist, but otherwise, there were no changes/omissions):

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I'm Always In Love

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

----------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

Oh boy, I so don't have the time or energy to write about this one right now...but I feel as though I must contribute at least a little something about probably the best show I've seen by Wilco on its current run of tour dates in support of Cruel Country. Certainly, I think the best performance by the band I've seen stateside thus far (although, full disclosure: I have missed a few. Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually make it to every show...gasp.)

Two and a half years ago, in March 2020, Jeff and his bandmates played one of their last shows before the world shut down at Madison's The Sylvee, a newish 2,500-capacity venue that feels pretty intimate despite a wide concrete floor area, a relatively high stage and a couple of balconies. And finally, just before the 21st anniversary of another traumatic event in our nation's history, the band returned with a new record under its belt and a seemingly renewed vigor. "We're back," Jeff announced six songs into the set, in his first comments of the evening. He proceeded to inquire how many people had attended the pre-pandemic show and whether this was the first live concert back for anyone since then. I didn't see too many affirmative replies, but in any case there were numerous familiar faces in the front row who made this gig feel like a gathering of old friends.

(Apparently even those a little farther back in the crowd felt comfortable enough with Jeff and Co. to submit a song request or two via the utterly modern method of writing it out on their phones and holding them up. I didn't see this myself, but clearly Jeff saw it — it was, I was told, a request for Pot Kettle Black — and felt compelled to at least shoot down the request nicely. "We're not going to play it tonight, but thanks for knowing the names of our songs. ... We'll be back in three years to play it for you. Maybe you'll be working on your advanced degree by then.")

Outside of Chicago, Madison — and Wisconsin, in general — is almost unquestionably a Wilco stronghold. The band has played in town so many times over the years that, as with places such as Austin, Texas, or the Bay Area, it feels like it can do no wrong there. But if flattery will get you everywhere, Jeff nevertheless took time out to compliment the audience about halfway through the show by using his classic line about how he doesn't like most audiences but that this one "seems great."

Yet he also took a moment to make the point that it could be even better if everyone participated in, for example, clapping their hands over their heads like he had tried to get people to do a song earlier during Hummingbird. Jeff acknowledged that he fully understood that if everyone in the audience was like him and felt very excited on the inside but barely showed it on the outside, that it would be the worst audience ever. (He didn't say this, but I mean, he wrote a song about exactly this; see: Low Key.) So from the "do as I say, not as I do" department, Jeff nevertheless tried to encourage crowd participation by remarking that one's mindset should be that "I'm not gonna go to my deathbed thinking I didn't clap my hands over my head in Madison. I'm gonna be happy I fucking lived."

It would pay off as the main set drew to a close with a pulsating version of Spiders (Kidsmoke), which itself followed a joyous rendition of I'm Always In Love. Personally, I'm a sucker for the Krautrock arrangement of Spiders. I admit I'm always a little surprised to learn when some people apparently don't like it as much. But however you feel about it, the ending is a chance for the audience to take Jeff up on his suggestion of embracing the spirit of a rock show. I'm paraphrasing here, but he urged people to grab hold of the spirit the band had tried to bring and to not let go of it as the band gradually fell away from playing the song and everything focused on a unified clap.

As if that wasn't enough, with the show already at the 2-hour mark, the band came out for a three-song encore capped off by a frenetic Kicking Television. It's great, IMHO, that Jeff and Co. have resurrected the rarely performed A Ghost Is Born-era B-side in recent weeks, and after missing its debut in New Haven back in late August, I was psyched that it was back on the setlist for at least one more night.

There were plenty of other highlights, so I'm sure I'll miss something, but one other quick visit to Banter Corner worth noting came before Hearts Hard To Find, when Jeff clarified that the first line of the song — "I don't mind, when certain people die," — had "nothing to do with current events." And for as often as I've thought to myself, "Do they really have to play Impossible Germany every single night?" sometimes it comes together and can still take your breath away. Sure, there's nits to pick such as the arrangement on California Stars — whither banjitar? — but I'd say in general the band seems to really be settling into the Cruel Country material and integrating it with older tunes.

Would it be nice to see a little more variety in the sets, even as far as songs from CC or some twangier older songs (Someday Soon, anyone)? Sure, but as long as you get an outing like we did tonight, Wilco could probably play just about anything and people would walk away happy — and maybe even a little pleasantly sweaty.

Here was the complete setlist as played (there were no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

At Least That's What You Said

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hearts Hard To Find

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I'm Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

-----------------------------------------------

Falling Apart (Right Now)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Kicking Television

26 minutes ago, TweedyShowFan said:

Kicking Television was an amazing treat - apparently not played since 2014? I had never seen it that's for sure. It also was a great punk payoff for a Banter earlier in the evening when Jeff said something like "Playing all mid-tempo numbers at an outdoor show - that IS punk rock, Bitch!" Nels was literally pogoing during KT. 

But the all-important question…were you pogoing? 

Well, after a year's worth of anticipation and some last-minute hiccups, the idea of a large-scale music festival on an island off the coast of Massachusetts featuring some of today's most beloved indie and Americana performers, finally became a reality this weekend with the three-day Beach Roach Weekend event on Martha's Vineyard. Following headlining sets by the Avett Brothers on Friday and Beck on Saturday, it was Wilco's turn to put a bow on a Sunday schedule that also featured performances by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Caamp and Emmylou Harris.

And while Wilco's scheduled 90-minute time slot meant that there would be a few songs necessarily cut from the band's typical Cruel Country tour set, that didn't mean that Jeff and Co. didn't make use of every minute they had to play — and then some.

Despite the VIP setup at the festival ensuring that only those who purchased the "Beach Club" level tickets would be in the area closest to the stage — in my experience, most VIP situations split the stage so that a portion of the area in front consists of "regular" general admission ticketholders and then another part is the VIP section — at least the sightlines and sound quality if you got close enough to the "outer rail" (that is, the area behind the "Beach Club" pit) were pretty good. It seemed like there were plenty of folks who would call themselves Wilco fans in attendance and, in general, it seemed like a decent audience, although obviously it was a festival so you had different levels of fandom as far as interest and enthusiasm.

As for the band, it came on a couple of minutes early and stretched its set about as far as time would allow by starting Spiders (Kidsmoke) just before the scheduled end time at 8 p.m. and playing until about 8:08. So we ended up getting about 10 extra minutes, by my count. And we also got a little bonus collaboration when the band invited "old friend" Jason Isbell out to join on electric guitar on California Stars, which is always a fun treat to see him doing a little guitar dueling with Nels.

From a Banter Corner perspective, there were a couple of bits worth noting. Before going into If I Ever Was A Child, Jeff remarked, "I like to sing this song to myself, so you don't have to listen if you don't feel like it." I'm not sure if that was meant to try and get a chatty festival crowd to pipe down a bit, or just steeling the audience in general for a quieter tune. And a bit later, after a loud request for Cruel Country deep cut Darkness Is Cheap, Jeff replied, "We're not gonna play that one tonight, but thanks for knowing the name of one of our songs, sir. That makes us proud. Here's another song you may know the name of (Jesus, etc.). It's been a long tour. I'm talking slow. We...will...play...the...song...now." Maybe you had to be there for that one, but it was pretty funny.

Otherwise, pretty much the only other noteworthy chat from Jeff came during the clapping section of Spiders, as he tried to get as many people as possible to participate. "This is something everyone can do," Jeff urged, adding that it was pretty dumb but that it was part of the rock 'n' roll spirit (or something to that effect).

Of interest to perhaps no one, I noticed that Jeff and John sang different words on the first pass through the hook on Story To Tell, when it goes "The world is always on the brink/Love is dumber than you think...," and one of them sang "Singing songs of death and doom" and the other sang "Writing songs..." which of course comes during the next pass. I'm not sure who sang the wrong word, though I think it might have been Jeff because I saw him go over to John afterward and give what looked like a "My bad."

Otherwise, though, this one was a pretty good distillation of what the band has been up to the past couple of weeks as it presents Cruel Country nightly for the first time on this side of the Atlantic. I would expect something similar for the ensuing run of shows next month after a short break, and hopefully Jeff and Co. will keep adding in some other CC material into the setlists, as well as also continuing to incorporate some old favorites/deep cuts. Kicking Television, ahem, would be welcome again in September/October...just saying. As would a number of other chestnuts, and I'm not just saying that because I've heard California Stars — by some accounts — 3,000 times and KT probably only, like, 30...

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco's set at Beach Road Weekend 2022 (didn't get a look at a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any omissions/additions):

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

California Stars (w/Jason Isbell on electric guitar)

Box Full Of Letters

Falling Apart (Right Now)

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)