Wilco -- 11/11/09, Zurich, Switzerland

[bböp]

Nice to be back on board...

 

No support act. Jeff didn't say all that much, except to note that they had played this venue like five years ago and no one had been at that gig (and also that Portugal had won some sort of big football match today, so maybe that kept all the Swiss home--the show was not a sellout). He also mispronounced the German word for some sort of festival (carnival?) that started today. He also said that the Swiss had sung much better than the Germans on Jesus, etc., and tried to convince people yelling out for "Freebird" that Lynyrd Skynyrd didn't really exist in Switzerland. Otherwise, the show was pretty much focused on the music -- and that was fine by me.

 

Of note, they changed up the start of the second encore a fair bit from the printed setlist, which had Misunderstood, Far, Far Away and Theologians as the first three songs. And I'm a tiny bit surprised there was no Kingpin (to take advantage of the inevitable "livin' in Switzerland"). Oh well.

 

Also, Volkshaus is a pretty nice place to see a show -- the kind of place Wilco doesn't play in the US much anymore. Smallish room (standing floor, seated balcony), no barricade at the stage.

 

Here was the set, as played:

 

Ashes of American Flags>

Bull Black Nova

You Are My Face

IATTBYH>

One Wing

A Shot in the Arm

At Least That's What You Said

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Country Disappeared

Handshake Drugs

War on War

Jesus, etc.

I'll Fight

Hate It Here

Walken

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Via Chicago

Poor Places>

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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

The Late Greats

Heavy Metal Drummer

Monday>

Hoodoo Voodoo

I'm A Wheel

[barnyard pimp]

I can dig them rotating 'Deeper Down' and 'Country Disappeared' but what happened to 'You Never Know'? Not to mention 'Wilco' the song...

[Maddie Hope]

Ashes of American Flags

Either Way

[CaptainTrips]

I can dig them rotating 'Deeper Down' and 'Country Disappeared' but what happened to 'You Never Know'? Not to mention 'Wilco' the song...

 

I think they may have overplayed them in the US tours :\ I'm liking these European Tour setlists and can't wait for the webcast on Monday

[LouisvilleGreg]

Now Paul glad to see you're back to seeing little ol' Wilco shows again, but you know that there's another show I'd rather hear about.

[H.Stone]

I'm anxious to hear both Country Disappeared and Either Way again. What a nice little stretch there.

 

What time did they finish? We had a little dance party after dinner tonight, and my pick was "I'm A Wheel." Perhaps there was synchronicity? (I'm going to go ahead and assume "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and Iffy's "Double Dutch" were not part of your evening, though.)

[Preferred B]

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun"

Rob's pick?

 

I hadn't even noticed Either Way on that list. Very nice!

[H.Stone]

Rob's pick?

 

Oh, it would have been had he been home. Girls' night.

[Edie]

Ashes, War on War and encore 1 of Via, PP and Spiders... nice list!

[IRememberDBoon]

Man I would pay 2000 to go to shows like this in small rooms. I was gonna try and go to the Italy and Holland shows but work made it impossible. I swear next time.

[bböp]

Now Paul glad to see you're back to seeing little ol' Wilco shows again, but you know that there's another show I'd rather hear about.

 

Sorry 'bout that, Greg. Internet access is kinda spotty over here (unless you want to constantly pay), so I haven't been able to chime in with much...

 

Here's a stream-of-consciousness bit for you for now: I think the Backstreets recap is pretty solid, as always. Honestly, I do wonder if that might be only time we ever get the record start to finish because it's so long. We were sitting behind the stage and it was kind of cool to see Max wail away and some of the backline (Tallent, Bittan, etc.) that you sometimes miss from the front. To me, it was a little tough to sustain the energy for the full record. I just think the crowd sort of got restless at points, which is a shame but the pacing of it is definitely not the way you'd pace a concert, let's put it that way. You get a ton of high-energy stuff at the start and then the darker, more ponderous stuff toward the end. I like both, but I will say that stuff like "I'm A Rocker" and "Crush on You" got the joint jumping. And the end of the show was great, too, especially with 7 Nights To Rock. That was unexpected, at least for me. Not sure if it's been mentioned somewhere already, but they never actually left the stage for about 3 hours, just kept cranking the tunes out. It was a pretty memorable night.

[bböp]

Back to the Wilcos...I also forgot to mention, for the nerds out there, that Glenn was sporting a Swiss wristband (red with a white cross).

[oecourt]

great to meet you again, Paul.

and what a fine show that was, Jeff was definitely

focussed on playing well. a no-nonsense show !

two things -

first, for "Fastnacht", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival#Europe

second, the 'soccer' match was when they LAST played Zurich, 2004-06-30

for the nerds, that was the semi-finale of the Euro 2004 in Portugal,

Portugal - Netherlands 2:1

[badger]

A few random points I noted:

 

After the "Jesus etc" singalong, someone threw a cigarette onto the stage, to which Jeff commented "How poetic!"

 

A couple of people near where I was standing, held up lighters during the first part of "Poor Places". Jeff gave them the kind of seriously unimpressed/withering look that only he can.

 

"Hate it Here" and "Walken", two songs I'm not overly fond of, were both incredibly tight and really rocked.

 

The audience clapping during the "Spiders" breakdown was totally metronomic - hey, this was Switzerland!

 

On the way out, I paid my compliments to Stan on a typically excellent sound job, which he modestly acknowledged. What a nice chap.

[oecourt]

A few random points I noted:

 

The audience clapping during the "Spiders" breakdown was totally metronomic - hey, this was Switzerland!

 

On the way out, I paid my compliments to Stan on a typically excellent sound job, which he modestly acknowledged. What a nice chap.

 

 

Ah, I think I saw you with Stan while I packed up my gear. I did the same afterwards, with same results

and Spiders, yea, that clapping actually was in double-time.

And coming back to what Paul wrote in his first posting to this show, I think the reason for NOT playing Kingpin was

that Jeff probably thinks that "Let the Audience sing Jesus, Etc.", "Let the Audience clap the break in Spiders" AND "Make

the Audience scream in Kingpin" ist just too much of a good thing. Honestly, I think one of these three per night would be enough.

[badger]

that clapping actually was in double-time.

 

Having been at shows where it broke down, albeit quite amusingly, it was great for it to go on so perfectly in time, and for so long!

[11i]

45minutes already on stage and then coming along with a "hello" is a bit strange but ok.

they were fully concentrated, so that's what i expect from an act which i'm paying for.

can somebody tell me how big the venues in states for wilco are?

the volkshaus,zurich takes about 1'500 people.

 

here's my handy pic

 

[11i]

and this is what wilco has seen at the soundcheck.

 

[remphish1]

In the NYC area Wilco plays venues usually from 5,000-15,000 people..this summer they played at Keyspan Field which is 15,000 I think.

[11i]

In the NYC area Wilco plays venues usually from 5,000-15,000 people..this summer they played at Keyspan Field which is 15,000 I think.

 

pretty big, wilco isn't known that much here, rather insider act.

like ryan adams as well.

neil young which i have seen recently here was playing in a 10'000 people closed stadium.

 

didn't know that wilco fills such big stadiums, nice.

[suites]

pretty big, wilco isn't known that much here, rather insider act.

like ryan adams as well.

neil young which i have seen recently here was playing in a 10'000 people closed stadium.

 

didn't know that wilco fills such big stadiums, nice.

 

 

Only in big cities.

 

Most places they play much smaller venues

 

Except South Florida where they never come.

 

SUITES

[H.Stone]

can somebody tell me how big the venues in states for wilco are?

the volkshaus,zurich takes about 1'500 people.

Their summer tour included a lot of larger venues (amateur ball parks), but generally I'd say the venues they play are closer to 2000 or 2500 with places like NY and Chicago being regular exceptions.