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Wilco -- 3/30/10, North Bethesda, MD


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Wow, a total of 37 songs tonight. Didn't think we'd get that much at a seated theater show, but the band definitely gave the crowd its money's worth.

 

Can't say it was the best crowd ever, and definitely a different vibe than the Richmond show last night. The Jesus singalong didn't go so great and Jeff apologized later in the show for (jokingly) implying earlier that many of the Strathmore attendees were old and a bunch of irrational, right-wing fanatics. But it was more fun than I expected and always a treat to hear Laminated Cat (er, Not For The Season) and a couple of Summerteeth rarities. And they finally did the Poor Places>Reservations>Spiders acoustic segue that I've been expecting at some point.

 

Anyway, here was the complete setlist, as played:

 

—"The Price Is Right" theme music intro—

Wilco (the song)

Bull Black Nova

You Are My Face

IATTBYH>

One Wing

A Shot in the Arm

At Least That's What You Said

Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)

Deeper Down

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

Poor Places>

Reservations>

----into acoustic set----

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

When The Roses Bloom Again

Forget The Flowers

California Stars

You and I

Kamera

Someday, Some Morning, Sometime

Laminated Cat

When You Wake Up Feeling Old

Passenger Side

----out of acoustic set----

Airline To Heaven

Ashes of American Flags

Jesus, etc. (crowd singalong)

You Never Know

Handshake Drugs

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

Hate It Here

Walken

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Thank You Friends [big Star]

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

Box Full of Letters

Hoodoo Voodoo

I'm A Wheel

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Wow, a total of 37 songs tonight. Didn't think we'd get that much at a seated theater show, but the band definitely gave the crowd its money's worth.

 

Can't say it was the best crowd ever, and definitely a different vibe than the Richmond show last night. The Jesus singalong didn't go so great and Jeff apologized later in the show for (jokingly) implying earlier that many of the Strathmore attendees were old and a bunch of irrational, right-wing fanatics. But it was more fun than I expected and always a treat to hear Laminated Cat (er, Not For The Season) and a couple of Summerteeth rarities. And they finally did the Poor Places>Reservations>Spiders acoustic segue that I've been expecting at some point.

 

 

Weird! As soon as I got to this portion of your review this woman being interviewed by Letterman said the same exact words "at some point".

Don't you love when that happens? It happens to me a lot.

 

Anyways, another awesome setlist. One week from tonight :dancing

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Wow, a total of 37 songs tonight. Didn't think we'd get that much at a seated theater show, but the band definitely gave the crowd its money's worth.

 

Terrific show. An early highlight was watching the Secret Service escort Rahm Emanuel in the side entrance and back to his seats several rows behind mine. Frickin' sweet.

 

I hadn't heard their cover of Thank You Friends before--they really nailed it. The vocals from John and Pat, the guitar sounds, it was awesome. These guys have a future as a Big Star tribute act if the whole Wilco thing doesn't work out.

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Great show, a little slow at times but really picked up. Transition into and out of the acoustic set is way cool, seamless (and not always utilizing the same intro/outro songs bookending the switcheroo). Terrific encore -- Box Full of Letters (requested by fans! they heard us!), Hoodoo Voodoo (face-melting guitar licks traded by Nels and Pat) and I'm a Wheel. 3 hours for two nights in a row (for them and me - whew!). Airline was awesome, too, as were many, many songs. Very good sound mix (Richmond last night was just too loud), could hear all three guitarists but, as often, Nels needed more V! Pat was very sharp on guitar tonight, but his hair is getting way too creepy middle-aged faux glam guy. Nels' solo on Impossible Germany was probably the best I've heard in four shows, I think longer than usual, very silky yet sinuous and jazzy. Three Woody/Mermaid Ave. songs tonight! - CA stars, Airline 2 Heaven, Hoodoo Voodoo.

 

Have to say although they all rocked, the setlist starting with Jesus (not a bad singalong, Richmond may have been better last night, well yes, it was) up until Thank You Friends, which honky-tonked even more than last night, felt kinda obligatory, "we have to get in Hate it Here, ITMWLY, Walken, HMD etc. in real quick b4 someone complains" kinma thing, though again they did all rock.

 

Tweedy wasn't very cranky at all tonight, actually very charming and funny 2nite. Strathmore is almost too nice, Tweedy was afraid they might break it.

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37?! THIRTY-SEVEN?!

 

I suspect there may have been 36 songs on the printed setlist, but we can "thank" a guy in the first row of the first balcony for yelling out for Box Full of Letters all night. Jeff poked some fun at him during the show, but the band finally appeased him in the first song of the encore. And perhaps there was your 37th tune. :pirate

 

Three Woody/Mermaid Ave. songs tonight! - CA stars, Airline 2 Heaven, Hoodoo Voodoo.

 

Four, actually. Don't forget Someday, Some Morning, Sometime. Just the second full-band performance ever!

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I suspect there may have been 36 songs on the printed setlist, but we can "thank" a guy in the first row of the first balcony for yelling out for Box Full of Letters all night. Jeff poked some fun at him during the show, but the band finally appeased him in the first song of the encore. And perhaps there was your 37th tune. :pirate

 

 

 

Four, actually. Don't forget Someday, Some Morning, Sometime. Just the second full-band performance ever!

 

Ah yes, good call, thank you, friend!

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Yeah, really enjoyed sitting for 3 hours. I guess it's unacceptable to stand and dance at a rock concert. Thankfully I am a nice guy and fell into the "democracy of seated concerts" in the grand tier. seriously, people learn how to let loose.

 

Aside from that, acoustic set was the highlight for me. Strathmore has a lot of empty space and isn't the right place for Wilco. Hope they never play there again - Warner Theater would have been much better. Sound was great though.

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Yeah, really enjoyed sitting for 3 hours. I guess it's unacceptable to stand and dance at a rock concert. Thankfully I am a nice guy and fell into the "democracy of seated concerts" in the grand tier. seriously, people learn how to let loose.

 

Aside from that, acoustic set was the highlight for me. Strathmore has a lot of empty space and isn't the right place for Wilco. Hope they never play there again - Warner Theater would have been much better. Sound was great though.

 

Yeah, hard to say with Strathmore. Saw Derek Trucks Band there (had awesome seats on the little mini-balcony right close to the stage) and it was fantastic, but liked them a lot more at the 9:30 Club (standing show of course).

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Dude, Box Full of Letters! I was one of the requesters of that (I was not as repetitive as the other guy, though, it was his effort, not mine) I wanted Box of Rain next (when will they think of that? people would fucking die if they played that! especially after BFL).

 

Totally! And then maybe after that they could play Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer," and then the Box Tops' "The Letter." Duuuuuuuuuude, that'd be awesome! :rock :lol :stunned :shifty

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Yeah, really enjoyed sitting for 3 hours. I guess it's unacceptable to stand and dance at a rock concert. Thankfully I am a nice guy and fell into the "democracy of seated concerts" in the grand tier. seriously, people learn how to let loose.

 

Aside from that, acoustic set was the highlight for me. Strathmore has a lot of empty space and isn't the right place for Wilco. Hope they never play there again - Warner Theater would have been much better. Sound was great though.

 

Were you guys sitting next to me in the front row, center of the grand tier? If so, that lady could've had a little more tact asking you guys to sit...I probably should have stood up to show solidarity, but alas I also succumbed to the majority of the front row sitting...

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This was the sixth and best show acoustically I've been to. The Strathmore is a beautiful venue, but I'd rather see them again at the Vic.

 

The acoustic set in the middle was boss...the transitions were seamless and it almost seemed like wilco opened for wilco who, in turn, opened for wilco...You cannot go wrong with essentially three sets with a three song encore of wilco!

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This was the sixth and best show acoustically I've been to. The Strathmore is a beautiful venue, but I'd rather see them again at the Vic.

 

The acoustic set in the middle was boss...the transitions were seamless and it almost seemed like wilco opened for wilco who, in turn, opened for wilco...You cannot go wrong with essentially three sets with a three song encore of wilco!

good description, and it was a sublime show overall.

 

Thank you, friend!

any time!

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Dude, Box Full of Letters! I was one of the requesters of that (I was not as repetitive as the other guy, though, it was his effort, not mine) I wanted Box of Rain next (when will they think of that? people would fucking die if they played that! especially after BFL).

 

 

because it is always good to reward bad behavior. they flew through hoodoo voodoo and i'm a wheel to make up for the appeasement.

 

it was a very refreshing show...having been to my fair share, it was pretty awesome to see the band change it up. acoustic spiders, rare songs in the mix, the (albeit weak) Jesus, etc. I was quite happy and content with the show. From my section, the crowd was fantastic, into it, and a lot of fun...except for the constant box full of letters request and the overzealous girl two rows behind me that would either yell "Tweedy" or some other random word that made absolutely no sense (i swear she was at the Ryman show several years back, one rarely forgets that pitch of 'Tweedy' being belted out all night). ah, if she'd only been busted a bit harder for trying to take pictures :stunned . all in all, great show, ear plugs were a good call, sound was awesome, venue was beautiful, and the band was great.

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Weird! As soon as I got to this portion of your review this woman being interviewed by Letterman said the same exact words "at some point".

Don't you love when that happens? It happens to me a lot.

"Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness."

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because it is always good to reward bad behavior. they flew through hoodoo voodoo and i'm a wheel to make up for the appeasement.

 

Jeff has an ambiguous relationship with the requesters. He's clearly annoyed by them sometimes, amused other times, and rarely plays what the annoying screamers have been screaming for. But every now and then, he plays what they are asking for, and it's enough to ensure more yelling at the next show.

 

Even their robot intro, which handles the thorny photography issue with tough-love humor, basically encourages people to yell out song titles between songs. Presumably they're resigned to the fact that people will yell song titles, so they jokingly refer to the practice in the intro ("you can make a request, but there's no guarantee we'll play it.")

 

Personally, I think yelling during the encore is fine--the band's playing sort of sloppy (in a good way), they're changing things up on the fly, etc. But during the main set, which is so carefully scripted with all the guitar changes, etc., there's no way they're going to launch into "Candyfloss" just because you yell it.

 

But I digress....

 

 

I hope someone recorded last night's show. The sound was mostly terrific, but I was down front on the far left (Nels) side, so I could barely hear keyboards or Pat's guitar for much of the night. It's a tradeoff--I didn't get a great sound mix, but I got a great view of Nels all night. Between the electronic noisemakers, the double-necked guitar, the acoustic fingerpicking, and everything else, that guy puts on one hell of a show all by himself.

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Can't say it was the best crowd ever

 

Unfortunately, this has been my experience with DC/Baltimore audiences. I don't know what it is, but the vibe is always very subdued compared to seeing the band (or any band, really) in other places.

 

In general, I'm hearing such great things about this tour. Can't wait for The Wellmont shows this weekend! Thanks to all for the setlists and reviews.

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