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Wilco — 2/8/12, Portland, OR (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall)


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Wow, what an encore! And that was even with the first two songs on the printed setlist (Candyfloss and Monday) unfortunately chopped, most likely for time reasons. By my watch, the band came on about 9:01 p.m. and were off by 10:58 so it seems like 11 was the, er, not-so-magic number at the Schnitz...

 

They packed a lot into the time they had, though, even if a portion of the crowd was sit-downey at points or didn't recognize some of the more obscure numbers. After Just A Kid, which was dedicated to a kid toward the front whom Jeff pointed out, Jeff cracked, "We're running a bit short on time, so we're going to play some more songs you don't know." Haha! Take that, audience! :lol

 

The encore was just such an out-of-left-field way to close the show. You almost never get to hear Outtasite played from a dead stop, and it's odd to hear them just launch into it. And then to get both Just A Kid and Kicking TV back to back — Jeff had a slight flub on the latter, accidentally flipping 'Stop shopping, even' and 'Stop buying things' in the second verse, but no one seemed to mind — was pretty unexpected. The contrast between arguably the band's punkiest song to one of its most delicate was a great way to end, IMHO. :thumbup

 

The complete setlist, as played:

 

One Sunday Morning>

Poor Places>

Art Of Almost

I Might

Via Chicago

Bull Black Nova

I'll Fight

Handshake Drugs

Born Alone (started and restarted)

Impossible Germany

Black Moon

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Whole Love

Can't Stand It

War On War

Box Full Of Letters

Dawned On Me

A Shot in the Arm

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

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

Just A Kid

Kicking Television

The Lonely 1

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I should add that the rest of the show was fun as well... :yes

 

One the most amusing parts for me came when the band started to play Born Alone only to very quickly realize that something was not right. I'm far from a guitar expert, but I assume that the guitar Jeff was handed for that song was in the wrong tuning because he stopped playing and then had to hand it over to his guitar tech for either a quick re-tune or another guitar in the right tuning (I didn't see which). But in the interim, Jeff sort of had to do some ad-libbing at the mike and that's always kind of awkward. This time the rest of the band got into the act as well, improvising a little 10- or 15-second bossa nova-style background music. You probably had to be there, but it was funny to these ears. :lol

 

And then there was the standing-sitting issue, which wasn't the source of friction that it can be at some theater shows when people are yelling at other people to sit down and whatnot. At the Schnitz, it seemed to be more a source of amusement...particularly to Jeff. You could practically see him smile to himself a bit when a big chunk of the crowd in the front part of the orchestra level immediately sank into their seats once the band started to play a slower song like Black Moon.

 

Jeff finally commented on it a few songs later when he poked a little fun at the audience for having the "greatest sitting-standing consensus" of any show he could remember. Whereas virtually the entire crowd had been standing during Impossible Germany, for example, once it became clear that the next song was going to be a slower one, almost everyone quickly and collectively took a seat. From the stage, it must have looked like a reverse wave or something.

 

Anyway, somehow that sitting-standing banter segued into Glenn being a Catholic but I'll let someone else fill in the blanks on that one... :unsure

 

Overall, a solid main set. I thought the sound was mixed well. It didn't seem quite as loud to me overall as some other shows, but that could have been because I was sitting a little further back and away from the stage monitors and amps. Impossible Germany stood out for me last night because of the good mix and Nels just always does something different with the solo despite having to play it every...single...night. And of the "new songs," I'm always a little surprised at how much I enjoy hearing Whole Love live and that hasn't changed yet. :pirate

 

Great, as always, to see so many familar faces in the PDX! :wave

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Agreed, such a great show. My fourth one personally and the second at the Schnitz. After seeing the set lists I was so hoping for Sunday->Poor->Art for an opener and got it. Amazing slow burn to start the show. I was absolutely thrilled to hear the acoustic spiders arrangement. In 2007, the Via Chicago->Spiders final encore at the Edgefield gave me chills so I really love the sonic chaos of that song but hearing it stripped down in person (not just a bootleg) was a real treat. Great show, great audience (no talkers or obnoxious drunks near me - three rows in front of the soundboard). Now I'm wishing I would have gone to Eugene or Seattle shows as well.

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I should add that the rest of the show was fun as well... :yes

 

One the most amusing parts for me came when the band started to play Born Alone only to very quickly realize that something was not right. I'm far from a guitar expert, but I assume that the guitar Jeff was handed for that song was in the wrong tuning because he stopped playing and then had to hand it over to his guitar tech for either a quick re-tune or another guitar in the right tuning (I didn't see which). But in the interim, Jeff sort of had to do some ad-libbing at the mike and that's always kind of awkward. This time the rest of the band got into the act as well, improvising a little 10- or 15-second bossa nova-style background music. You probably had to be there, but it was funny to these ears. :lol

 

And then there was the standing-sitting issue, which wasn't the source of friction that it can be at some theater shows when people are yelling at other people to sit down and whatnot. At the Schnitz, it seemed to be more a source of amusement...particularly to Jeff. You could practically see him smile to himself a bit when a big chunk of the crowd in the front part of the orchestra level immediately sank into their seats once the band started to play a slower song like Black Moon.

 

Jeff finally commented on it a few songs later when he poked a little fun at the audience for having the "greatest sitting-standing consensus" of any show he could remember. Whereas virtually the entire crowd had been standing during Impossible Germany, for example, once it became clear that the next song was going to be a slower one, almost everyone quickly and collectively took a seat. From the stage, it must have looked like a reverse wave or something.

 

Anyway, somehow that sitting-standing banter segued into Glenn being a Catholic but I'll let someone else fill in the blanks on that one... :unsure

 

Overall, a solid main set. I thought the sound was mixed well. It didn't seem quite as loud to me overall as some other shows, but that could have been because I was sitting a little further back and away from the stage monitors and amps. Impossible Germany stood out for me last night because of the good mix and Nels just always does something different with the solo despite having to play it every...single...night. And of the "new songs," I'm always a little surprised at how much I enjoy hearing Whole Love live and that hasn't changed yet. :pirate

 

Great, as always, to see so many familar faces in the PDX! :wave

 

I think you are who I walked up to at the end of the show and you knew my name....The After Show was really nice. It was great to say hi to the guys again and talk about the older songs they played that even a guy in front of us didn't know any of. :) The Catholic reference was fun! It was nice to see you again!

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Really nice show. Glad I got to both Eugene and Portland. Wish I could have done a couple more NW shows, but two was it this time around.

 

If anyone snagged an extra show poster for the Schnitzer, let me know. I spaced grabbing one.

 

They just put posters from the NW shows in the Wilco store.

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