Wilco — 9/28/12, Palm Desert, CA (McCallum Theatre)

[bböp]

Whether it was the setting (tertiary market), the venue (nice, but a little stale), the crowd (a little amateurish, IMHO) or the timing (two days before a big-with-a-capital-B show at the Hollywood Bowl), this foray into the desert turned into something of a professional show when it had potential for more.

 

Let's start with the crowd. When I say amateurish, I don't mean in a drunken or druggy way — since nothing but bottled water was allowed into the auditorium, things didn't seem to get too rowdy — but more in terms of being distracting. There were just a bunch of little things that added up over the course of the evening, most notably recording video on cell phones and/or cameras.

 

About halfway through the show, Jeff finally had to say something — albeit very politely. "Is everybody aware that we don't allow (video) taping?" Jeff said before starting Whole Love. "I see a lot of it going on." He added that he wasn't going to "throw a hissy fit" about it, but simply asked people to stop and gave his guarantee about the show being better in the moment than watching it on a computer screen.

 

How much the recording contributed to Jeff having a couple of lyric flubs in the first half of the show isn't clear, but he was visibly annoyed at himself when he realized he had sung the "Your sno-cone/And it's piss and blood" line twice in I Might. He also had a slight flub in the second verse of Shouldn't Be Ashamed.

 

Other than videotaping, there were just some very minor things I saw that were also distracting. Like the two guys who just decided to take a casual stroll right across the front row aisle as the band was playing California Stars. Or the gentleman who took a face plant against the stage right next to me during A Shot in the Arm (I'm not sure what he was trying to do, but he went almost completely down and the band definitely noticed). Or the guy right in front of Jeff who apparently couldn't yell out a request just once. I'm not even going to comment on the "Freebird" I heard from behind me.

 

Perhaps amateurish is too harsh. As someone who's had the good fortune to see a lot of shows — it's only been 500 on this tour, not 600 as Jeff said (just kidding!) — I don't expect everyone to know all the words or dance around. It's just a matter of having some respect for the performers who, after all, you paid to see.

 

Anyway, back to the show. The band played about two hours exactly. There were a couple of changes from the printed setlist, with Say You Miss Me getting scrapped for Jesus, etc., which apparently was a request for somebody's birthday. Unfortunately the birthday requester could not be located — or, more accurately, their name could not be recalled — so Jeff had the crowd sing happy birthday to a woman named Sarah (sp?) in the front row instead.

 

Meanwhile, the planned show closer of On and On and On wound up getting cut outright.

 

Jeff didn't have too much other banter of note, but did mention how there rows of light bulbs lining the balcony and its curved balcony boxes on the sides. When you lit up the bulbs, Jeff said, it looked a bit like The Muppet Show (which was true), adding that it was an observation Pat had made earlier.

 

Highlights for me included a solid Ashes (in which Jeff changed the line to $6.83, as he sometimes does) and Far, Far Away. Also, being on Pat's side, I really was reminded of his excellent guitar work on such songs as Impossible Germany and Handshake Drugs; it's when not many people are paying attention to him that he makes some of his most valuable contributions, I think.

 

At any rate, here was the complete setlist as played:

 

Art Of Almost

I Might

Ashes Of American Flags ($6.83)

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Born Alone>

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season) (electric arrangement)

Misunderstood

Far, Far Away

Impossible Germany

Handshake Drugs

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

I'm Always In Love

--happy birthday sung to Sarah--

Jesus, etc.

Whole Love

Heavy Metal Drummer

Dawned On Me

Hummingbird

A Shot in the Arm

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

California Stars

I Must Be High

The Late Greats

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Red-Eyed and Blue>

I Got You (At The End of the Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

[kidsmoke]

I loved this show. High energy, enthusiastic crowd, beautiful venue, and a terrific setlist. (Thanks for the listing, Paul, as always!)

 

Special appreciation to a very professional security/usher staff who nipped several potential problems right in the bud before they could develop. I noticed more than once that they stepped in when someone began behaving rambunctiously (as in, drunkenly) or tried to crowd forward into unclaimed seats, and the staff discreetly steered the individual out, or back to where they belonged, without distracting from the show. Really well done! One tipsy woman made a run up the lefthand steps to the stage as Jeff was singing but security deftly snagged her midrun and reversed her right back out of there. Quick and efficient...I was impressed.

 

A thoroughly good time capped by a very excellent John leap during the closer. I'm still smiling.

[dianne727]

I would agree. It was a good show, but after the Tucson show, it paled a little. I was up in the balcony (my first time not seeing them from up close - wah, wah. so spoiled, I know.) and it felt like date night up there. Everyone stayed seated and didn't even really seem to be enjoying themselves. Except the awesome usher who was 80 if she was a day, who was dancing during the show and asked me about the songs afterwards. The one bonus about sitting up there was that it was the first time I could really see Mikael and Glenn during the show. Sweet baby cheeses, Glenn is amazing.

 

I was happy with the setlist, maybe a bit shorter than I would have hoped, but it always is.

[luke79]

I recorded the show but my SD card errored so I ended up with Jonathan's set and.... Good sound, minimal distracting crowd. Normally I see 2 or more tapers but I didn't see anyone last night. Not to say someone else didn't tape but usually someone else shows up and posts their copy within days. So I'll sit on my copy for a day or 2 and see what happens. Decent show, pales in comparison to both Red Rocks nights. I did manage to get to hear I Must Be High again which was a bonus.

 

First 3 songs are missing....damn you SD card.

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Born Alone>

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season) (electric arrangement)

Misunderstood

Far, Far Away

Impossible Germany

Handshake Drugs

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

I'm Always In Love

--happy birthday sung to Sarah--

Jesus, etc.

Whole Love

Heavy Metal Drummer

Dawned On Me

Hummingbird

A Shot in the Arm

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

California Stars

I Must Be High

The Late Greats

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Red-Eyed and Blue>

I Got You (At The End of the Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

[luke79]

As for the picture takers, I watched Jeff look at a cluster of people holding up cell phones and just waited for him to say something, which he eventually did. It didn't help that they were within the first few rows, dead center.

[kidsmoke]

Aw, Luke, that's a shame about your SD card, because your recordings are always golden. Hopefully there was another taper in the house.

[luke79]

I was waiting around before the show and ended up having a long, bizarre conversation with Jonathan Richman and later his drummer Tommy. He had his guitar with him and he started playing Spanish guitar riffs in front of me while explaining to me that the reason he can't play requests is because he can't request them of himself. He also started playing Sam Cooke's Cupid, lamenting the electric guitar and how everyone who picks one up eventually starts playing Chuck Berry riffs. He also said he has never owned a computer and doesn't know how to use one. This was the best part:

 

Tommy (Jonathan's drummer): Where are you from Luke?

Me: Las Vegas

Tommy: Why didn't you go to Reno instead? It's a lot closer. (Reno is about 3 hours of driving time further than Palm Desert)

Jonathan: Tommy, Reno isn't closer to Vegas than Palm Desert.

Tommy: It isnt?

Jonathan: No Tommy, Nevada is a very large state.