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Wilco — 9/29/12, San Luis Obispo, CA (Avila Beach Resort)


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That was a fun one, for sure! Kind of like an afternoon luau at a tropical resort or, as a friend said, the most relaxed festival ever. A great warmup for tomorrow at the Hollywood Bowl ("plenty of good seats available," according to Jeff) and a fine way to spend an beachside afternoon with friends...

 

Let's just say the sun and/or Jeff's, er, "loathing" of it became a running theme of the show because of the ultra-early show time (Jonathan Richman played from 3-3:45 and Wilco from about 4:15-6:30). Alas, there was no Sunloathe live debut. Maybe someday.

 

More later, but for now, here was the complete setlist as played (only one change from the printed list — A Magazine Called Sunset was cut from the encore in favor of Walken):

 

One Sunday Morning

Art Of Almost

I Might

Muzzle Of Bees

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Impossible Germany

Born Alone

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

Handshake Drugs

When You Wake Up Feeling Old

Whole Love

I Must Be High

I'm Always In Love

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Dawned On Me

Hummingbird

A Shot in the Arm

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

Passenger Side

California Stars

Can't Stand It

Walken

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

Hoodoo Voodoo (w/ bass/guitar/keyboard tech Josh on cowbell)

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I've gotta since Jeff mentioned the whole situation with there being only one song, "Sunloathe" off "The Whole Love" that they haven't played live yet at the Columbia, MO show...and in doing so highlighted the new video that's come out...and since that has come out...I'm really surprised that they haven't done a version of it yet...hope they do it someday...soon...

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Whoa! I had no idea this was such an early show. In my dream world, all shows would be at this time.

 

Was Ms. Y there for When You Wake Up Feeling Old?

 

Indeed she was! It definitely wasn't a perfect rendition of the song -- I'd have to go back and listen again, but I think Jeff was a tiny bit off rhythmically at the end (and even said afterward, "I don't know that song very well") -- but none of us cared.

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A few other notes on the show...

 

*The first few songs of the set were a bit marred by Nels' faulty Schroeder amp head, which drained a lot of the power from his guitar. Jeff was looking over a him quite a bit, so you knew something wasn't sounding quite right. And Nels was visibly frustrated as well. He soldiered through the Impossible Germany solo, but by then it was evident that an equipment change was in order.

The technical issues did provide a very funny bit of banter, though, when Jeff said, "We're gonna take a minute. Nels needs to swap out his head." When order was restored, Jeff suggested that Nels summarize all of his solos up to that point. Nels jokingly played along for a bit, and then Jeff said he would also recap his solos and proceeded to play a skronky riff. "That's an entire career right there," he said, before launching into Born Alone.

 

*Speaking of banter, Jeff also had a bit of fun with San Luis Obispo and the pronunciation thereof. He said, "No one's in too much of a hurry here, are they? You know, SLO." A bit later, he pronounced the town as "St. Louis Obispo" and joked, "I grew up near here." To which Glenn replied by hitting the audience laugh track on his sample pad. Jeff was mock incredulous, saying, "This is deadly serious, my man." Glenn simply shrugged and blamed the laugh track on his tech, Nate. Haha.

 

*Another funny line by Jeff: Referring to how the sun was blazing down on his left side until it finally went behind a sand dune, he said: "By the end of the day, I can do a one-man play about race relations."

 

*The band didn't have the "hanging ghosts" backdrop for the second time on this run (the first was in Redding, where I think the stage specs couldn't accommodate them). In SLO, they definitely could have been used but I think because of the early start time, much of the effect of the projections against the backdrop would have been lost so they probably decided it wasn't worth it.

 

*Special to Maj. Gen. Wynne-Candy: Alas, we didn't get the hoped-for collaboration with JoJo (or even an acknowledgement by either party that this was their last show together on this run). I guess that was probably for the best if they didn't have a chance to work up a joint number, but too bad for our collective imaginations of what might have been...

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Here's what Jonathan and Tommy played in SLO:

 

My Baby Love Love Loves Me

Let Her Go Into The Darkness

No One Was Like Vermeer

Sa Voix M'Atisse

Old World

The Bitter Herb

"salute to the sun">

I Feel Like A Morning Star (?)

He Gave Us The Wine To Taste It (w/Spanish interlude)

When We Refuse To Suffer

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Also, this ends a lot of questions from over the years ... :badger

 

Wilco_092912_AvilaBeach_19.jpg

 

That answers a lot of questions...right up until it poses at least a dozen new ones.

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  • 4 months later...

This show is now available from the Roadcase collection at the Kung Fu store. It is well worth it. (It was my birthday, we were stage front, the setlist was sublime, and you can actually hear some banter between Jeff and me at the end of Born Alone. Yes, that's me saying "You loathe it.")

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