AmericanaramA 14-Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, ONT 7/15/13

[bböp]

Holy cow, AmericanaramA turned into CanadianaramA for a night...

Ms. Leslie Feist came out and she, Richard Thompson and the band ran through Leonard Cohen's Suzanne! Plus a set-closing Cinnamon Girl with MMJ. And Sloth.

Complete setlist to follow...

[bböp]

Here was Wilco's complete setlist, as played:

 

Airline To Heaven

Company In My Back

Poor Places>

Art Of Almost

I Might

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

You And I (duet w/Leslie Feist)

Born Alone

Sloth [Fairport Convention] (w/Richard Thompson on electric guitar and vocals)

Suzanne [Leonard Cohen] (w/Leslie Feist on co-lead vocals and Richard Thompson on electric guitar)

California Stars (w/Richard Thompson on electric guitar and Taras Prodaniuk and Michael Jerome on maracas/percussion)

I Got You (At The End of the Century)

Cinnamon Girl [Neil Young] (w/My Morning Jacket)

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Wow, this sounds awesome. Thanks for the report.

I want soundboards of all these sets!

[Cold as Gasoline]

People on Twitter are reporting Tweedy and Jim James just joined Dylan on stage!

[bböp]

Yeah Jeff and Jim just came out for Pete Seeger's Oh What A Beautiful City...

[bböp]

And now Jeff and Jim are back out for Dylan's encore of Blowin' In The Wind.

[Cold as Gasoline]

Amazing!  This is quite a turn of events.  Lucky Canadians!

[calvino]

Ha! That's great - glad Dylan is finally coming around.

[imsjry]

Ha! That's great - glad Dylan is finally coming around.

 

If only he had come around in Chicago! I'm so glad it's happening though...seemed such a shame he wasn't singing with them given the talent he had on tour with him. Very very cool!

[GtrPlyr]

Great show tonight with some wonderful surprises. I didn't have my good camera with me but I managed to snap a few with what I had:

 

 

 

[bböp]

Nice! I was hoping somebody got a shot when Dylan was blowing the harmonica between Jeff and Jim at the end there. Must have a been a thrill for those guys.

 

Bob introduced them by saying something like, "Now we're gonna bring up some people who were here before." And then said "Jeff Tweedy" and "Jim James," which was kind of weird just to hear him say those names. (Then again, given how little Dylan has said during most shows recently, it's a little jarring to hear him say anything.)

 

Truth be told, I don't know how much either Jeff or Jim added to Blowin' In The Wind but they were singing nice backing vocals (and both playing acoustic guitar) on Oh, What A Beautiful City! Incidentally, I should correct myself regarding that song; it's an old spiritual also known as Twelve Gates To The City. Pete Seeger possibly did an arrangement of it, and the Rev. Gary Davis and Joan Baez-among many others-have recorded it.

 

Anyway, at one point tonight, Bob changed a line in the song to "Massey Hall." So even he hasn't entirely forgotten how to pander..;-)

[BeShakey]

It also seems like this show marks Dylan's third lead guitarist for the tour so far

[bböp]

It also seems like this show marks Dylan's third lead guitarist for the tour so far

Yeah, I was gonna mention that too. I wasn't super close, but I could tell that wasn't Charlie Sexton up there.

[bböp]

Here were the setlists for the other artists on the bill, in case anyone is interested:

 

Richard Thompson:

 

Stuck On The Treadmill

Sally B

Good Things Happen To Bad People

Tear-Stained Letter

Can't Win

 

My Morning Jacket:

 

I Think I'm Going To Hell

The Way He Sings

It Beats 4 U

Circuital

Slow Slow Tune

Steam Engine

Wordless Chorus

Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Pt. 1

Victory Dance

Smokin From Shootin>

end of Run Thru

 

Bob Dylan:

 

Things Have Changed

Love Sick

High Water (For Charley Patton)

Soon After Midnight

Early Roman Kings

Tangled Up In Blue

Duquesne Whistle

She Belongs To Me

Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Blind Willie McTell

Simple Twist Of Fate

Summer Days

Twelve Gates To The City [traditional] (w/Jeff Tweedy and Jim James on acoustic guitar and backing vocals)

All Along The Watchtower

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

Blowin' In The Wind (w/Jeff Tweedy and Jim James on acoustic guitar and backing vocals)

[Loneliness Fighter]

I thought it was a solid summer night and a worthwhile show. My wife was noting the crowd shift from Solid Sound to Americanarama. She said at North Adams you could tell all eyes, ears and hearts were on Wilco. In Toronto, some Wilco fans, some Dylan, some MMJ and Richard Thompson - but also some of the crowd were there just to chill, or drink or chat or meet people....a picnic party.

I thought that Jeff Tweedy was the official host of the night, bringing on Leslie Feist, making CanadianaramA jokes, throwing in some Cohen and then closing with a strong, all hands on deck with My Morning Jacket, Cinnamon Girl to close off the set and get the crowd roaring....

I think that I would have been less happy if I  had missed Solid Sound and had last night's show instead.  

Very tempted to hop in the car on Thursday morning - Darien Lake is just two + hours away.

 Tickets available???

[redstripe]

Dylan's 'new' guitar player was Colin Linden.  No idea if he's joining the tour or if it was a one off. 

[Mr. Heartbreak]

Dylan's 'new' guitar player was Colin Linden.  No idea if he's joining the tour or if it was a one off. 

Whoa, that's incredible! I've seen him touring with Bruce Cockburn back in the day.

Pretty wild series of events. And now I owe Wilco Me five bucks. Curse you, Bob Dylan! 

 

By the way, someone over on expectingrain.com referred to Jim James as "Mike Stivic."

[Cold as Gasoline]

Fantastic photos!  Thanks so much for sharing.

[paulcalypse]

Holy crap, look at them setlists. Love that MMJ setlist (less Evil Urges, more old stuff).

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

It will probably never happen, but Nels getting to play on All Along the Watchtower would be fantastic (especially since he's already played it on the I'm Not There soundtrack!)

[W(TF)]

That was a fun night, pretty decent performances all around. After the longer than expected MMJ set I thought we might get closer to 2 hrs of Wilco, but no dice. Wilco played a relaxed/lively set with a nice smattering of YHF stuff (and I love when they open with a Guthrie tune). We sat smack in the middle of the amp and I thought the crowd was pretty into it from Poor Places on. Toronto crowds are always a weird mix of dancing drunks, cellphone posers, and uptight music nerds. I wasn't drunk, but after dancing with my friend to I Got You, the people behind predictably asked us to sit down. And damn, it was hot and sticky.

 

Highlight of my evening was Suzanne - unexpected, and the performance was just gorgeous. Sloth was also outstanding. Maybe RT should join the band (more often), the collaborations seemed to go beautifully.

 

I enjoyed Dylan's set too. He's in better form than when I saw him in '05....decent piano solos, harmonica, and slightly stronger on vocals too. Still pretty rough on lyrics, especially when his mic is low in the mix - it took me almost a full verse to ID both Tangled and Twist (geez!). Great band, very tight. Very low-key lighting...maybe it was too hot for spotlights last night? And I really like the arrangements of She Belongs To Me and Hard Rain. Especially on Hard Rain where Bob was turned up and was really belting it out.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

She Belongs to Me and Hard Rain were also the highlights when I saw him in Tampa and Atlanta.

How did the songs with Jeff and Jim sound?

[Turnips]

I had an absolute blast last night!  Sat on the lawn, so the sound and view weren't great but the music and vibe more than made up for it.  Enjoyed MMJ a lot, from reading reviews on this tour I was a little worried it would take a while for the crowd to arrive and get into it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the decent crowd in the house for MMJ.

 

Wilco were great as always, that cover of Suzanne sounded excellent!  Love Dylan's set too and lucky to be the first to see Tweedy, James and Dylan on stage together.  Last time in Toronto we got the first ever playing of "One Sunday Morning", seems we're on a roll!

[bböp]

I had an absolute blast last night! Sat on the lawn, so the sound and view weren't great but the music and vibe more than made up for it. Enjoyed MMJ a lot, from reading reviews on this tour I was a little worried it would take a while for the crowd to arrive and get into it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the decent crowd in the house for MMJ.

 

Wilco were great as always, that cover of Suzanne sounded excellent! Love Dylan's set too and lucky to be the first to see Tweedy, James and Dylan on stage together. Last time in Toronto we got the first ever playing of "One Sunday Morning", seems we're on a roll!

Toronto also seems to get some of Jeff's biggest flubs, like last night on IATTBYH when he just totally blew a verse (or rather sang the same one twice). All he could do was chuckle about it. I remember at one of the Massey Hall shows right at the start of The Whole Love tour cycle, he had a brain fart during She's A Jar that was one of the worst I can remember. (Off the top of my head, I can think of at least a couple of other pretty major flubs, too, and weirdly they were also in Canada.)

 

I say this not to be critical, but because it's endearing that Jeff and/or Wilco has never gotten to the point where they've either gotten too perfect or had to rely on teleprompters and the like. I just always find it funny when people say they've gotten "too polished" compared to the Being There days or something. I mean, this lineup is musically superior IMHO but they're far from perfect. And I like that.

 

At any rate, it's been a treat to get to see a few of these shows with the surprises in the setlists and the way the various collaborations have developed. It seemed like last night Wilco had a little more juice during its set, perhaps because of Richard Thompson's last night on the tour, perhaps because of Feist, perhaps because the band (or at least Jeff) knew about the first collaboration with Dylan.

 

Sloth was a pretty inspired cover choice for this leg of shows with Thompson, although I wish they'd gotten back to Calvary Cross at least once more before RT's departure. Has anyone mentioned what a beast Glenn is during this, holding together the twin guitar solos with some inspired drumming? Last night, from my vantage point, I had a pretty good view of it and it was almost as much fun to watch as Nels and RT going it at it. To me, it seemed like the performance last night stretched out even more than the first time I saw it.

 

Meanwhile, Suzanne was a terrific surprise. I saw the crew bring out some pretty lengthy-looking lyric sheets prior to the set and thought maybe they were going to reprise Edmund Fitzgerald (especially after Jeff promised some more CanadianaramA later in the set), but this was another good cover choice with Feist there, even though the crowd energy wasn't as high as it might have been expected to be for this probably only-ever run-through of the Canadian classic. Someone tweeted that they did the Fairport Convention's arrangement of the song, with Feist doing the Sandy Denny parts, so I'll have to make it a point to track that one down.

 

There were a lot of smiles on stage for California Stars with the Thompson band. You could sense a very good rapport between the Wilco guys and the Thompson trio, who will definitely be missed. And what else can be said of Cinnamon Girl other than that it sent a healthy jolt through the crowd and was a great way to close out the set?

 

As for the Dylan collabs, I think I mentioned earlier that I don't know how much Jeff and Jim really added musically to Blowin' In The Wind but it was neat to see them back out there with Dylan stepping between them at the end of the song to blow the harp. Pretty great picture right there. I quite enjoyed Twelve Gates To The City, which I guess harkened back to Rev. Gary Davis' version, and Jeff and Jim added some nice backing vocals. It was just nice to see the smiles all around and the various pats on the shoulder or back between Jeff and Jim and Dylan and the guys in his band. Dylan must've been having a good day, or been in a good mood. Here's hoping for more joint performances; I suppose now if it doesn't happen for the rest of the run, that a given crowd will feel a bit let down.

 

This is an interesting tour because, as someone mentioned earlier, it feels like a divided crowd in some ways. I wonder how many Dylan fans are really having their eyes opened by either MMJ's or Wilco's performances and vice versa. To paraphrase what Jim James said on stage yesterday, it's weird playing a show like this because a third of the crowd knows you and loves you and third of the crowd is checking you out and a third of the crowd pretty much can't stand you. Jim thanked those who were giving his band a chance. As for those who hated them, he said something to the effect of, "Who really cares? We'll be over soon and be out of your hair."

 

With the less-than-sellout crowds at most of the stops thus far, I guess maybe a lot of people aren't being enticed by the concept of AmericanaramA, but I, for one, appreciate the effort being put in by MMJ, Wilco and yes, even Dylan to make this thing at least a somewhat unique event each night when they easily could have just gone through the motions.

[Shug]

 

Sloth was a pretty inspired cover choice for this leg of shows with Thompson, although I wish they'd gotten back to Calvary Cross at least once more before RT's departure. Has anyone mentioned what a beast Glenn is during this, holding together the twin guitar solos with some inspired drumming? Last night, from my vantage point, I had a pretty good view of it and it was almost as much fun to watch as Nels and RT going it at it. To me, it seemed like the performance last night stretched out even more than the first time I saw it.

 

That is great to hear.  I'm hugely into Thompson and Fairport and I am absolutely crushed that I am missing hearing not one, but two of my most-wished for RT jamming guitar solo songs while he sits in with Wilco.  I can't believe it, I've never heard Sloth and Calvary Cross only once in the 25+ times I've seen RT live.  And its GREAT to know that Glenn was a presence in the jams, I can easily imagine him making an effort to live up to the spectacular drumming style of Dave Mattacks.  I'm sure it was not hard for him to do.  Thanks for the report, bbop!