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Wilco — 8/6/15, San Francisco, CA (The Independent)


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Well, if this year's Solid Sound Festival saw Wilco perform its first-ever all-acoustic set, then the hootenanny fully arrived on the West Coast tonight when the band delivered another all-acoustic show at the intimate Independent club in advance of its official set at this year's Outside Lands Festival.

 

Where do I begin, to quote a certain songwriter? Almost from the outset, it became clear that the band wouldn't take a break or shy away from playing the songs on its new album despite the acoustic setting. After opening with Less Than You Think and a cover of the Byrds' Wasn't Born To Follow — the latter a nod to the show being billed as "The Notorious Wilco Brothers" — Wilco launched into the first bloc of songs from Star Wars. They would proceed to play the whole record in several different blocs, only skipping You Satellite (and EKG, of course). It was definitely interesting to hear the new songs stripped down to their core and to watch the band bring them to life without the benefit of effects and the like.

 

I'm not sure exactly how many people actually fit into the Independent, but it's the kind of club that Wilco outgrew years ago. Obviously that made it a treat to be able to watch the band members interact with one another and with the audience. For example, as they got ready to play Hesitating Beauty, Jeff looked at Glenn and asked, "Do I start this or do we start it together? And Glenn basically shrugged his shoulders and said, "Go for it." Later, Pat and Glenn had a funny back-and-forth when one of Glenn's percussive implements [edit: a bristle from one of his brushes] apparently shot over toward Pat during a song when Pat was playing banjo. Pat gave Glenn a mock hard time about it, saying with a smile that "some people actually dig the banjo."

 

And Jeff had a couple of funny interactions with the crowd, including a serious-seeming response to an early request for Theologians: "Shut up; just be happy with what you get," Jeff said, in a tone of mock outrage. "We've got a lot of songs to play."

 

If there was one small quibble for me, it was that the sound wasn't always optimal everywhere. Part of that was due to the fact that Jeff and John essentially shared one microphone for vocals (with a twin mike set up at their guitar level) and when Jeff would sometimes step back off mike, as it were, it could be tough for some to hear him. And to a certain extent, for those caught on the "wrong side" of Jeff as he mostly turned to his left to sing into the mike, his vocals could sometimes seem a bit muffled. On top of that, there were some minor feedback issues that surfaced sporadically. I think the Wilco crew is still continuing to adjust to this configuration, which isn't necessarily the easiest thing when you're used to a lot of electric guitars and vocals, etc. But overall, it's just some minor nitpicking on my part because I'll trade that for the intimacy and atmosphere of a show like this any day.

 

From Banter Corner, Jeff had a couple of other gems. Once when someone near the front offered him some sort of Star Wars (the movie)-related item (a hat or a mask, maybe?), Jeff politely declined, saying he wasn't "getting near any actionable properties. I had no idea there was a Star Wars movie coming out," Then he added, with perfect timing, "Now back to the cease and desist," as the band launched into Taste The Ceiling.

 

Near the end of the show, Jeff introduced California Stars by saying the next song "might be a bit obvious, but sometimes the obvious choice is the right choice. ... That's why I'm supporting Trump 2016." Haha!

 

I'm sure there's a lot of details I'm missing at this late hour, so hopefully some other folks who were there can help me out. The band ended up playing for just over two hours, taking the stage at 9:14 and heading off at 11:18. The printed setlist was played as planned, despite having what looked like a "swapout box" of several other songs that perhaps could also have been played; these included Hoodoo Voodoo, The Thanks I Get, Kingpin and Casino Queen.

 

At any rate, here was the complete setlist as played (note that the entire show was performed with the band on acoustic instruments):

 

Less Than You Think>

Wasn't Born To Follow [edit: Gerry Goffin/Carole King; made famous by The Byrds]

More...

Random Name Generator

The Joke Explained

War On War

Bull Black Nova

Remember The Mountain Bed

Hesitating Beauty

Kamera

Taste The Ceiling

Pickled Ginger

Where Do I Begin

It's Just That Simple

New Madrid

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Magnetized

Whole Love

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Forget The Flowers

Hummingbird

Theologians

I'm Always In Love

Dawned On Me

A Shot in the Arm

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

Misunderstood

We've Been Had

California Stars

True Love Will Find You In The End [Daniel Johnston]

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Damn, can't believe they did all the new ones acoustic already (save for satellite). They seem to be really confident with this album straight out the gate.

 

Also the birds cover is a nice touch. Hope a road case comes out of this one.

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Report in progress...

 

Here was the complete setlist as played (note that entire show was performed with band on acoustic instruments):

 

Less Than You Think>

Wasn't Born To Follow [The Byrds]

More...

Random Name Generator

The Joke Explained

War On War

Bull Black Nova

Remember The Mountain Bed

Hesitating Beauty

Kamera

Taste The Ceiling

Pickled Ginger

Where Do I Begin

It's Just That Simple

New Madrid

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Magnetized

Whole Love

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Forget The Flowers

Hummingbird

Theologians

I'm Always In Love

Dawned On Me

A Shot in the Arm

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

Misunderstood

We've Been Had

California Stars

True Love Will Find You In The End [Daniel Johnston]

WOW!! 500 capacity venue is pretty much ideal for an all-acoustic show!! I really hope that this one gets released as a Roadcase show (along with any show that features a performance of the full "Star Wars" album...)... they did everything but "EKG" & "You Satellite" acoustic from the "Star Wars" album too!!! (9 of 11...or... 9 of the 10 they've been doing...)... and something from "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" to boot!! WOW!

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Can't wait to listen! Thanks! (Can I share this link on twitter?)

 

 

Go for it.  The taper sent the recording to a huge mailing list, so his intention seems to be to spread it far and wide.

 

For those curious about lineage etc., this was shared as AIF files and I converted to FLAC for easier uploading, since I wanted to create my own link to share here and not send his link which may be tied to his personal identity in some way.

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