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Wilco, 9/17/15 Cleveland OH, Masonic Auditorium


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I was totally thinking of you when they started playing that, so I'm glad your ploy worked! B) (We met outside in line, btw).

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (no changes from the printed list):

 

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The Joke Explained

You Satellite

Taste The Ceiling

Pickled Ginger

Where Do I Begin

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Magnetized

Handshake Drugs

Camera

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Art Of Almost

You Are My Face

Hummingbird

Panthers (Proving Death Again)

Box Full Of Letters

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Dawned On Me

I'm Always In Love

Via Chicago

Impossible Germany

The Late Greats

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

Let's Not Get Carried Away

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Misunderstood*

Jesus, etc.*

War On War*

California Stars*

A Shot in the Arm*

 

* — performed hootenanny style with Jeff and John on acoustic guitars, Nels on dobro, Glenn on percussion, Mikael on upright piano/melodica and Pat on banjo/glockenspiel

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In lieu of a full recap since I'm a bit time-challenged and since there was precious little from Banter Corner — though Jeff did mention it had been a while since the band's last visit to the Cleveland area (over seven years) and even correctly stated the exact date (Feb. 22, 2008, in Lakewood), which suggests that he at least glanced at that previous show's setlist [editor's note: though he didn't mention the band's show in nearby Akron just last fall] — I am just going to mention a few random things that I noticed over the previous two nights.

 

Important things first: The hat was back last night. After playing without one in Kalamazoo the night before, Jeff returned to the covered dome look in Cleveland. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen Jeff play without a hat, so it was definitely noticeable to me in Kalamazoo and I thought he might be shedding it for the indoor shows on his run. But alas, apparently not...

 

From an instrument standpoint, Jeff used a couple of guitars last night that I don't remember seeing before (or at least not for a while). He used an acoustic with two knobs on You Are My Face instead of the usual SG, so that was interesting to me. And Jeff also used a Gibson hollow body with a darker wood finish (I think) on a few songs, including I'm Always In Love and Impossible Germany.

 

Also, the crew brought out Mike's upright piano for the hootenanny encore, which doesn't usually happen when they're setting that whole thing up on the fly after the first encore. So Mike played that for the most part last night, with some melodica mixed in.

 

The venue was kind of odd, I thought, both atmospherically and acoustically. It was an old auditorium with kind of a curved balcony that had stadium seating; you could easily picture an order of freemasons or something having their meetings in there. Sound-wise, it probably wasn't the ideal venue for a rock show. At least from the floor, the guitars were loud and Jeff's vocal was a bit muddy. It didn't help that there weren't any fill monitors at the front of the stage to help with the speakers suspended high on either side.

 

And the place wasn't very full, it didn't seem like. Granted, I didn't have the best view of the entire room but it looked like the floor was maybe two-thirds full and there were definitely more than a few empty rows toward the back of the balcony. So maybe it's not totally hard to understand why the band hasn't played in the area for so long.

 

That said, the band continued to shake off a little more of the rust. There weren't as many little flubs or missed notes as there were the previous night (though I noticed that Jeff needed the safety blanket of a lyric sheet for Let's Not Get Carried Away, in addition to the one I'm pretty sure he still uses for You Satellite).

 

I'm certain that these are the types of things that virtually no one notices or cares about but me, so thanks for indulging me. I know these sorts of minute observations are what you all have been waiting for with bated breath!

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Since both "merline" & bbop" have mentioned it...I'll go a step further... The performance was a great one (and a total thrill to catch the new album right out of the gates), but this was the worst sound I've ever heard at a Wilco show. Stan & the gang do a great job, so it was most certainly the venue. I was in the GA in the Pit, & moving around didn't really help much either... the vocals were cavernous, the bass mush & plaenty of times I could see hands, fingers & picks flailing away, sometimes even knowing the notes going on, but I couldn't hear them. Ugh & Argh...

Please Wilco don't ever play the Masonic Auditorium again. Happily I was particularly well situated for the show (thanks again Ben!!) & being in a good mood I settled into the full happy haze mode- OK so the sound is not good, let's think of it as "gauzey" & the place is not air conditioned, let's think of it as "tropical", so let's just enjoy the great light show & drift into the happy haze of the best we can make of this...which was the usual terrific performance, but... it was an effort to do so... having to travel 8 hours round trip on a in & out/hit & run @ $70 a ticket for that kind of sound was not a great feeling... Wilco's the kind of band that gets you over that fast, but I'd never go there to see anyone again, ever, Wilco included. Next time their in Cleveland I sure hope they play somewhere else.

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I requested Camera, but put some gibberish like "but the cool version with fuzzy guitars and trippy muffled vocals like in a rehearsal scene in S. Jonesy flick" or something like that.  I think i got it!  Have they been playing it that way lately?

 

They played it a few times towards the end of the last tour.  I was a little disappointed they didn't play it in Kalamazoo.  I was hoping to see John's 12 string bass.

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Highlights for me.

#1: LET"S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY FO GOODNESS SAKE! My sister recorded the end of the song with the drum solo, so I might have a link to that later.

#2: The lighting was AMAZING! I liked the 3D effect of it.

#3: Glenn knocking over his hi-hat in the hootenany misunderstood

#4: You Are My Face and Panthers

#5: Star Wars!

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It wasn't me in recording, but in the comment section something really cool happened. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6IGd8z_oPM

 

I commented that I requested Let's Not Get Carried Away like one hundred times. The guy replied: 

"+HurricaneForceGaming wanna hear something funny..i was with Glenn before the show and after the show..i drove him to the local drum shop Stebal Drums for a meet n greet from 2-3 pm yesterday and he told me they were playing this song...this song was the one fans wanted the most..so that was you! :)"

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  • 4 months later...

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