Wilco — 1 June 2016, Charleston, WV (Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences)

[bböp]

Dont want to steal the reportage thunder from our hometown correspondent(s), who welcomed Wilco to town last night for what I'm pretty sure was its first-ever headlining gig here. But if necessary, I'll try and chime in with some thoughts a bit later...

[remphish1]

I'm itching to see a setlist! Star Wars to lead off??? Any surprises...come on already  sorry i'm excited and impatient

[worldrecordplayer]

Was following on Twitter, they did play Star Wars to start the show.

[remphish1]

ah thanks WRP

[mpolak21]

I grew up in Charleston and I went to high school about two blocks away from the site where Wilco played last night. And I spent the first three years of high school watching the construction of this Theater/Science Museum. I never would have imagined that the band I was growing further and further obsessed with as YHF and Summerteeth became glued into my Mazda's CD player would one day be playing there. And we've gotten two shows in four months! 

 

All right enough of me, Setlist time (feel free to chip in with corrections, Paul, I'm going to try to do it from memory.)

 

EKG (intro music played as band came onto stage. 

 

1. More...

2. Random Name Generator

3. The Joke Explained

4. You Satellite

5. Taste The Ceiling

6. Pickled Ginger

7, Where Do I Begin (first song of the night that made me tear up)

8. Cold Slope

9. King of You

10. Magnetized

11. Via Chicago

12. Handshake Drugs

13. Camera (the More Like The Moon version, Jeff just handled the vocals, Pat and Nels played the guitar parts)

14. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

15. Art of Almost 

16. Sunken Treasure (electric arrangement) 

17. Hummingbird

18. Box Full of Letters 

19. Heavy Metal Drummer

20. I'm The Man Who Loves You

21. Dawned On Me

22. Impossible Germany

23. The Late Greats 

 

Hootenanny encore (all acoustic)

 

24. Misunderstood

25. It's Just That Simple

26. War on War

27. I'm Always in Love

28. Jesus, etc.

29. A Shot in the Arm.  

 

Banter corner -- Jeff introduced Box Full of Letters by saying "we'd like to do some older songs now, this is from our first record. (cheers) "Shut up, you don't have it."

 

Gear notes -- Jeff had three or four Strats he rotated in on the electric numbers -- Where Do I Begin, Sunken Treasure, Cold Slope/King of You, and a few others. He also had a blonde Rickenbacker 330 for The Late Greats. 

 

On Cold Slope/King of You, Nels played a Collins -- pictured here (https://www.instagram.com/p/BGFgKlQrrX3/). And played this one (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lancemarks/media/Nels_Green.jpg.html) on Art of Almost and Camera. 

 

There were some sound balance issues throughout the night that did not impede the performance at all, but I definitely couldn't hear a lot of Mike after the Star Wars set. The Hootenanny encore sounded perfect though. The wall of guitar noise the Nels, Jeff and Pat are getting is completely breathtaking. It's like watching My Bloody Valentine if they had stage charisma. 

 

Excellent night overall. How did I do, Paul?

 

--Mike

[Lambic]

I dont want t sound like a crank but I for one am tired of Star Wars in its entirety. I've seen Wilco well over 30 times and tomorrow's Mt Jam show willbe my 5th Star Wars show. I rank the previous 4 at the bottom of my Wilco live show list. And I love the album! For the most part I feel that full album showas are just not as interesting after th first time. Saw Springsteen do the River over the winter month and it was my least favorite show of his. The problem for me is the rest of the show gets compressed and the set doesn't get a good mix or as deep. Sa Wilco in Port Chester over 3 nights, 98 songs and only 1 repeat. Missing those days.

[Lambic]

Just baffled as to why they're not putting several or all o f Star Wars into a heavy rotation mixed in like they've done for every other tour they've ever done

[jw harding]

I dont want t sound like a crank but I for one am tired of Star Wars in its entirety. I've seen Wilco well over 30 times and tomorrow's Mt Jam show willbe my 5th Star Wars show. I rank the previous 4 at the bottom of my Wilco live show list. And I love the album! For the most part I feel that full album showas are just not as interesting after th first time. Saw Springsteen do the River over the winter month and it was my least favorite show of his. The problem for me is the rest of the show gets compressed and the set doesn't get a good mix or as deep. Sa Wilco in Port Chester over 3 nights, 98 songs and only 1 repeat. Missing those days.

File under first world Wilco problems. Seeing any band outside of the Grateful Dead/Phish 5+ times in a year is gonna get pretty redundant. 

[Lambic]

I agree but I'm attending a festival with over 40 acts up at Mt Jam and would prefer not to see the same set again. Saw them 3 of the 4 times at muli-act performances this past year so so.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Lambic]

And historically Wilco had mixed up the set lists from night to night.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[jw harding]

I agree but I'm attending a festival with over 40 acts up at Mt Jam and would prefer not to see the same set again. Saw them 3 of the 4 times at muli-act performances this past year so so.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

You'll be at a festival, so take a nap or take a break and party your face off back at the campsite. You'll probably miss Warren sitting in on CA Stars though...

[Sun Caught Fire]

This is probably the wrong forum to continue this discussion. I have always had faith in Wilco and have been well rewarded and like to see them do exactly what they want to do. Star Wars in its entirety won't last so i have enjoyed it while it does, and while i agree it compresses the rest of the options/setlist, they are a pretty open book so you know what you are getting at this time. I will be surprised if it is played in its entirety every show in 2016. Mountain Jam is a blast so enjoy it, i know we will. I loved seeing Bruce do the full River in sequence, such a powerful album. This music fan is a subjective business!  

[moontimer64]

I would think the Star Wars shows will continue until they get back from Japan. 

[worldrecordplayer]

A good amount of complaining about the full Star Wars treatment over on FB in the comments under Wilco's set list post. For me, I'd be happy to see SW or anything else they want to play, as I have no Wilco shows on my calendar.

[lost highway]

I've never had the chance to see them do the whole SW album live.  I'd love to see it.  I think they figure there are a lot of people like me out there.  The average person, even a big fan, doesn't see them three times a year.

[azs]

I dont want t sound like a crank but I for one am tired of Star Wars in its entirety. I've seen Wilco well over 30 times and tomorrow's Mt Jam show willbe my 5th Star Wars show. I rank the previous 4 at the bottom of my Wilco live show list. And I love the album! For the most part I feel that full album showas are just not as interesting after th first time. Saw Springsteen do the River over the winter month and it was my least favorite show of his. The problem for me is the rest of the show gets compressed and the set doesn't get a good mix or as deep. Sa Wilco in Port Chester over 3 nights, 98 songs and only 1 repeat. Missing those days.

 

I agree completely. And while I liked the acoustic encore at the outset, enough is enough. I want the shows to peak with energy and electricity at the end, not come back down. Wilco always changes things up, and it's definitely time with this tour format. Bring back the mini acoustic set mid-show like they did a few years back.

[dagwave]

Time Warp thread brzzzzzzze.

 

6/2/17 post:

 

"Man, it would great if they busted out a show with Star Wars again. What an epic work and performance piece. Couldn't get enough of it.

[Magnetized]

Time Warp thread brzzzzzzze.

 

6/2/17 post:

 

"Man, it would great if they busted out a show with Star Wars again. What an epic work and performance piece. Couldn't get enough of it.

Perfect!

[remphish1]

Perfect!

Ha ha while I agree that will happen at some point we never had someone say that about Wilco the album songs

[bböp]

There were some sound balance issues throughout the night that did not impede the performance at all, but I definitely couldn't hear a lot of Mike after the Star Wars set. The Hootenanny encore sounded perfect though. The wall of guitar noise the Nels, Jeff and Pat are getting is completely breathtaking. It's like watching My Bloody Valentine if they had stage charisma. 

 

Excellent night overall. How did I do, Paul?

 

--Mike

 

Great job, Michael! I still can't believe you can do a setlist that long from memory, though I guess having Star Wars in order helps out a bit...

 

Sorry I've taken so long to chime in on this show, but I guess I don't have all that much to add. It was kind of a weird show from my perspective, partly because of the sound issues that Michael mentioned. I guess I was just expecting the sound to be better in a room like that, which was a nice seated theater where a symphony orchestra normally plays. But then again, I also think that the acoustics aren't necessarily the greatest either for rock or jazz shows at places like Symphony Center in Chicago or Carnegie Hall so maybe I just need to reconfigure my expectations. But for whatever reason, the sound at the Clay was a little echo-ey and/or muddy and I guess the mix wasn't the best either. Admittedly, I was probably standing in one of the worst places for sound quality but others I talked to confirmed some of these sound issues.

 

I think maybe some of the sound issues also extended to the band on stage. For instance, during Camera, Jeff made a weird face early one when it appeared that maybe one of his monitors went out or something. From the audience perspective, something weird seemed to happen because the sound got extra boomy for a little while during that song, which maybe detracted from its performance a bit.

 

Then there was the matter of the crowd, which aside from being divided by the standing/sitting tension that often exists at reserved seating shows, consisted a mix of a few hardcore fans and a lot of casual ones and more than a few people who had apparently bought tickets as part of a series subscription or season package. So there were more than a few people who left early, including one couple in the second row center who just up and walked out right in the middle of the first verse of Impossible Germany (which I'm sure was not lost on Jeff). I think there were quite a few people seeing Wilco for the first time as well, so it's maybe understandable that they had gotten their fill by a certain point.

 

All the same, I'm so happy for my Charleston friends that they finally got a proper Wilco show in their backyard. It's obviously been a long time coming, and the people I know are big fans and were thrilled with the show. Hopefully it won't take close to 20 years before the band is back in town. At one point, a woman in the crowd yelled out "Do you love West Virginia?" And Jeff noted how they almost had to set up camp there after their Mountain Stage show in February. "We almost got snowed in last time," he said.

 

Other bits from Banter Corner included a shoutout to "the one guy brave enough to wear a 'Make Wilco Great Again' hat," which I don't think they were actually selling at the merch table (so he actually had to go online and order it, though they actually are selling a brand new summer tour T-shirt among other things). Another funny bit came when another lady yelled out that "I love your cat," referring perhaps to the porcelain Star Wars cat on stage, and Jeff sort of laughed and made a joke about how everyone should just yell out what they liked about the show one at a time or something like that. Maybe you had to be there for that one...

 

Toward the end of the show, after (I think) I'm Always In Love, Jeff gave credit to the crowd for its good clapping. Not every audience can clap in time, Jeff said, though he remarked that they were no Croatians. (Apparently Croatian audiences can really clap in time; I want a full report on this from those attending the show in Zagreb in a couple of weeks...you know you you are. ) Of course one woman in the front row off to stage left yelled out that she was from Croatia, to which Jeff replied, "Oh, maybe you were leading the pack."

 

Other than that, I guess this was a pretty typical show of this period in the band's touring life. Personally speaking, it was a fine show and I'm glad my seat was in such a position that I was able to stand throughout without blocking anyone's view. Happy that everyone locally seemed pleased with the show, and now onward to the rest of the summer run!

 

Just baffled as to why they're not putting several or all o f Star Wars into a heavy rotation mixed in like they've done for every other tour they've ever done

 

I'm not going to get into too much of the current griping here and on Facebook over the Star Wars format of the recent shows and variety of the setlists, etc., except to say that while I do understand that playing the album in its entirety might, by definition, become predictable if you see multiple shows, it's probably not going to last too much longer so you might as well just enjoy it while you can (or just don't go to as many shows or study so many setlists).

 

The fact is that for a majority of those folks going to see the band, like in Charleston, they haven't yet had a chance to hear Star Wars played live and obviously this is the record that the band is promoting right now. It doesn't sound like it'll be too long before they're playing new songs and people will be clamoring for more SW material (the way some people are clamoring for stuff from Wilco the Album or Sky Blue Sky now, and those were songs that much of the fanbase couldn't wait to get out of the rotation fast enough back then. Standing O, anyone?)

 

And as for why the band continues to play SW as a complete piece, I think it's because that's how Jeff and Co. think of it: as a complete statement that works well together. Not to say that there aren't individual songs that won't be played in future sets, but for now, why not play it the way it was intended? In Charleston, I think hearing that many songs in a row without interruption started to get to some people — one guy yelled out "Say something" at one point — but after the record was finished, Jeff explained that they were trying to play SW as you would a record. You don't stop it for an interruption after three songs or something. I'm sure that sort of mentality is anathema in some ways for our attention span-challenged times, but in my view, that's the artistic statement the band wants to make with the record. So take it or leave it...

[mpolak21]

Paul, did it seem to you like Nels' had a monitor go out on Art of Almost too? I can't remember if we talked about this after the show, but in the section right after Glenn's drum roll that transitions into one his signature face-melting solos it seemed like he was struggling with a few of his pedals. 

 

Wilco is the first LOUD rock band I've seen at the Clay Center. I was innocently thinking coming in "oh Tedeschi Trucks sounded great here, I bet Wilco will too." Not taking into account just how loud something like say "You Satellite" is. 

 

From my perspective, Star Wars sounded great, and the sound issues really started when they started into their older material. 

 

I was really surprised by the amount of people walking out, I feel like that was a crowd of a lot of casual fans who weren't really aware how long Wilco sets are. At least I'll keep telling myself that to not get too angry at the people who left during Impossible Germany. 

[The Inside of Outside]

....and I'll take it.

 

I agree - in 8 years, we'll look back fondly on the times when SW was played in full to start a show. And people new to the band will say, "You saw them play SW straight through? That's great!"

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I was kvetching in another thread about how I saw them 3X in FL and then went to SS after that, so I have not had a chance to see a single Star Wars song. So there you go.