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Wilco — 26 September 2017, Santa Fe, NM (Santa Fe Opera)


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The Santa Fe Opera is a marvelous, acoustically near-perfect venue. The swells gather there in their finery in comfortable but not ostentatious seats to take in world-class opera all summer long. In the fall, after the tuxes are all packed away and the last soprano has sung, there's a brief pop season.

 

One of the charms of the Opera's Crosby Theater is its open-air nature, with a solid roof that protects the audience from the elements, but open sides that allow fresh air and the occasional view of one of Northern New Mexico's legendary monsoon thunderstorms.

 

Last night, the venue showed its unpleasant side, allowing strong, very cold winds to whip in and drop the temperature dramatically into the high 40s. Those fans who had ventured in with light summer dresses looked miserable. Those wearing down jackets and vests and stocking caps were clearly locals.

 

The band turned in a solid, energetic, two-hour set, with Jeff smiling and happy throughout. He did remark early in the set that he was worried when he came on stage and no one was in the audience. "You were all over by the space heaters getting warm, right?"

 

Jeff did tweak the audience mildly for a "not very good" sing-along of Passenger Side. "But that was from our first album, which a lot of you probably don't know. So we'll just keep working through different albums until we get to one you're familiar with." That was followed by the introduction to "I'm Always In Love." "That's from Summerteeth, our worst-selling album ever. It was a cut-out." (For those too young to get the reference, cut-outs were record labels cleaned out the warehouses, dumping albums at fire-sale price when they weren't selling to expectations. Cut-outs had a hole punched in the upper right corner to indicate they were being sold at a deep discount.)

 

The most interesting banter was about the forest set, which Jeff said the band had copied from a local theater, the Scottish Rite Temple, a magnificent old pink stucco building downtown that was built in the early 20th Century. "It was probably used for Midsummer Night's Dream," Jeff said. "Next time we'll be using the set from Death of a Salesman. That'll be heavy. Or maybe Hair?"

 

The crowd (about 90% sold out, I believe) was on its feet from the first song and never sat down. They left happily in an absolute downpour.

 

This is from the printed setlist, which they played unmodified.

 

You Are My Face
If I Ever Was A Child
Cry All Day
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>
Art Of Almost
Pickled Ginger

​Side With The Seeds

Either Way
Someone To Lose

War On War

Via Chicago

Bull Black Nova (acoustic/electric hybrid arrangement)
Impossible Germany
Whole Love

California Stars

Passenger Side
I'm Always In Love
Heavy Metal Drummer>
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Hummingbird
----------------------------
Random Name Generator
Jesus, etc.
Locator

​Spiders/Kidsmoke
-----------------------------

Monday>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

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Another fun show and a well-described evening. Absolutely beautiful theater. Full roof but as noted open on the sides. There was even a 2 or 3 foot wide "fountain" of sorts with water flowing at stage height across the whole front of the stage. The stage was about 3 feet high, but band was set back quite far, perhaps to be underneath the heaters in the ceiling (but I doubt it). Only things in addition I remember Jeff bantering were he apologized for not talking more but said he couldn't breathe acclimating to the altitude. He was later going on about nothing in particular - a really good audience/they don't like most audiences etc. and eventually saying that Glenn was sabotaging him into still talking because Glenn wouldn't count off the next tune. Sorry to have to get off the tour bus here and head back home.

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"But that was from our first album, which a lot of you probably don't know. So we'll just keep working through different albums until we get to one you're familiar with."

 

:lol Jeff is a funny man.

Indeed and that reminded me that he then said "that's ok you don't have to sing along, dicks." He then said they sing along, well except for Glenn. Jeff also at one point said he thought the world would be a more peaceful place if everyone was just a little cold. "Just throwing that out there."

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Jeff did tweak the audience mildly for a "not very good" sing-along of Passenger Side. "But that was from our first album, which a lot of you probably don't know. So we'll just keep working through different albums until we get to one you're familiar with." That was followed by the introduction to "I'm Always In Love." "That's our worst-selling album ever. It was a cut-out." (For those too young to get the reference, cut-outs were albums sold at a deep discount in record stores. They had a hole punched in the upper right corner to indicate they were being sold at a deep discount.)

Summerteeth is the worst selling album? What the hell were people in 1999 doing??

 

 

Great recap WYWU! 

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Thanks for the review WYWU, it was a fun show, even funner since we had third row center seats, that never happens!  The band was very animated, Jeff was all smiles and John was jumping around like crazy!  The crowd seemed really into it, way more than in 2012 the last time they played the opera, when the crowd sat nearly the entire time.  My only disappointment was they didn't play my request, ELT, that my wife and I requested everyday since we bought the tickets, oh well, maybe some day they'll play it again.  On to El Paso!

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Thanks for the review WYWU, it was a fun show, even funner since we had third row center seats, that never happens!  The band was very animated, Jeff was all smiles and John was jumping around like crazy!  The crowd seemed really into it, way more than in 2012 the last time they played the opera, when the crowd sat nearly the entire time.  My only disappointment was they didn't play my request, ELT, that my wife and I requested everyday since we bought the tickets, oh well, maybe some day they'll play it again.  On to El Paso!

We will see you in El Paso! Look for us, row A center. First row behind the pit. Look for a bit of gray hair and big smiles because we're at a Wilco show. :)

 

We were in the front row in 2012, but in row H this year (8 rows back but gorgeous audio as always from Stan, and perfect sight lines). I noticed the audience more this time around compared to last time, when the only thing in front of me was that moat. :)

 

But the energy level seemed very high for Santa Fe, which has a larger than normal gray ponytail crowd and sometimes can be a bit too laid-back.

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Summerteeth is the worst selling album? What the hell were people in 1999 doing??

 

 

Great recap WYWU!

I couldn't believe it either. Buuuuuuut at the same time I do believe it.

 

AM had support from UT fans. BT was next level and won over a sizable new audience, plus was supported by a really long tour. ST was a sharp left turn away from alt country and faded away pretty quickly when the record label wouldn't get behind it. The label wanted Jeff to churn out a "One Headlight," as I recall reading in "Learning How to Die," and when they realized Wilco wasn't a "hit-making" machine, they cast them off as a cult act...oops.

What were they doing in 1999, and what are they doing now??? I love that album. Most of my Wilco listening is live stuff, but Summerteeth gets regular play. Great album to my ears.

Same here. Mostly live recordings, and the studio recording I return to the most is Summerteeth. A truly beautiful record.

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What were they doing in 1999, and what are they doing now??? I love that album. Most of my Wilco listening is live stuff, but Summerteeth gets regular play. Great album to my ears. 

i have a bit of a problem w/ some of the production on that record.

 

 

i love O'Rourke's sound and would be happy if they used him on every record. i'd also be curious to have Albini do an EP for them.

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