Wilco — 23 October 2019, Irving, TX (Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory)

[bböp]

Though I’ve never been the frontman of a band like Wilco (or any band, for that matter), I imagine that sometimes you get lucky and don’t have to work very hard to connect with an audience and other times it can be a bit like pulling teeth so you have to give things a little nudge. And sometimes that nudge leads to more of a connection than you necessarily bargained for, so it can be a fine line.

Such was the case for Jeff tonight at the 4,000-seat Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory, a relatively soulless Live Nation-booked venue that might be described as a large concrete indoor theater. Wilco had played the room once before, a couple of years back just after it opened, and it wasn’t a very memorable show other than the live debut of the band’s cover of The Waiting in honor of Tom Petty, who had passed away the day before. It’s a bit hard to convey in words, perhaps, but the TMF just doesn’t have a lot of natural atmosphere. It’s sort of like being in a small arena with the high ceilings and concrete structure just deadening the acoustics in the place, and the typical rows of metal folding chairs fastened all close together making for a fairly uncomfortable seating experience. And there was probably a 15-foot space between the first row of seats and the front of the stage, creating an added distance between band and audience.

As the show started, with people still trickling in two or three songs into the show, it seemed as if this would be a fairly generic seated audience. When some people stood up here and there early on, I considered that about as good as things would get. But after War On War, I guess a few intrepid folks decided to go stand at the front of the stage and Jeff commented that “well, apparently, it’s a free-for-all,” and basically encouraged people to come fill in the gap between the stage and the first row of seats. “I don’t think it’s up to me, but I think you can do whatever you want," he said. "I will point out there are songs you might want to sit down during ... but there are plenty of seats available, including this space here where we're having a lovely time. We're not afraid of you. All right, I'm gonna give the old-timers a moment to get down here. You guys remember the scene in Willy Wonka when Grandpa Joe gets out of bed? Never mind."

 

I’m sure that some of the people who had purchased Live Nation’s dynamically priced (and, I’m sure, rather pricey) tickets in the first few rows probably weren’t too pleased with the stage rush, but it definitely created a much better vibe for the show overall IMHO. “That feels more like it, thank you,” Jeff continued. “Thank you very much. Thanks for coming (down), thanks for taking the initiative. I'm just getting used to you, just looking around, just trying to make a connection with all of you. We're all here together. We’re not playing for you, we’re playing with you, so thank you so much.” Later in the show Jeff commented on how it almost feels like "there’s two shows happening, a club show in the front, and maybe you guys (in the seats) are hearing the full show and seeing the full production” — the abstract art projections behind the band were back tonight — “that we spent so much time on, and money.”

(At one point, a security guard appeared and tried to clear the pit area and that caused Jeff to pause and check with the band’s tour manager, who was trying to work with venue security to establish some guidelines. “All right, I need to figure out what’s going on here for a second,” Jeff said after watching the kerfuffle during Someone To Lose. “Let’s establish the rules and tell me what they are, Mr. Eric. (People) can be down in front, but not in the aisles. We want everybody to be safe, all right? Thank you so much. This is gonna be OK. We can overcome this.”)

It wouldn’t be the last time Jeff found himself asking what was happening. More than a few of the people who had come down to the standing pit area decided that, perhaps because of their newfound proximity to the band, they should say or yell whatever was on their minds. And Jeff, probably in an effort to maintain that newfound connection, didn’t really discourage them. For a while it was almost like one of those movies where someone can hear other people’s thoughts or a live version of Twitter or something. It really was a fascinating — as one friend described it — display of humanity, for better and worse.

So there were exchanges like the one when a couple guys yelled for Nels’ guitar to be turned up and Jeff said if they wanted to hear Nels’ guitar better they might want to go back to their seats because it was amplified through the PA system and there was nothing Nels could do about it where he was standing. Almost immediately another guy yelled back, “Turn it up to 11, Nels!” Jeff then had to point out that the guy was actually standing in front of his (Jeff’s) guitar amp.

In fairness, I should say that a lot of the random comments seemed to come from a genuine admiration and fondness for the band, including one likening them to the "Chicago Allman Brothers." ("I get it," replied Jeff. "Good one.") Generally speaking, there were plenty of “thanks for coming” comments, some hearty wooing and stuff like that. But there was also a lot of terrible cell phone etiquette, with more than a few folks around me taking selfies (or having their photo taken by someone else) with their back to the band, spinning around to take a panoramic photo or video right in the middle of a song or blatantly shooting videos right in Jeff’s sight line. C'mon people!

One especially noteworthy interaction came between Jeff and a long-haired gentleman front and center, who had apparently been the original stage rusher. I guess the guy tried to start a conversation with Jeff at one point and pointed out the T-shirt he was wearing in support of the New Wave band The Alarm. Jeff, who usually tries to nip those kinds of exchanges in the bud, poked a little fun at him by saying that he hadn’t seen an Alarm T-shirt in 40 years. "Way to hang in there, buddy" Jeff joked. "You might be the last Alarm fan. There's lots of them? I'm sorry. I didn't mean that." Then Jeff dubbed him "pretty much the host monkey for this whole show" and told the rest of the crowd that “this is pretty much a show for him. He was sitting in his seat and he was like, 'Fuck this.' I appreciate that kind of boldness.” (Jeff couldn’t resist sharing an anecdote after the next song about how he had once shared an Alarm record with his Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jay Farrar — the first EP that band released, apparently — and how Farrar had finally gotten to see them live and hated them. “So we weren't allowed to like them anymore," Jeff said. "I'm not throwing them under the bus or anything. They're great. We were fickle. Their hair was an obstacle that we couldn’t get over. Those were different times, my friend. We had time to hate things that were just not worth hating.")

As I said, it can be a fine line between making a connection with an audience and losing control of the performance altogether. Jeff definitely straddled that line at points on this night, but he was able to keep the proverbial train on the tracks more or less (he only had a couple of minor lyric flubs despite all the distractions). Even though he seemed perplexed at times by the boisterousness of the Wednesday-night crowd, which he confessed he had initially pegged as a Monday-night audience (drawing some good-natured boos), Jeff more or less just went with it. Certainly the rest of his bandmates seemed amused, with Glenn visibly cracking up throughout and definitely plenty of smiles all around the stage. I guess it was just one of those loose, throw-caution-to-the-wind type of shows that happen sometimes over the course of a long tour.

The Wilco Wednesday theme, which seemed to catch on with the audience more and more as the night went on, provided one final bit of opportunity for banter on a night filled with it (and, by the way, please feel free to chime in with anything I might have missed). Before closing out the show with a rocking encore, Jeff joked that the band was going to come back to town in a year or so when the term Wilco Wednesday was as commonplace as Taco Tuesday. “Wednesday doesn’t have shit going for it; Wilco's gonna claim Wednesday,” Jeff quipped. “That's the kind of energy Wilco likes to bring to a town — middle-of-the-week energy.”

If this is what Wednesdays are really like around here, the band might be well served to actually consider coming back mid-week next time through (although that would maybe alienate the Wilco Weekender army?). At the very least, though, I'm guessing they could probably make a killing on a bunch of “Wilco Wednesday” merch. If so, I'm calling dibs on a cut of the profits...

Here was the complete setlist, as played (the planned encore on the printed list was almost completely different, with only Heavy Metal Drummer actually played; An Empty Corner, Misunderstood, Jesus, etc., and I'm Always In Love were all scrapped):

Bright Leaves
Before Us
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
War On War
One and a Half Stars
Handshake Drugs
At Least That's What You Said
Someone To Lose
Hummingbird
White Wooden Cross
Via Chicago
How To Fight Loneliness
Bull Black Nova
Random Name Generator
Reservations
We Were Lucky
Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
Impossible Germany
California Stars
Box Full Of Letters
Everyone Hides
Theologians
I'm The Man Who Loves You
Hold Me Anyway
The Late Greats
---------------------------------
Heavy Metal Drummer
Red-Eyed and Blue>
I Got You (At The End of the Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)

[TemplePilot]

Really loved it, took a first timer who loved it too.

 

The ticket prices for this were insane, but that's this venue.  But about 3 songs in, Jeff invited everyone down and all bets were off.  And I was pleasantly surprised at how cool and civil everyone was, including venue staff.  Sucks if you paid a premium price for a ticket for no reason I guess, but it was nice that in a venue with no GA, everyone was given free reign to just go wherever they wanted.

 

Great set, fun banter, and probably the first I've been to in years where the entire crowd was super cool.  Not a drunken dick to be found and even more surprising, no one really watching the show through their phone the entire time, at least anywhere that I saw which is rare for the DFW shows, at least in my experience (this is #15 for me).

[Albert Tatlock]

That's funny re: The Alarm. I was only thinking to myself as I read the first couple of lines: 'On the plus side, they're Welsh (north Wales mind you). On the minus side, the hair.' Then I got to the punchline of your paragraph. I bought 68 Guns back in the day. It was all downhill from there in a Billy Idol version of punk sort of way.

[bböp]

That's funny re: The Alarm. I was only thinking to myself as I read the first couple of lines: 'On the plus side, they're Welsh (north Wales mind you). On the minus side, the hair.' Then I got to the punchline of your paragraph. I bought 68 Guns back in the day. It was all downhill from there in a Billy Idol version of punk sort of way.

 

I'm gonna grow my hair out and wear a Budgie shirt to a show someday...

[Albert Tatlock]

I'm gonna grow my hair out and wear a Budgie shirt to a show someday...

 

I’ll see your Budgie and raise you a Sassafras (or Young Marble Giants).

[bleedorange]

The band walked out to the most muted reception I've ever heard at the start of a concert, so I was really worried it would be a typical Dallas show in a terrible venue. But once the floodgates opened, I was one of the lucky ones to walk right up front (standing right in front of Pat), and it was a fantastic show.

 

The band seemed loose after that (evidenced by Jeff's banter throughout), and I loved every second of it. New stuff sounded great, and Nels's solo on Impossible Germany was absolutely incredible. It turned that song from something I thought I never needed to hear again into an absolute essential and a highlight.

[jhuml1]

I've been baffled why if Jeff wants everyone standing and fired up (which I concur with), every show in the DFW area since the Palladium show in 2009 has been booked in a venue with no GA section. UNT Auditorium, Fair Park Music Hall, McFarlin Auditorium, and Toyota Music Factory. It's almost always resulted in tension because lots of people are sitting. Same thing in Austin in 2017 at Bass Hall ("you guys look like an oil painting"). I think it ruined the 2011 show because the band wasn't drawing any energy from the crowd (they only played 20 songs and Jeff seemed pissed). At Toyota, both times they've played the front section has been configured with seats, but there are lots of shows there that have that entire front section as GA. Why can't Wilco do that? Is it the Platinum Ticket thing? I really hope in the future they will play places with GA up front, with seats in the back for those who want or need to sit. Last night was rescued by the migration up front - before that it was dead in there.

[TemplePilot]

I've been baffled why if Jeff wants everyone standing and fired up (which I concur with), every show in the DFW area since the Palladium show in 2009 has been booked in a venue with no GA section. UNT Auditorium, Fair Park Music Hall, McFarlin Auditorium, and Toyota Music Factory. It's almost always resulted in tension because lots of people are sitting. Same thing in Austin in 2017 at Bass Hall ("you guys look like an oil painting"). I think it ruined the 2011 show because the band wasn't drawing any energy from the crowd (they only played 20 songs and Jeff seemed pissed). At Toyota, both times they've played the front section has been configured with seats, but there are lots of shows there that have that entire front section as GA. Why can't Wilco do that? Is it the Platinum Ticket thing? I really hope in the future they will play places with GA up front, with seats in the back for those who want or need to sit. Last night was rescued by the migration up front - before that it was dead in there.

 

 

I won't pretend to know how it works but I've seen many shows there and this was the first time I've seen seats all the way to the front with no pit area.  Ryan Adams, Stone Temple Pilots, Beck/Cage the Elephant/Spoon, Father John Misty and Social Distortion all had a pit.  I was really surprised that there wasn't, and shocked at the disparity in price point on some of the tickets.  Even within the same section.  Seats that were 20 feet away from were literally double price from those just a few rows back.  Sometimes within the same row even.  I expect there to be some, but the gap was bizarre.  

 

I don't like the venue itself, because it's absurdly priced in every aspect - but I can't stand going into downtown Dallas, so it's extremely convenient.

[ditty]

Is it the Platinum Ticket thing?

ding, ding, ding, you're the winner.  At 10 a.m. day of on sale for Indianapolis, Row 1 tickets were $238, row 2 was $218, row 3 was $198.  Row 2 is currently $168, Row 6 $134, and Row 9 $114.  I finally pulled 2 in row 11 at 10:52 a.m. that cost me $130 total with all the fees.  IMO, Tony Margherita Management and Wilco fought the good fight as long as they could.  What I mentioned here I noticed at many shows on this tour.  (insert picture of Johnny Cash giving Live Nation the middle finger)