Wilco — 17 November 2019, Kansas City, MO (Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland)

[nalafej]

Hopefully VCers in attendance will share their reviews, I found this one online which says they played 175 minutes last night. 

 

https://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article237405444.html

[bböp]

Hopefully VCers in attendance will share their reviews, I found this one online which says they played 175 minutes last night.

 

https://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article237405444.html

I wasn’t able to get to KC this time, unfortunately, but no chance in hell that was a 175-minute show unless NovaCat and Impossible Germany took up 30 minutes each. Haha. And also, the writer gets docked points for using the A and S words, as in “the ashes of the seminal...Uncle Tupelo.”

 

Nice to see that Too Far Apart got played (not “busted out”), though.

 

[Editing my post to get the complete setlist, as played, somewhere near the top]:

 

Bright Leaves

Before Us

Company In My Back

War On War

Handshake Drugs

At Least That’s What You Said

One and a Half Stars

Hummingbird

White Wooden Cross

Via Chicago

Bull Black Nova

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Random Name Generator

Reservations

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

We Were Lucky

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Dawned On Me

Box Full Of Letters

Everyone Hides

I’m Always In Love

I’m The Man Who Loves You

Hold Me Anyway

Misunderstood

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

Too Far Apart

California Stars

The Late Greats

I’m A Wheel

[Passenger Sid]

I think 175 minutes was about right. Reviewer is correct in saying it seemed a meaner, angrier Wilco. Not in how Jeff & band we’re on personal level, but how they played. Bull Black Nova was pretty ferocious. On ALTWYS and Via Chicago, along with others, Glenn was shredding the kit. In a good way. Nels seemed to be ripping his guitar a new one in half the songs played. I found, with 8 new songs mixed into the set, the overall balance of pop with rock with noise with beauty...etc, was pretty perfect. Perhaps Reservations, if I had to pick the standout, was the biggest highlight. It sounded even more beautiful sandwiched between, overall, a volcano of loud guitars, drums and glorious noise.

[nalafej]

Nice to see that Too Far Apart got played (not “busted out”), though.

 

Yes! Two years to the day of it's last play in MN.

[bböp]

I think 175 minutes was about right.

175 minutes is five minutes shy of three hours. With virtually the same setlist (swapping out a few songs), the longest they had played since OTJ came out has been 2:20, maybe 2:25. Believe me, I’ve timed about 35 of these shows...

[theashtraysays]

... unless NovaCat ... took up 30 minutes each.

Be still my heart.

[bböp]

Also the reviewer apparently neglected (or declined) to mention that Tweedy band member and recent KC transplant Liam Kazar joined the band on electric guitar for California Stars.

[Passenger Sid]

Timothy Finn, a long-time music critic in K.C. wrote, I think, an accurate & fair review of last night's show:

 

https://www.inkansascity.com/arts-entertainment/contemporary-music/tim-finn-review-wilco/

[choo-choo-charlie]

I needed the day to process my thoughts on last night’s show in Kansas City as well as reconstruct my melted face. Here we go.

 

During the opening duo of Bright Leaves and Before Us, Glenn’s drums sounded like a war cry. Wielding two mallets in *each* hand, his unrelenting pounding created the atmosphere of an old wooden warship headed out to battle at sea. I could feel it coming up through the floor.

 

War on War moved along at a slightly faster clip than usual and the ending aggressively built to a tight finish. After a bit of sit-stand action from the crowd as they tried to figure out the pace and vibe of the first few songs, rows of fans stood up in sequence like they were doing the wave at a ballpark when Jeff switched to electric guitar for the noisy coda of Handshake Drugs.

 

It’s as if everyone collectively decided this was the moment to get up and stay on their feet while Jeff and Nels’ guitars roared to a tremendous climax, both sustaining the sizzling feedback for probably a full minute past the normal conclusion as Jeff held his SG high above his head.

 

New tunes like One and a Half Stars and White Wooden Cross sounded fuller and richer in a live setting, and were a nice landing pad from the soaring guitars of Handshake Drugs. Via Chicago was its usual explosive self. Jeff and John are just so steady while chaos erupts around them.

 

The Bull Black Nova > Laminated Cat combo was loud and gritty, full of muscular guitar pyrotechnics. The former was highlighted by a creepy graphic backdrop of thick, viscous blood slowly rolling down the screen, as if it were leaking in the trunk of the car. The latter in particular was played at an even faster tempo than usual. Glenn’s ability to play those polyrhythms with all four limbs is a masterclass in rock percussion.

 

They took the Cat out for a nice long walk, with several noisy peaks. This is the way they used to play it in 2002-2003. At one point in the tune, the lights shone tightly on Jeff & Glenn with the rest of the band in the darker outskirts of the stage — underscoring the song’s origins as a Loose Fur jam that came out of the duo’s blossoming musical partnership that began 18 years ago.

 

Random Name Generator is just plain rock ‘n roll fun. Everyone on stage was smiling. Reservations was tender and full of little musical flourishes from each member that colored Jeff’s song beautifully. And the crowd was quiet and respectful; no “woo’s!” or other outbursts.

 

Nels received a nice ovation after Impossible Germany, which I used to get another round of beers — but I had a clear vantage point of the stage from the bar, so I could clearly hear his frantic fretboard dynamics as he wrangled a fractured and melodic Television-meets-Allman solo from his Jazzmaster.

 

We Were Lucky really brings the heat in a live setting. I hope this stays in the setlist rotation. Love Is Everywhere is among my favorites from the new record. Just a powerful, anthemic tune. The pop-rock race to the finish of Dawned on Me, Box Full of Letters, Everyone Hides (also one of my new favorites), I’m Always in Love and I’m the Man Who Loves You kept the whole room dancing. Is there a band that does this better?

 

At this point in the show I wondered if we’d get anything from Being There, and they delivered with the quintessential Wilco tune: Misunderstood, complete with 28 nothings. Some days, this is my favorite Wilco song, and last night it sounded just perfect. I love that they add the wobbly tremolo effect to Jeff’s voice and guitar in the live setting now so it sounds like it did on the record.

 

Too Far Apart was a great pick for another A.M. deep cut to give a nod to the show taking place on the exact 25th anniversary of the first Wilco show in fall 1994. I’m a Wheel properly closed out the evening, thrashing and bashing in proper Wilco fashion.

 

Of the 14 shows I’ve seen, this one was probably top 3. It was that good. And, it was clear the boys were glad to be playing together again. Perhaps there was something special in the air because of the significant anniversary. Maybe it’s poetry and magic; something too big to have a name.

 

Go to the show.

 

p.s. Thanks to Stan for the setlist. My wife and I chatted him up at the soundboard in Milan back in September and mentioned that we’d be at the KC show. “Come find me and I’ll get you a setlist” he said, after “Oh? There’s a show in KC?” He graciously spoke to us for a few minutes before the show last night as we interrupted his pre-show viewing of the Rams game on his iPad. Wilco’s crew is just so spectacular. They deserve a lot of praise and credit.

[bböp]

Timothy Finn, a long-time music critic in K.C. wrote, I think, an accurate & fair review of last night's show:

 

https://www.inkansascity.com/arts-entertainment/contemporary-music/tim-finn-review-wilco/

Yeah, that was a pretty solid recap as usual by Finn. Why is he no longer writing for the Star, if you have any idea?

[choo-choo-charlie]

Yeah, that was a pretty solid recap as usual by Finn. Why is he no longer writing for the Star, if you have any idea?

The KC Star is in a bad way. Have consistently laid off dozens of longtime editors and writers the last several years. Just announced the Saturday print edition will no longer be circulated in 2020. Dying its slow death like other print media outlets.

[bböp]

The KC Star is in a bad way. Have consistently laid off dozens of longtime editors and writers the last several years. Just announced the Saturday print edition will no longer be circulated in 2020. Dying its slow death like other print media outlets.

As an old journo cast about by the media revolution myself, I figured it was something like that. Damn shame. (Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the show, btw.)

[choo-choo-charlie]

As an old journo cast about by the media revolution myself, I figured it was something like that. Damn shame. (Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the show, btw.)

Tim Finn held down the fort for a very long time and did a great job. The writer who did this review actually is my second cousin and has probably been to 1,000 shows in his lifetime. He has freelanced for the Star and other publications for probably 15 years, covering probably 3-5 shows a month, maybe more.