Wilco — 19 January 2020, Riviera Maya, Mexico (Hard Rock Hotel) [Sky Blue Sky Festival; Day 2 of 4]

[bböp]

Where to start with a recap of the second of three Wilco sets at the inaugural Sky Blue Sky Festival? With the three-song wallop of a start? With the appearance of a true rarity in That's Not The Issue? With the delightfully rocking encore pairing of Monday and Hoodoo Voodoo, which began fittingly with the count-in (yay!) and ended with a fiery guitar duel between Nels and Pat?

 

Take your pick, I suppose, or pick one of the other unique occurrences that made for another memorable seaside show on the Yucatán Peninsula. One could talk about the relatively brief, but drenching, rain shower that began during Walken (a sign?) and continued for a couple of songs. Or the crowd chanting Pat's name after Box Full Of Letters, an acknowledgement of his spirited solo that resulted in a smile not even his "winter beard" could hide and caused Jeff to subsequently quip, "Have you ever heard him play banjo?" Or Jeff causing a murmur to go through the crowd when he came out for the encore and briefly took a seat behind the drum kit before abandoning the charade.

 

Wherever you want to begin, the fact is Wilco turned in another 25-song, roughly two-hour performance with no repeated songs (which you would have to assume will also be the case again Tuesday on the concluding night of SBS). And the setlist was once again a curious mix of songs played pretty regularly as part of the Ode To Joy tour as well as some relative rarities. The aforementioned That's Not The Issue, for instance, was a real gasp! moment considering the band hadn't played it at all since 2014 and for just the third time overall since 2010, and yet it went off without a hitch (and possibly even at a slightly faster tempo than I remember).

 

Meanwhile, the opening trio of Wilco (The Song), Wishful Thinking and Can't Stand It were not only performed by the full band for the first time since BTH (Before The Hiatus) — not counting Wishful Thinking's inclusion as part of the Solid Sound karaoke set last summer — but WTS hadn't been heard at all since 2014. Walken and Pot Kettle Black also hadn't been played live since BTH, for what it's worth.

 

Sporting the same "festive" Hawaiian shirt he wore the previous show (though buttoned up this time) and no hat, Jeff once again seemed very relaxed and in an almost-mischievous, devil-may-care mood. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident than during Kingpin — also making its first appearance since BTH — when he somehow forgot to sing the second verse (with its accompanying handclaps) and jumped straight into the third before circling back. "I guess that was the first major trainwreck," Jeff said afterward. "We did discuss it (before the show) and decided being unprepared would be more fun for everyone." He added that some kind of "wormhole" must have caused him to end up in the third verse. "Mayans, man," Jeff cracked, before extolling the area's ancient, advanced civilization.

 

Other visits to Banter Corner included a somewhat-lengthy bit of talk before the performance of the "titular song" of the festival, as Jeff called it. "I'm embarrassed to say that out loud," he said. "Anyway, (that title) sounds good on paper but when you hear the song, it doesn't exactly scream beach vacation; it doesn't even whisper beach vacation." In other words, One Big Holiday it ain't. But then Jeff also took the opportunity to point out a young woman in the front row who was apparently throwing more than a few elbows — in excitement, I think — at the man next to her, who turned out to be her father. Jeff joked that it was "more violence than he liked to see at a Wilco show" and asked her to "dial it down a little bit." "This isn't Slipknot," Jeff quipped. "I wish it was."

 

(As an aside, a couple of other random bits of amusing Jeff chat I jotted down included his revelation that his New Year's resolution was to stop pulling his pants up on stage, which he may or may not have violated near the end of tonight's set, and the comment after introducing the rather grim subject matter of White Wooden Cross and how it might seem like an odd song choice for a beach festival — "We go to war with the songs we have, not what we wish we had," — that caused Glenn to momentarily raise an eyebrow at his bandmate.)

 

Of course, for as many good vibes and relative rarities that surfaced during the set, there were some small letdowns as well. I think some had hoped that Sharon Van Etten, who played a fine 75-minute set with her band (sans Heather Woods Broderick) prior to Wilco, might reprise her collaboration with Jeff and Co., on Radio Cure that happened at one of last month's Winterlude shows in Chicago. Or at least share the stage for something. Ditto Calexico, which had entertained a relatively sizable crowd at SBS's beach lagoon stage earlier in the day. And of course, as nice as it was to hear Hoodoo Voodoo again, I think a small part of me was hoping former guitar/bass/keyboard tech Josh (aka the Shirtless Roadie) would magically step out from the side of the stage with cowbell and drumstick in hand.

 

These are all pretty minor quibbles, though, just as I think Jeff missed an opportunity during I Am Trying To Break Your Heart to sing "what was I thinking when we said...hola." But seriously, I think those of us who've gotten the chance to be here and see these first shows of 2020 have very little about which to gripe. I still don't fully get why Wilco has chosen to vary its setlists so much here of all places — as opposed to other multi-night stands — but I'm trying not to question too much and, as they say, laissez les bon temps rouler. In coastal Mexico, while spending the weekend at a nice all-inclusive resort while winter rages at home, it just seems like the thing to do...

 

Here was Wilco's complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at SBS (there were no changes from the printed list):

 

Wilco (The Song)

Wishful Thinking

Can't Stand It

Before Us

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

If I Ever Was A Child

That's Not The Issue

Walken

White Wooden Cross

Pot Kettle Black

How To Fight Loneliness

Bull Black Nova

Random Name Generator

Sky Blue Sky

Kingpin

Box Full Of Letters

Theologians

Jesus, etc.

We Were Lucky

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

The Late Greats

Misunderstood

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

Monday

Hoodoo Voodoo

[dagwave]

Goodness Gracias.

[Madcap]

He did say hola during IATTBYH!

 

Rain aside, what a fantastic show, although I also wish SVE would have made an appearance. The opening trio was indeed fantastic, did not expect to hear W(TS) so that and Can’t Stand It were very welcome surprises.

 

I had never heard Calexico before, but their set was fantastic, especially for the beach setting. SVE’s set was awesome too. I caught maybe an hour of The Comet is Coming too and thought they were very good as well.

[bböp]

He did say hola during IATTBYH!

I would be surprised if he didn’t, but where I was standing the speaker was so loud that I really couldn’t tell! So thanks for the confirmation.

[knotgreen]

I still don't fully get why Wilco has chosen to vary its setlists so much here of all places — as opposed to other multi-night stands — but I'm trying not to question too much and, as they say, laissez les bon temps rouler. 

 

Agreed, but this bodes very well for AOTJ (after Ode to Joy) 

[DiamondClaw]

Holy cow, those are some amazing setlists! I wish we got a bit more of this variety in Chicago last month, but still happy for everyone getting to enjoy this down in Mexico! Can't wait to hear what Night 3 has in store. Thanks for the reports!

[Turnips]

Wow, this sounds like an amazing experience.  I will try to get there if there's another one of these.

 

Here's hoping these get the Roadcase treatment, to have 3 full sets without repeat would be 

 

I'm curious for those in attendance, how big are these shows?  I've heard smallish but wondering what that means - like under 1000 people?

[Madcap]

I think it’s pretty obvious why they’re varying their setlists more here. They know everyone here is seeing all three shows so there’s no need to play impossible Germany or Jesus etc every show like they feel compelled to elsewhere. Plus, it’s a lot easier to sell an expensive festival like this if you know that you’re going to see a bunch of songs that you might otherwise hear. I am very curious to see if any of these rarities make their way into the rotation for the rest of year since they had to relearn them!

[Madcap]

Crowds are definitely smaller than I expected but I am really bad at guessing sizes so I’ll let someone else chime in lol

[dagwave]

I’d say 1200-1548 peeps. Maybe 1642.

 

Imma gonna start counting.

[bböp]

I think it’s pretty obvious why they’re varying their setlists more here. They know everyone here is seeing all three shows so there’s no need to play impossible Germany or Jesus etc every show like they feel compelled to elsewhere. Plus, it’s a lot easier to sell an expensive festival like this if you know that you’re going to see a bunch of songs that you might otherwise hear. I am very curious to see if any of these rarities make their way into the rotation for the rest of year since they had to relearn them!

I definitely get that, but as I said, I guess I would be a little chagrined if I had come from out of town to go to multiple Winterlude shows, for instance.

 

Also, as I’ve suggested, a decent portion of the crowd here seems made up of people who might like Wilco fine but are more interested in a resort vacation with music (and free booze, etc.). Just from general observation, the level of Wilco fandom seems not quite as serious as at, say, Solid Sound or even Winterlude.

 

Personally, I think there’s at least a little thought in terms of doing the completely no repeats shows in Mexico this time that maybe that will help entice more people to come down if they do future SBS events here or elsewhere.

[worldrecordplayer]

We were told 1800 tix sold. Like first SS, very good for the patrons, not so much fore the promoters but they look at this as a long term project.

 

From my perspective and interractions, I'd say this is a solid Wilco show. Don't get any vibe this is a resort vacation and yeah, we'll here some music kind of crowd. But YMMV. 

 

Nice to finally get to meet our intrepid reporter Paul last night. 

 

And i got my Monday!

[Madcap]

Interesting, what would capacity be do you think? 2,500?

[brownie]

I had never heard Calexico before, but their set was fantastic, especially for the beach setting.

Calexico is one of my favorite bands.  Do you remember how many people were in the band that played? I’m curious if it was their full touring band (7 people), or some subset.  It could have been as few as three and they could have legitimately called themselves Calexico.

 

I wish I could have been there, but unfortunately I think this sort of trip is permanently outside my ability to pay for it.

[Madcap]

I think it was 7 - L to R: horn/keys, horn, drums, guitar, bass, guitar, keys?

[bböp]

Calexico is one of my favorite bands. Do you remember how many people were in the band that played? I’m curious if it was their full touring band (7 people), or some subset. It could have been as few as three and they could have legitimately called themselves Calexico.

 

I wish I could have been there, but unfortunately I think this sort of trip is permanently outside my ability to pay for it.

 

They didn’t have the European guys with them, so no Martin Wenk and no Jairo Zavala (does he still play with them?) So the lineup for SBS was Joey and John plus Jacob Valenzuela, Sergio Mendoza, Brian Lopez on guitar plus a bass player (not sure if it was Scott Colberg or someone else) and another trumpeter I didn’t recognize.