Wilco — 14 August 2021, Atlanta, GA (Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park)

[bböp]

I obviously wasn't at the show. Would be interested to hear details, though. Is this venue the same as the Chastain Park venue the band has played in the past? I've actually never made it there myself, but I remember there being a lot of audience shenanigans one time when they played at Chastain Park. Spill the tea, attendees!

 

It occurred to me this morning that, I think outside of Outtasite at Red Rocks, there haven't been any Being There songs played this whole tour. Not a great one for the old-school heads (unless you're a huuuuuuuuge fan of Box or something ).

 

Anyway, here was Wilco's complete setlist as played, taken from Wilcoworld for record-keeping purposes here. I suspect this was another Live Nation shed-type venue with a curfew, which looks like it forced the cutting of a couple songs. #Bah (Judging from the printed list, it looks like What Light was planned between Man and HMD and The Late Greats as the first song of the encore, but neither were apparently played. Perhaps someone can confirm.)

 

A Shot In The Arm

Random Name Generator

At Least That's What You Said

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Art Of Almost

If I Ever Was A Child

Impossible Germany

Box Full Of Letters

Hate It Here

Either Way

Everyone Hides

Dawned On Me

Jesus, etc.

Theologians

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm Always In Love

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

California Stars

[lost highway]

Curious to see how you can break down their selections by album, given their huge catalog this can leave fans of a particular album feeling like the material is under represented.

 

AM: 1

BT: 0

ST: 2

YHF: 4

AGIB: 2

SBS: 3

WtA: 0

TWL: 2

SW: 1

Schm: 1

OTJ: 2

MMA: 1

 

Not too bad a spread, but yeah, not a lot of old school love in there. 

[Passenger Sid]

I was at the KC "show", so I'd be happy to have seen ANY setlist.

 

Wilco has a tough job pulling from a deep catalogue of great music, while also trying to please most fans that show up, and also pleasing the 6 band members.

 

R.E.M. was similar. On their Up tour, I'd rather have heard Belong, Flowers Of Guatemala & Fretless than Man On The Moon, Losing My Religion & It's The End Of The World As I Know It.

 

I'd like to see a song of just Jeff & guitar...Future Age, Lonely One, Solitaire, etc. Die-hards would go bonkers if Dreamer In My Dreams was played. Or if Nels & Jeff came out to play Dash 7. Kicking Television, I Might or Hesitating Beauty would sound fresh. I think Just Say Goodbye is the highlight of Schmilco & You Satellite is the highlight of Star Wars. 

 

 

 

 

[jff]

18 hours ago, bböp said:

 Is this venue the same as the Chastain Park venue the band has played in the past? I've actually never made it there myself, but I remember there being a lot of audience shenanigans one time when they played at Chastain Park. Spill the tea, attendees!

 

 

 

Yes, same venue.  They played here in support of Ode to Joy and Sky Blue Sky, and probably other times before that.

 

I'm not sure what the audience shenanigans are that you're referring to, but Chastain has a long, well documented history of poor audience behavior.  Mostly people going there for a night out and paying no attention to the band, loudly conversing, and giving no respect to those who actually want to hear the music.  I've witnessed this myself almost every time I've been there, and it's so bad that the artists sometimes comment on it from the stage.  The venue is known as a nice place for a night out, so people go there just to be there, often with no interest whatsoever in whatever band might be playing.

[theashtraysays]

As this was my first full band Wilco show since Winnipeg last March, I was going to have a grand time no matter what.  And I did!! Though now I have the dubious honor of tea-spilling for a show without a @bböp review... but here goes.
The amphitheater is really a pretty nice place.  Lots of stone rather than just concrete, nestled in a very nice park in one of the (many) desirable neighborhoods in the north Atlanta suburb area.  The fixed seats in rows were spaced really far apart, making walking easy but giving the place a very "splayed out" feel especially toward the back.  The folding chairs connected in long rows in the pit, however, were rather tightly spaced making the pee break / refreshment run folks in the middle having to apologetically climb over those in the outer seats and making pogoing in the pit rather awkward.  But sightlines were good, and the sound was excellent as always. 

The show was reserved seats, which brings with it the good (show up whenever you want, a little personal space, and ease of coming and going) and the bad (TALKERS!, phone gazers, aisle walkers,etc ....).  I always feel sorry for the openers at a reserved seat show, and boy this one was classic.  Nnamdi played to about a 10-15% full crowd with 85% indifference.  Polite applause, but I saw only a handful of folks who were paying much attention.  Sleater-Kinney started while it was still light out, and you could tell that the SK faithful were there, albeit spread out in little pockets around the venue.  Carrie made a great little quip at the front row dudes all sitting down stoic-like for their set, saying "we're so happy yo be playing music again, and we're happy to just meet you where you are right now", and later "the sun will go down soon, I promise".  But their fans, mostly younger women, were there for them, and started dancing their way into the center pit aisle about halfway through the set and eventually made a full-on stage crush right down front.  Security was super chill, just watching them having a blast losing their minds to the music.  I thought it was going to get testy when one of the guards came over to them, but it was just to tell them to get their drinks off the stage and then he wandered back to his post.  Very cool to see that.  I tell ya, the enthusiasm that the SK faithful have for their heroes makes most of us look like wet blankets.  It was a joy to watch and totally infectious (and more on that for the Nashville GA review...).

So then we get Wilco, starting off with that one-two punch of A Shot in the Arm and Random Name Generator.  Definitely a great pair to start the show and carry over a little SK energy. At Least That's What You Said had perhaps the only "quiet" moment of the show during the lyrics, but the explosion of noise and Glenn's drum work got us right back into a rock show.  Kudo's to the lighting team too - no backdrop at all but some really well done lights that made the show come alive at all the right moments for both Wilco and the SK set.  The rest of the Wilco set was tight, enjoyable, and very much a crowd pleasing "hits and faves" shorter set much like the others in this tour. 

If you were hoping for a long, juicy report from Banter Corner, you're out of luck here folks.  With the short set and hard curfew, Jeff didn't spend much time talking.  I don't take notes, and my memory is not exactly in "steel trap" mode any more, but I just don't recall any of the usual Jeffie quips and comebacks this show.  There were a couple of audience shoutouts that got some kind of response, but for the most part Jeff just stuck to singing.  There was one memorable lyric flub at the end when he tried to pander a bit by singing "Atlanta stars" during CaliStars, and then promptly lost all memory of the following lyrics and just kinda stumbled into the refrain, adding later that "you guys know that song?  I don't" before heading off stage.  He definitely had one eye on the big red clock during the whole song, with the band waving goodbye at 11:01 on that one. 

On a more personal note, it's starting to appear that the Nova was left in the Chicago garage this run.  Even my new "FAUCI SAYS PLAY BULL BLACK NOVA" sign failed to get an audible for that one, though it did get an amused head-shake "Nope" from the lead singer, like a pitcher shaking off the pitch signal from the catcher.  Alas.  But in one of the more surreal things that's ever happened to me, no less than SIX of the very kind / southern hospitality security staff asked me "are you Vince?" when they saw me carrying in my sign for the night.  Turns out that someone had tipped them off during the pre-show security meeting that I'd be there with a sign, and that it would be OK for me to bring it in even though the venue policy was no signs over 8x10, since I'm a courteous, well-mannered signguy.  Quite the red carpet treatment!!

Would love to hear from others if there really was any noteworthy banter for the evening... c'mon folks! You can do it !!

Cheers!

 

[bböp]

1 hour ago, theashtraysays said:

On a more personal note, it's starting to appear that the Nova was left in the Chicago garage this run.  Even my new "FAUCI SAYS PLAY BULL BLACK NOVA" sign failed to get an audible for that one, though it did get an amused head-shake "Nope" from the lead singer, like a pitcher shaking off the pitch signal from the catcher.  Alas.  But in one of the more surreal things that's ever happened to me, no less than SIX of the very kind / southern hospitality security staff asked me "are you Vince?" when they saw me carrying in my sign for the night.  Turns out that someone had tipped them off during the pre-show security meeting that I'd be there with a sign, and that it would be OK for me to bring it in even though the venue policy was no signs over 8x10, since I'm a courteous, well-mannered signguy.  Quite the red carpet treatment!!

Would love to hear from others if there really was any noteworthy banter for the evening... c'mon folks! You can do it !!

Cheers!

 

 

Wow, the royal treatment indeed! You should test it out next time with a sign that says "Glenn is a big ol' baby!" or something like that. I wish I would have had such a security "escort" when I tried to bring in my empty poster tube to the venue in St. Louis. Thanks for nothing, Live Nation! (Special to Vince: I thought I actually had done something to warrant a visit from PK at that St. Louis show when she suddenly turned up next to my seat during the last song of the S-K set. Turns out she was just escorting some real VIPs to their seats. Haha! And I was actually sitting in one of their seats by mistake, having misread a 7 for a 1 on my ticket. Boy, did I feel dumb.)

 

Anyway, thanks for filling in some of the details! I had always heard that Chastain Park venue was kind of suspect as far as audiences go (I don't remember exactly what shenanigan I was thinking of, jff, but maybe it was just someone's report on the annoying crowd from last time). Great to hear that the S-K fanbase represented and injected some energy at least.

 

[jff]

3 hours ago, bböp said:

 

Anyway, thanks for filling in some of the details! I had always heard that Chastain Park venue was kind of suspect as far as audiences go (I don't remember exactly what shenanigan I was thinking of, jff, but maybe it was just someone's report on the annoying crowd from last time). Great to hear that the S-K fanbase represented and injected some energy at least.

 

 

I think much of Chastain's reputation comes from their "season ticket" concerts, in which tables are set up in the pit area, and people are allowed to bring in food, beverages, tablecloths, candles, and whatever else they want.  This attracts people who are there more for a very high end picnic than a concert.   But even when they have no tables or picnic basket shows, like Wilco and other rock shows, the problem persists.  I've seen Neil Young get pissed at the audience and abandon quiet songs half-way through.  A friend told me about seeing people throwing cheese at Jethro Tull.  And even Garrison Keilor had a negative experience.  https://www.ajc.com/blog/buzz/from-the-ajc-archives-when-garrison-keillor-stormed-off-the-stage-chastain-park/oYYcN9ob4rZFbKtqsdvEBO/

 

I'm glad to hear that there weren't those kinds of issues at the Wilco/SK show.

 

I don't mean to suggest it's always like that, though.  I've seen some wonderful shows there with great audiences.

[theashtraysays]

30 minutes ago, jff said:

 

I think much of Chastain's reputation comes from their "season ticket" concerts, in which tables are set up in the pit area, and people are allowed to bring in food, beverages, tablecloths, candles, and whatever else they want.  This attracts people who are there more for a very high end picnic than a concert.   But even when they have no tables or picnic basket shows, like Wilco and other rock shows, the problem persists.  I've seen Neil Young get pissed at the audience and abandon quiet songs half-way through.  A friend told me about seeing people throwing cheese at Jethro Tull.  And even Garrison Keilor had a negative experience.  https://www.ajc.com/blog/buzz/from-the-ajc-archives-when-garrison-keillor-stormed-off-the-stage-chastain-park/oYYcN9ob4rZFbKtqsdvEBO/

 

I'm glad to hear that there weren't those kinds of issues at the Wilco/SK show.

 

I don't mean to suggest it's always like that, though.  I've seen some wonderful shows there with great audiences.

Definitely several talkers near the front (I was in the second row), and I suspect it was way worse in the back.

Also several folks walking across the front "aisle" between the first row and the stage, particularly with the openers. 

I don't think "Reservations" would have been a good experience there.