Wilco — 25 August 2021, Portland, ME (Thompson’s Point)

[bböp]

Hey, did you know it was Jeff's birthday at this show in Maine? From all the social media messages throughout the day to Carrie Brownstein mentioning it during Sleater-Kinney's set to the crowd trying to sing "Happy Birthday" before the first two songs of Wilco's set — forcing Jeff to stop and restart Random Name Generator — it seemed like there was some anticipation that something out of the ordinary might happen. The presentation of a lobster cake, maybe? An on-stage Moxie toast, perhaps? As it turned out, there was nothing nearly that dramatic (unless you count the drunken lady in the second row who sneaked in just before Wilco started and then kept losing her balance and falling over repeatedly during the early part of the show).

 

I was going to say that we were able to give Jeff the "gift" of letting him play whatever songs he wanted and not even complaining a little bit, but then I remembered there was apparently someone who kept requesting a rarity from A.M., to the brief annoyance of the birthday boy. "That's a deep cut," Jeff snapped about halfway through Wilco's 93- minute set. "It's my birthday and we're not gonna play it, so you can shut up." Then, in classic Jeff fashion a second later: "I'm sorry." I couldn't even hear what the request was, but a couple of songs later before playing Box Full Of Letters, Jeff tried to offer some small consolation to the requester by saying that the song they were about to play was at least from the same album as the request. "Hopefully my rude comment didn't make him leave," Jeff said.

 

That was one of several bits of birthday-related banter we got throughout the course of the evening. Before If I Ever Was A Child, Jeff said, "I want to sing this song to myself." And making his usual comment about the garishness of Nels' white double-neck, Jerry Jones guitar before Dawned On Me, Jeff quipped, "That guitar is made of my birthday cake." He also made a joke about it being "my first birthday in 18 months," recommended performing before a crowd of people as a good way to spend one's birthday ("I'm an advocate") and thanked the crowd "for spending my birthday with me...2000 of my closest friends."

 

Certainly there could have been worse places to spend a birthday, I guess. Following a successful debut with Big Thief at Thompson's Point in 2017, this was Wilco's long-awaited return to the picturesque piece of land overlooking the Fore River. The weather was generally quite lovely, though it seemingly got muggier and muggier as the night wore on. I'm not sure whether that had more to do with people packing in closer and closer as Wilco got closer to taking the stage, but certainly one of those Big Ass Fans or a giant A/C unit would have been pretty welcome by the end.

 

As for Wilco's performance, hey did you know this was Jeff's birthday? According to a cursory search, I can only find three total times in its history that the full band has played a show on Jeff's birthday and only one other time this century (at the Troxy in London in 2009, for the record). I seem to recall there being a cake brought out at that London gig, but perhaps our resident Tatlock can share his memories of that night. What a random place that was for the band to play, wasn't it? About the only think I recall is taking a shared-ride car to get back to where I was staying before ridesharing was even a thing. But I digress...

 

Twelve years, four albums and one global pandemic later, there wasn't any cake in Portland — at least not on stage — but there was a certain amount of goofiness as the set wore on toward its inevitable conclusion. Starting with Hummingbird, when Jeff did some extra, uh, stretching/posing/grimacing before he started singing and also accentuated some of the silly moves he's been known to do during that song in particular, to the The End-style spoken-word bit preceding Heavy Metal Drummer that has been a source of amusement for all of the band members during this run, it just seemed to me like everyone was a little looser than they have been — perhaps on account of Jeff's birthday or just because the tour is winding down.

 

Even at the very end of the show-closing Outtasite (Outta Mind), John and Glenn had a bit of a moment when John was trying to time his final rock 'n' roll leap to the last down beat of Glenn's drum stroke and they were just a tiny bit off. Maybe you had to be there, but it was kind of funny — at least to me. As with the rest of the set, there were more than a few smiles to go around. Happy 54th birthday, Jeff! Let's celebrate — or not — in another 12 years! #OyVey

 

Here was the complete Wilco setlist, as played (didn’t get a look at the printed list, so can’t speak to any omissions/changes but I’m fairly certain they cut California Stars at the end due to time):

A Shot In The Arm

Random Name Generator

At Least That’s What You Said

One Wing

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>
Art Of Almost

If I Ever Was A Child

Impossible Germany

Hummingbird

Everyone Hides

Box Full Of Letters

Dawned On Me

Jesus, etc.

Theologians

Heavy Metal Drummer

I’m The Man Who Loves You

I’m Always In Love

—————————————————

The Late Greats

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

 

And for those who care, this was Sleater-Kinney’s complete setlist, as played:

High In The Grass

Hurry On Home

A New Wave

Shadow Town

Jumpers

Price Tag

Tomorrow’s Grave

Can I Go On

Path Of Wellness

Bury Our Friends

Down The Line

Reach Out

Modern Girl

Bring Mercy

The Fox

Worry With You

One Beat>
Entertain

[Albert Tatlock]

16 minutes ago, bböp said:

Parking this thread with setlists for now since I’m catching an uber-early flight back to Chicago. Will update with some kind of blatherings wonderful when I reach the home front.

Whoa, had me worried for a minute as still 1 hour until my elevenses! Will check back for afternoon tea then.

[Sun Caught Fire]

No break for a happy birthday rendering? Glad i was able to catch On and On and On early in the tour as it seems to be gone.

[tinnitus photography]

just curious... for those at/near the rail, did the venue allow photographers in the security pit area last night?

[Sun Caught Fire]

Don't know about last night but they did on the first 4 shows of the tour.

[sinko25]

Looking forward to your writeup of the show, bbop. I had a good time, band sounded great, Jeff and company seemed to be in good spirits. I've seen a dozen or so Wilco sets, most at Solid Sound, and I'd rank this towards the bottom. That's not to say it was bad, or that I didn't enjoy myself, just that I'm used to getting almost everything I want and being surprised at things like new arrangements/variations on tunes etc, and there was nothing new or surprising here, and I would have swapped out maybe half the setlist if it were up to me. The setlist didn't really lend itself to many noisy-chaos-stopping-on-a-dime moments; those were what grabbed me the first time I saw them live and kept me going. Went with some first timers some of whom I've been hyping up live Wilco to for years and I think they were a little underwhelmed.

 

Also, was something up with the drum mix? Sounded very muffled at times. I wonder if they had to keep things a hair quieter than they normally would due to city restrictions or something; I know Thompson's Point has a hard 10PM curfew.

 

Dig the venue overall though, easy in, fairly easy out (although we got a headstart walking out during Outtasite). Vax check was a breeze and no TSA-lite security, no one wasting time carding my clearly 30+ year old self.  Night and day from the (non-Wilco) LiveNation show I saw the night before.

[sinko25]

3 hours ago, Sun Caught Fire said:

No break for a happy birthday rendering? Glad i was able to catch On and On and On early in the tour as it seems to be gone.

There was! Right before RNG I think - it bubbled up from the crowd and the band had a false start before someone cut it off and allowed the audience to continue.

[bböp]

6 hours ago, tinnitus photography said:

just curious... for those at/near the rail, did the venue allow photographers in the security pit area last night?

 

I noticed during S-K's set that there oddly weren't any photographers and actually, now that I think of it, I don't really remember any during Wilco's set either. Why? Has that been an issue there in the past?

[u2roolz]

The A.M. song that was requested was Pick Up The Change, according to other reports. Maybe drunk lady kept falling down to pick up the change. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[sinko25]

1 hour ago, bböp said:

 

I noticed during S-K's set that there oddly weren't any photographers and actually, now that I think of it, I don't really remember any during Wilco's set either. Why? Has that been an issue there in the past?

I was too far back to see anything, but it appears there was at least one photographer in the pit last night ...

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/203844190852157?post_id=541359660433940&view=permalink

[tinnitus photography]

1 hour ago, bböp said:

 

I noticed during S-K's set that there oddly weren't any photographers and actually, now that I think of it, I don't really remember any during Wilco's set either. Why? Has that been an issue there in the past?

not from Wilco... every time i've had to shoot soundboard (Capitol Theatre in Concord NH, Wang in Boston, and now the Pavilion show) it's been venue and not band rules. Some bands (esp older female musicians) specify soundboard shoots though.


edit - I emailed the photographer (mainly to compliment her, i really liked her shots and checked out her website) and she said it was a pit shoot but only from the wings, so Paul that's probably why you didn't notice her.

[Albert Tatlock]

22 hours ago, bböp said:

one of those Big Ass Fans or a giant A/C unit would have been pretty welcome by the end.

 

I seem to recall there being a cake brought out at that London gig, but perhaps our resident Tatlock can share his memories of that night. 

 

(i) Maybe but my big ass could not be there.

 

(ii) I believe there was indeed a cake, but I missed that show in fact. I don't recall the reason, but it must have been monumental of course. I did catch them in Europe on the same tour as penance - appropriately enough at Santiago de Compostella. I did not walk there, but did wear a cilice and regularly beat myself over the head with a stout stick. So things evened out I think.