Wilco — 15 April 2022, New York, NY (United Palace) [Night 1 of 5]

[Mac]

Mac: 

 

My boys and I have seen over 2 dozen Wilco shows, including all the SSFs including the nite they played SummerTeeth  AND then played YHF.   It was a trek to get there on A Uber-trafficy Good Friday.  Hard place to get to; won’t go into the abysmal parking/ retreiving car pain.     I’m sure many missed the beginning of the album, which started just a very little after 8 
 

Awesome job on YHF.  We figured they’d take a  decent break and play a decent set.  After a very short break - which hardly gave folks time to go to the restroom etc., they play 3 songs.  
 

920 and show is over…..  despite the brilliance of the YHF performance,with all as a fan you put into it (anticipation, time, money, battling the X-Bronx etc), I for one couldn’t help being disappointed .. & frankly a bit ripped off.    Just the fact that there was such a rush to start the show so early on a busy Friday, seemed like they wanted to get to the hotel.  And that’s not the way you usually feel after a Wilco show.  
 

As I thought this over today and reading the insightful review and comments here, I was thinking - perhaps they should have come out & FIRST played a 25 -30 min or so fun set.   Then turn on the lights. take a decent break- then get folks, who are now warmed up, back in their seats, turn off the lights  and then play YHF- and then have everyone leave after that awesome Reservations Outro.   I for one would have preferred that and it would really give YHF the focus it deserved & left at least this fan feeling awesome.  

 

 

[bböp]

19 minutes ago, TCP said:

All this debate about setlist lengths and I'm just sitting here wondering about the new 7". Did you buy it and have a chance to listen @bböp? If so are these previously leaked takes? Any mention on the sleeve of the forth coming deluxe edition of YHF?

I may have bought a copy (or five), but don’t have my portable turntable with me to spin it yet. No mention on the sleeve of the deluxe edition, I don’t think, but I believe that announcement might be imminent.

 

10 minutes ago, Yaz Rock said:

 
Yes, any pics of the merch booth? What else is there besides show posters and the single vinyl? Cool YHF shirts/hats/pins/ anything?

I didn’t take any pics of the merch stand, but there are several new T-shirts specifically for this run of shows. At least one of the designs harkens back to one of the original YHF tour shirts that I have, a navy blue with orange star motif.

[Oil Can Boyd]

Thanks all for the measured reporting and commenting.  That facebook page got (and still is) pretty vitriolic and hot.

[TCP]

1 hour ago, bböp said:

I may have bought a copy (or five), but don’t have my portable turntable with me to spin it yet. No mention on the sleeve of the deluxe edition, I don’t think, but I believe that announcement might be imminent.

 

Right, I don't know why I was thinking you'd have a turntable in NYC 🤔

Thanks for the recap, have fun tonight!

[ZiggyBratwurst]

Thanks for writing this, Paul. Perfectly sums up my feelings about the show. I will admit I expected a longer show, of course, but at the same time, I don’t feel ripped off or disappointed in any way. We saw one of the best bands out there today play the most iconic record in their catalog. As the promo said, “That’s it.” I’m cool with it. I’m sorry others feel so disappointed.

[Yaz Rock]

Merch booth. Just sold out of last nights poster. Long but not too slow moving line. Seems to be a good supply of everything.

[cre618]

3 minutes ago, Yaz Rock said:

Merch booth. Just sold out of last nights poster. Long but not too slow moving line. Seems to be a good supply of everything.

Oh man, I wore out that navy star shirt.  I hope they put those up on the site.

[tinnitus photography]

On 4/16/2022 at 8:28 AM, Happeningstone said:

Geez, there hasn’t been this much angst around Wilco since the VW commercials! 

Sky Blue Sky 2022 was a rocky ride!

[sinko25]

On 4/16/2022 at 4:11 AM, bböp said:

 

This is sort of the problem with the "album in its entirety" show, right? How to build a live show around it, while also trying to keep the focus on the centerpiece of what you're trying to celebrate and present and also satisfy a sizable audience that has paid a good sum of money for a ticket (and/or traveled from afar). I almost feel like it is a no-win situation for Jeff and Co., because if you come out and play a separate set of "greatest hits," then it's sort of diluting the focus on YHF and the desire to celebrate that set of songs as a singular artistic statement but if you don't do enough other material, then people feel as if they haven't gotten their money's worth. So ultimately, I'll say that I get why some people probably were left wanting a bit more, but personally I tried to just concentrate on the album, the memories it stirred in me and the work put in by the band to re-learn the songs the way they were recorded.

 

I get what you're saying here, but at the same time, bands have been doing this kind of thing for a while now; I've seen half dozen or so do it and if the album performance takes up less than a standard length  show, additional songs are added. Wilco did it themselves at Solid Sound '17, performing Being There and encoring with all of YHF (which was one of the coolest things I've seen a band do).

 

Which brings me to my next point - WIlco are one of the more generous bands when it comes to show length and working hard to appease all types of fans. I don't think folks expressing disappointment about the length of the show were entitled -- I certainly would have been a little disapointed -- but we are probably on the whole a bit spoiled.

[CPD]

I went to the Friday night show.   The performance itself was impressive, but if they were only going to play the album, they should have engaged with the audience a bit more in between songs.  They could have given a little more context about the album, the writing process, the songs, anything.  Instead, they muscled through the set at lightning speed to the point where Jeff was winded.  It felt like they had dinner plans...

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta. Been out of the loop in Slovenia for a few days. Interesting to read about all the hubbub. Thanks for all the detail!

[Gold87]

On 4/16/2022 at 3:11 AM, bböp said:

That's what I think some people probably didn't, or weren't able to, fully appreciate — the subtle differences in many of the songs from the way they sounded on the album and have evolved in a live setting over time. It's bit hard to explain, I guess, but when you've heard a lot of these songs so many times, you start to notice things as significant as Jeff reverting to the album version in Heavy Metal Drummer, which does NOT have the lyrics about "she lifted up her shirt/at the battle of the bands/he twirled his sticks/she helped him to his van" that Jeff has sung forever live while Glenn twirls his sticks (which obviously he did not do tonight, nor did he stand on his drum stool before I'm The Man Who Loves You) — now I'm trying to figure when exactly Jeff started singing HMD with that verse — and as nerdy as the lack of a shaker accent (on I Am Trying To Break Your Heart) or cymbal scrape (on Poor Places) by Glenn. Just about every song featured something like that, like how we have gotten used to that little back-and-forth guitar interplay between Jeff and Nels during Pot Kettle Black that wasn't there in this performance, replaced by that (bouncing spring? textured ball?) sound that Nels made to replicate the album version.

 

 

Tweedy was performing it that way as early as the spring 2001 Solo Tour which I saw in Mpls at the Guthrie. Even though it was not officially released yet, the audience was well versed on the song previously from the online streams and bootlegs, so the modification still got quite a reaction from the fans.

[jff]

On 4/16/2022 at 4:05 PM, Mac said:

 

As I thought this over today and reading the insightful review and comments here, I was thinking - perhaps they should have come out & FIRST played a 25 -30 min or so fun set.   Then turn on the lights. take a decent break- then get folks, who are now warmed up, back in their seats, turn off the lights  and then play YHF- and then have everyone leave after that awesome Reservations Outro.   I for one would have preferred that and it would really give YHF the focus it deserved & left at least this fan feeling awesome.  

 

 

This is what I would have liked to see.  A first set with three or four songs from each of the pre-YHF albums (plus maybe some rarities) that creates a chronology of the band’s progression towards YHF.  Then a break before performing the full album.  This keeps the focus unambiguously on YHF while delivering something closer to a Wilco concert length show.

 

I understand why people were disappointed with the 70 minute length.  Wilco has a devoted concert following because they earned it through quality AND quantity for a relatively low price. All of those things matter a lot, so if you’re going to cut the quantity in half and charge more than usual then it’s reasonable for concertgoers to feel they got a little short changed, even if the performance was stellar.

 

Poor PR messaging on Wilco’s part.

[summerdai]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:32 AM, CPD said:

I went to the Friday night show.   The performance itself was impressive, but if they were only going to play the album, they should have engaged with the audience a bit more in between songs.  They could have given a little more context about the album, the writing process, the songs, anything.  Instead, they muscled through the set at lightning speed to the point where Jeff was winded.  It felt like they had dinner plans...

 

Absolutely not. It was great to hear the album in full with no stage patter until the encore although I got the longer sets on Sat and Sun