Wilco — 11 September 2022, Fargo, ND (Fargo Brewing Company [Outdoors])

[bböp]

I realize the limited audience for these little blatherings of mine, and I further realize how that audience likely diminishes the more days go by without my getting these blatherings on screen, but this show at Fargo Brewing Company deserves a proper accounting (or at least as proper as I can achieve) and I know that at least a few souls out there will probably get something out of it so, three days later, here goes nothing...

 

Sometimes with Wilco shows, you find yourself in some global metropolis in a legendary venue with plush velvet seats, ornate decor harkening back to a more glamorous and civilized age and many years of history and tradition behind it, and sometimes you find yourself standing in the relatively cozy fenced-in parking lot of a brewing company in North Dakota. And often, as it turns out, the performance that ends up being the more memorable — at least as far as the more experienced fan is concerned — is in one of those classically tertiary markets.

 

It's not as simple as that, of course, since the energy of the crowd and the mood of the band and a number of other factors such as the weather also have something to say about elevating a show above the fray. But when all or most of those factors come together in a positive way, you can end up with a really fun and memorable evening as took place in Fargo the other night.

 

Although the concert area outside the Fargo Brewing Company was actually quite nice as far as those kinds of setups go, you nevertheless could close your eyes and get the feeling of being out in the middle of a field in a vast expanse of open land, especially when a train rolled by very close to the stage. If you've been to the Solid Sound Festival and experienced the proximity of Joe's Field to the nearby railroad tracks, well, this was even closer. I almost couldn't believe how close the train came to the concert area, and perhaps Jeff felt the same way about being out in this expanse when he and his bandmates took the stage and began playing the plaintive opening chords of Cruel Country closing track The Plains. It was only the second time the song has been played live — Nels added a nice little solo on one of Jeff's rubber-bridge guitars — and it set a tone for the evening.

 

To be continued...

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (Outtasite was on the printed list as the final song of the show, but wasn’t played, which I think was the only change/omission):

 

The Plains

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Hints

War On War

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago>
Many Worlds (coda only)

Shouldn’t Be Ashamed

Story To Tell

Hummingbird

All Across The World

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

California Stars

A Lifetime To Find

I’m Always In Love

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

————————————————

Falling Apart (Right Now)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[theashtraysays]

I can't quite tell if BBOP's IOU for more reportage was fulfilled or not, but wanted to add a couple things from this show.

Given the decidedly non-fancy locale (you could park on the street but supposedly not in the grocery store parking lot across the street) and chain-link-and-asphalt parking-lot-turned-venue, this show had the potential of being a rather loose, unique little show.  And it was. "Plains" was an interesting but fitting opener, with the band packed into a small semi-temporary stage without the usual "Wilco doily" backdrop.  From there, we had the usual stuff setlist-wise, though US Blues was a treat for me at least. 

From the stage, apparently the band could see over the fence onto the street / sidewalk near the brewery.  Jeff pointed out that there was a person standing on the sidewalk enjoying the show for free, and jokingly encouraged him to "buy a ticket you sonofabitch!"

But the star of the show was clearly the train.  As was mentioned, it was REALLY close to the audience and even closer to the stage, with only the aforementioned chain link fence in between the train and Jeff's / Nels' guitar stash . While us railbirds were waiting for the opener, a rather long freight train rumbled by for a good 4-5 minutes which caused us all to wonder how that would play out during the show.  Sure enough, (during Hummingbird I think?), a lone engine slowly approaches the side of the stage on Nels' side.  Nels gives the universal elbow-pump "blow the horn" signal, to which the engine cheerfully obliges and everyone gets a laugh.  The engine then stops right next to the stage and just sits there taking in the show from a really nice side-stage perch.  After a song or two, and a little more horn blowing that wasn't totally without proper timing, he backs up and goes out of sight again, prompting Jeff to quip "some people will do anything to see a show for free".  I personally think that if Wilco were to become a 7-piece outfit, the train conductor should consider applying. 

Other tidbits for the show was that the beer was quite good, and plentiful as you'd expect.  The food stands were a bit more sparse, with a "bomb dog" (not nearly as good as it sounds) and pizza wagon being the only offerings.  Staff was nice (and plentiful... while waiting on the sidewalk, we wondered for a bit if the staff-to-audience ration was going to be > 1.  The three sheriff's officers near the gate seemed like overkill for Fargo, but indeed there were no scuffles so I suppose it was alright. 

All in all a really fun, out-of-the-way show in a town that you could tell doesn't get many of them. 

[TCP]

Between bbop and theashtraysays expertly capturing the train incident, I think there's one more banter moment worth preserving in the written record from this show. It started when someone in the crowd asked Jeff about why he was playing a Gibson J-45. Jeff explain that this specific J-45 was a guitar he hadn't been using in recent years but brought it back for the YHF anniversary shows, since it is the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot guitar. He strummed a bit of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and he was right, it sounded just like that guitar. At this point Pat spoke up to help Jeff out. I think (???) this might be the first time I've heard a non-Jeff member of the band speak on microphone during a Wilco show. At least in person, I do have the roadcase from the Notorious Wilco Brothers show where a part of Glenn's drumkit almost hit Pat, to which Pat said his banjo saved his life. Anyways, and apologies if I don't get this 100% right (feel free to correct me), but Pat explained how great the J-45 is at projecting sound "it's like a little wooden cannon". I thought the exchange was pretty funny, but perhaps you had to be there.

[nalafej]

2 hours ago, TCP said:

Between bbop and theashtraysays expertly capturing the train incident, I think there's one more banter moment worth preserving in the written record from this show. It started when someone in the crowd asked Jeff about why he was playing a Gibson J-45. Jeff explain that this specific J-45 was a guitar he hadn't been using in recent years but brought it back for the YHF anniversary shows, since it is the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot guitar. He strummed a bit of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and he was right, it sounded just like that guitar. At this point Pat spoke up to help Jeff out. I think (???) this might be the first time I've heard a non-Jeff member of the band speak on microphone during a Wilco show. At least in person, I do have the roadcase from the Notorious Wilco Brothers show where a part of Glenn's drumkit almost hit Pat, to which Pat said his banjo saved his life. Anyways, and apologies if I don't get this 100% right (feel free to correct me), but Pat explained how great the J-45 is at projecting sound "it's like a little wooden cannon". I thought the exchange was pretty funny, but perhaps you had to be there.

 

My friend is making a documentary on the J45 so this was quite hilarious to me. I scrambled to capture the banter for my friend who wasn't there - here's the video: 

 

[TCP]

On 9/20/2022 at 12:16 PM, nalafej said:

 

My friend is making a documentary on the J45 so this was quite hilarious to me. I scrambled to capture the banter for my friend who wasn't there - here's the video: 

 

Thanks for capturing and sharing!! I thought that whole exchange was great. I didn't know another long time VCer was there!