Wilco — 4 October 2022, New Orleans, LA (Civic Theatre)

[Boss_Tweedy]

It had been one day shot of five years since my last proper Wilco show. I last attended a non-festival performance at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis on October 5, 2017. Last night's show more than made up for the gap in time. In fact it may have been the most energetic Wilco set I've ever witnessed. And I was psyched because they're playing in my backyard (NOLA) for the first time in a while. Local favorites Quintron & Miss Pussycat opened and delivered the goods as usual. It was the first Wilco concert for the woman in front of me. She picked a good one for her first. It was an incredibly fun night, and I hope the set will be offered as a Roadcase. I was hoping they'd play "A Lifetime to Find,." They did, and the rest of the setlist wasincredible. I'm so wired from the energy coming from the band and the crowd that I'll have trouble sleeping tonight. I hope the energy registered with everyone watching from home.

 

Can't wait for tomorrow night! I hope the people immediately around me at tonight's show are near me tomorrow night because they're awesome. 

 

Per the band's website here's the setlist (which seems accurate to me):

 

1. Misunderstood

2. Cruel Country

3. Far, Far Away

4. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

5. Hints

6. War on War

7. Cry All Day

8. Via Chicago

9. Many Worlds (coda only)

10. At Least That's What You Said

11. Story to Tell

12. The Whole Love

13. All Across the World

14. Born Alone

15. Ambulance

16, Sunken Treasure

17. Jesus. Etc.

18. Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

19. California Stars

20. A Lifetime to Find

21. Heavy Metal Drummer

22. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

 

ENCORE:

23. Red-Eyed and Blue

24. I Got You (At the End of the Century)

25 U.S. Blues (Grateful Dead cover)

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta.

[kidsmoke]

Beautiful photos Jon!

[bböp]

5 hours ago, Boss_Tweedy said:

It had been one day shot of five years since my last proper Wilco show. I last attended a non-festival performance at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis on October 5, 2017. Last night's show more than made up for the gap in time. In fact it may have been the most energetic Wilco set I've ever witnessed. And I was psyched because they're playing in my backyard (NOLA) for the first time in a while. Local favorites Quintron & Miss Pussycat opened and delivered the goods as usual. It was the first Wilco concert for the woman in front of me. She picked a good one for her first. It was an incredibly fun night, and I hope the set will be offered as a Roadcase. I was hoping they'd play "A Lifetime to Find,." They did, and the rest of the setlist wasincredible. I'm so wired from the energy coming from the band and the crowd that I'll have trouble sleeping tonight. I hope the energy registered with everyone watching from home.

 

Can't wait for tomorrow night! I hope the people immediately around me at tonight's show are near me tomorrow night because they're awesome. 

 

Per the band's website here's the setlist (which seems accurate to me):

 

Happy to let a local (and veteran VCer) take the lead on this one. Just chiming in to confirm that the above setlist was indeed correct, and that I'm pretty certain there weren't any changes/omissions from the printed list. A little birdie told me that there had been at least some consideration given to opening the show with Poor Places, but I guess that didn't even make it to the printed list. Perhaps tonight!

 

Almost certainly a healthy portion of the set will be different for Night 2 because they didn't play such Cruel Country staples as I Am My Mother, Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull or Falling Apart (Right Now), not to mention Impossible Germany and a few others that have been in fairly regular rotation on this tour. Instead, we got a number of songs that really haven't been played much — if at all — this year. Can't remember the last time I heard Far, Far Away, and it's been a while since Cry All Day, Whole Love and Born Alone as well.

 

I said to a couple of folks afterward that this didn't necessarily feel like a "standard" Cruel Country show, at least like the ones the band has been playing since the summer, and I felt a little sad for one of the people I was talking to who wasn't going to be able to make it for Night 2 to see things like the jam on Bird Without A Tail... or Pat's guitar work on Falling Apart. Then again, you're basically damned if you do, damned if you don't with multi-night runs, right? If you don't spread things out and change the setlists up from night to night, then people bitch and moan about the lack of variety. But if you do change it up and throw some curveballs in there, folks who can only make it for one night maybe don't get the full experience of the show you want to present at a given time.

 

On another note, before Wilco took the stage, a few of us — OK, mostly me — were trying to figure out the last time Wilco headlined an indoor show in New Orleans. I had the distinct memory it was at another downtown theater that was celebrating a recent renovation/reopening, but when we walked into the Civic, I knew it wasn't the same room. So after some phone research, it appears the show I was thinking of happened way back in 2015 at the more spacious Orpheum when Jeff And Co. were still supporting Star Wars by playing the entire album in its entirety to start the show. And it was only one night, not two. Could it really have been more than seven years since Wilco had headlined a show here? I guess it had. Even with the sense of lost time caused by the pandemic, it still felt like *so* long ago. Weird. That said, the cozy Civic was a very nice place to see the band. The Internet tells me that capacity is just 1,200, and the relatively low stage made the show feel even that much more intimate. Given some of the sheds I've seen the band in, you just can't take venues like this for granted.

 

As for Banter Corner, Jeff didn't pay too frequent a visit on Night 1. He didn't say anything at all outside of a quick thank you for the first half of the set, then pointed out someone in the front row wearing a "Wilco participant" ribbon — apparently some folks with a Grammy-related program had visited during soundcheck or something, as per the band's social media — and joked about wanting to give participation trophies to audience members. Except that Jeff said something to the effect that he wouldn't give them to people who looked like they were trying too hard but instead would find folks who were just kind of present, singling out another guy in the front wearing glasses who didn't appear to be too demonstrative.

 

About the most Jeff had to say all night came before Love Is Everywhere (Beware) when he talked about how it wasn't "easy to define things you love...it's easy to define things you hate," but how he and his bandmates loved "this thing so much," gesturing out to the audience and thanking those who had come out for being a part of it all. And during the breakdown of Spiders (Kidsmoke), Jeff also delivered some variation of his "don't postpone happiness" remarks that he has been giving on this tour about how he empathized with those who might not want to participate during a rock concert but that he also thought it was unlikely that people would look back on their lives and say they were glad they didn't, say, clap along at the Wilco concert.

 

To be honest, I didn't really look around much to see the extent to which people were or were not participating so I can't say for sure. Personally it didn't feel like the most participatory audience ever, but hopefully people warmed up toward the end of the main set and into the encore (which featured a rollicking U.S. Blues cover to close, and that is certainly one song that will define this tour after its surprise debut nearly a month ago).

 

I'd be interested to hear if the locals thought this was a good crowd, or a little bit subdued. At any rate, New Orleans is a special place for me as far as Wilco goes — it was the first place I ever traveled to see the band out of town, back in 2002 — and the shows here have always been memorable. So glad to finally get to see local legends Quintron and Miss Pussycat do their thing, which was a lot of fun. I'm a little surprised it's taken them so long to open for Wilco here, to be honest. However, no mention of John Stirratt's local roots, at least during the show. Obviously that's well known so maybe it no longer needs to be mentioned, but long live "John Stirot's Fan Club." #IYKYK

 

P.S. Can we get a little Kicking Television to close out tonight, Jeff? #Kthxbyeeeeeeee

[worldrecordplayer]

Far Far Away, Born Alone, Whole Love... to say I was pleasantly surprised on my couch at home would be an enormous understatement! 

[Boss_Tweedy]

4 hours ago, bböp said:

 

I'd be interested to hear if the locals thought this was a good crowd, or a little bit subdued.

 

I thought the crowd was pretty lively although everyone around me save for one had traveled from out of state for the shows. I was in the front though with people who all seemed very much into the performance. I'll take a little bit subdued over some of the more rowdy and even aggressive crowds I've encountered at shows here recently. At the Afghan Whigs show a week and a half ago people were being dragged out of the venue by security, and it seemed that some people were jonesing for a fight. I vacated my spot near the front at that show because it just wasn't enjoyable. Not because of the band but because of the people around me.  

[Magnetized]

I was also up front so hard to gauge the enthusiasm level elsewhere, but it seemed like there was more than usual singing along (accurately!) and great, warm crowd responses. A friend who was farther back and lived in New Orleans said she thought it was an especially receptive crowd, and Jeff seemed genuinely pleased and appreciative. It was an absolutely stellar set and I can’t wait for tonight!

[bböp]

6 hours ago, Boss_Tweedy said:

 

I thought the crowd was pretty lively although everyone around me save for one had traveled from out of state for the shows. I was in the front though with people who all seemed very much into the performance. I'll take a little bit subdued over some of the more rowdy and even aggressive crowds I've encountered at shows here recently. At the Afghan Whigs show a week and a half ago people were being dragged out of the venue by security, and it seemed that some people were jonesing for a fight. I vacated my spot near the front at that show because it just wasn't enjoyable. Not because of the band but because of the people around me.  

 

Fair enough. It definitely seemed like a very respectful crowd. Sometimes too respectful doesn't make for quite as memorable a show as far as banter goes — Jeff usually does well when he has a foil or two — but I agree that a tad subdued is almost always better than overly aggro.