Wilco — 18 April 2023, Orlando, FL (Hard Rock Live at Universal Orlando Resort)

[bböp]

Picture, if you will, your faithful correspondent traipsing across black-sand beaches on the southern coast of Iceland, trying not to be overtaken and swept into the frigid North Atlantic by a powerful "sneaker wave" on Sunday morning, then making a mad drive across half the island back to the airport to catch a flight back to Chicago, arriving home just long enough to catch a bit of shuteye and throw some clothes into the wash before waking up and dashing to another airport on Tuesday morning and, after a few minor issues, finally making it to the parking garage of an utterly American landscape called the "Universal Orlando Resort" set in the middle of Florida just in time for Wilco to kick off the headlining portion of its spring tour.

 

If I couldn't be sure exactly what day it was, well, I suppose Jeff's excuse was that, well, he's a "rock star" and that's sort of the cliché of touring life. Before kicking off the encore, Jeff announced that "this is one of the wilder Monday night audiences we've had." (Uh, Jeff, it's Tuesday.) "I knew that," Jeff said with a sheepish smile, and then rescued himself with some verbal tap dancing about how it was just par for the course for a Tuesday crowd — or something. Then after the first song, he doubled down on the rock star cliché by joking that not only was it one of the best Monday audiences the band had ever had, it was the best Tallahassee crowd. After some hoots and hollers, Jeff relented, admitting that of course he knew he was in Orlando. "It's hard to forget it's Orlando," he quipped. "Just fucking look around outside."

 

Jeff certainly wasn't wrong, though, when it came to realizing that this wasn't to be your ordinary reserved-seat show with a passive audience. For good, bad and ugly, it was hard to mistake this show taking place anywhere other than Florida, where apparently they're not shy about chattering through the opening band, conversing mid-show with the headlining band or apparently doing what it takes to bring home the collective audience trophies for Middle-Age Male Air Guitar Playing and the Wacky Women Who Love Them.

 

Oh, trophies. So much trophy talk these days...but I should stop there for now and attempt to actually make it to the next show. However, I definitely have a few more bits and bobs to add later on and vow to do so if it kills me.

 

For now, here was the complete setlist as played (I briefly glimpsed a printed setlist, and there didn't seem to be any changes/omissions):

 

Via Chicago

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Handshake Drugs

Muzzle Of Bees

Random Name Generator

Hummingbird

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Pot Kettle Black

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Say You Miss Me

Box Full Of Letters

Impossible Germany

Story To Tell

Jesus, etc.

The Late Greats

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Red-Eyed And Blue>

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Monday

[uncool2pillow]

So no Disney v. DeSantis banter? Didn't want to offend his Universal hosts?

[Albert Tatlock]

Somehow appropriate on several levels after that report.

 

 

 

https://www.dicionariopopular.com/ta-na-disney/

 

Tá na Disney is an <Portuguese> expression used to say that someone is traveling, that they are saying something absurd or meaningless. That is, if a friend of yours is saying something very nonsensical, you can say: "Are you at Disney?".

The idea behind the slang is to say that the person is traveling so much that it seems to be in the enchanted world of Disney.

[Albert Tatlock]

20 hours ago, bböp said:

and vow to do so if it kills me.

 

i trust that when that sad and momentous time comes, you will spend the rest of your days beneath a headstone fondly engraved with the words "Here lies Mr. Cheeztastic".