Wilco — 2 September 2023, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (Usher Hall)

[bböp]

Having experienced something of what tour life can be like, sometimes I think it would be fascinating to work for a booking agency or pick the brain (and get honest responses) from someone whose job it is to figure out things like tour routing and why performers seem to play certain cities or venues all the time, while others seemingly get passed over with regularity. I'm sure there are logical answers for these things most times — and they're often obvious — but sometimes there aren't. At any rate, being American, I think I understand these things better in my own country and I don't pretend to understand the vagaries of touring economics in other lands and yet I'm sure there are some similarities.

 

All of which is to say, how is it possible that Wilco had never played a show in Edinburgh before tonight?

 

OK, Jeff did play a solo show here not too long ago and the Autumn Defense apparently performed at a tiny venue once. Yet a bit of Internet research, as well as consultation with selected locals, confirmed that the flagship entity known as Wilco apparently never have. Having been a touring band for nearly 30 years now, and having gone through all of the various cycles — from support act to It Band, from alternative-country standard-bearers to darlings of the indie scene, from folk-festival stars to headlining American rock act — you would have figured that somewhere along the way, Jeff and his bandmates would have had a concert in this culturally rich and picturesque city. But alas, it appears that's yet another reason that some people from these parts seem to hold a particular grudge against their western rivals from Glasgow, home of the dreaded Weegies: They get all (or most) of the good gigs!

 

As with the touring economics, I'm sure there's actually a lot I don't understand about the Edinburgh-Glasgow rivalry — is it a bit like Boston and New York? — but I can say with some certainty that this show at the esteemed Usher Hall was not interrupted by any sort of fisticuffs the way at least a couple of previous Wilco gigs in Glasgow were apparently. Rather, judging by the utterly enthusiastic reception Wilco got from the approximately 2,900 (a near-sellout, as I understand) who filled Usher Hall on a Saturday night, there was more concern about selling enough tickets and giving the band a warm-enough reception that Jeff and Co. would want to return sooner than later.

 

Curiously, Jeff didn't mention anything about it being the full band's first-ever Edinburgh gig. Possibly because, as I mentioned, he had played here solo a few years ago and he didn't realize that the band never had. Or it just slipped his mind, though usually he's pretty on top of a fact like that. Prior to starting the encore, he did touch upon the prize, or gift, that someone gave him and his wife during the Tweedy Show which apparently proclaimed them to be the lord and lady of a square foot of Scottish soil or something like that. "You're the  best," Jeff told the Usher Hall crowd. "I'm not sure if that's because I'm royalty," before explaining his lordship and going onto joke that the compliment "means even more coming from me because I don't like most audiences."

 

Visits to Banter Corner were pretty limited once again tonight — at one point, Jeff even admitted, "I don't know what to say...I'm speechless" — though he did share that, "We feel very, very at home (here), so thank you," and had couple of other very brief back-and-forths with audience members (though not with the crazed local in the front row who kept shouting “Scotland!” Oh, I might know that guy. Haha.) Jeff also joked about Nels after his usual standout Impossible Germany solo, pointing in his direction and quipping, "The worst part is he's a super, super sweet person. That's the worst part."

 

On at least a couple of occasions, when someone in the crowd yelled something at Jeff, he said he couldn't really hear them ("but it sounded positive," he joked) and it's true that the acoustics in the Usher Hall were a bit weird. The best way I can think to describe it is boomy, but I'm hardly an acoustics expert. The Usher Hall, I'm told, is usually used for classical music and it typically has an orchestra section with seats on the main floor — which were all removed for this show, making it all standing room. There are also two circular balcony levels, so the overall room is quite tall and it shares that boomy acoustic issue with other orchestral rooms like that I've been in for rock concerts. Not that the sound for Wilco's performance was bad by any means, just that the acoustics of the venue could be a bit odd at times.

 

As far as the setlist goes, there wasn't too much variation if you've been following along recently, although I'm Always In Love was a nice surprise. I'm pretty sure Jeff flubbed one of the lyrics, saying "...will I catch the sun," instead of "the moon," but no one seemed to notice, and that song led nicely into the lively main set-closing pair of Heavy Metal Drummer and A Shot In The Arm. We also got lovely reprises of support act Courtney Marie Andrews' guest turns on both You And I and California Stars, as she had done in the encore in both London and Utrecht.

 

After another rousing Spiders (Kidsmoke), which got the Edinburghians — and, let's be honest, probably some Weegies, and I think at least one Brit (shoutout to longtime reader Ghost Of Bob Cumming, who introduced himself after the show) — all ba-ba-ba-ba-ing and clapping together, if just briefly, Jeff and the other Wilcos gave their appreciative farewell waves once more before disappearing into the bowels of the House of Usher (sorry, couldn't resist). Seriously, though, I think the local audience gave a good accounting of itself and though, as we've established, who exactly knows why bands ultimately play where they do, this gig certainly demonstrated that there's ample reason for Wilco to get back here before another quarter century goes by.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco's Edinburgh debut (I didn't get a look at the printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Hell Is Chrome

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Kamera

I'll Fight

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Random Name Generator

Misunderstood

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Box Full Of Letters

I'm Always In Love

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

You And I (w/Courtney Marie Andrews on vocals)

California Stars (w/Courtney Marie Andrews on vocals)

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta(rtan)

 

I am not going to believe the tenuous JT ancestry myth until I seen photographic evidence of knobbly knees and a big hairy sporran swinging between his legs. Until then he’s not my Celtic cousin. If he wants to ‘go Welsh’ then it’s a lot simpler. Just slap a leek somewhere about your person and you’re done.

[50footqueenie]

SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNND !

 

In all honesty, I've seen them play better, have better sound, better set lists and (much) better banter.  But what a very special night.  We did them proud.

[Albert Tatlock]

I've posted this before, but it doesn't make it any less funny.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdjY6oy4Y2c

[Pennyghael]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:12 AM, bböp said:

 

 

All of which is to say, how is it possible that Wilco had never played a show in Edinburgh before tonight?

 

OK, Jeff did play a solo show here not too long ago and the Autumn Defense apparently performed at a tiny venue once. Yet a bit of Internet research, as well as consultation with selected locals, confirmed that the flagship entity known as Wilco apparently never have. Having been a touring band for nearly 30 years now, and having gone through all of the various cycles — from support act to It Band, from alternative-country standard-bearers to darlings of the indie scene, from folk-festival stars to headlining American rock act — you would have figured that somewhere along the way, Jeff and his bandmates would have had a concert in this culturally rich and picturesque city. But alas, it appears that's yet another reason that some people from these parts seem to hold a particular grudge against their western rivals from Glasgow, home of the dreaded Weegies: They get all (or most) of the good gigs!

 

 

 Not Wilco but Uncle Tupelo played a couple of shows in Edinburgh at The Venue in 1993. 

[Ghost Of Bob Cumming]

On 9/4/2023 at 9:12 AM, bböp said:

I think at least one Brit (shoutout to longtime reader Ghost Of Bob Cumming, who introduced himself after the show)

 

Sorry about the delay in catching up, went straight from Edinburgh on Sunday morning onto another engagement entirely, in rural Lincolnshire, and only just catching up now.

 

I think the Scottish term for someone English is 'Sassenach' (although that may be more of a Glasgow thing?) Despite the efforts of part of the population north of the border, we're all - Scottish and English - 'Brits'. For now, anyway.

 

It was nice to briefly meet you (and Queenie). What I really wanted to say is that I started reading contributor's little gig reviews of early Wilco shows back in the days of the old Uncle Tupelo Postcard mailing list. I thought it was amazing to read a review of a show in Iowa or Ohio within a few hours of it happening. To keep tabs on a tour as it wound it's way along, thousands of miles away, is the pinnacle of the internet as far as I'm concerned, but then I've always been a music nerd and am getting old.

 

The show was great. I got to see them play Misunderstood for the first time since Wolverhampton in 1997, so that made my night.

[50footqueenie]

I’ve not heard ‘sassenach’ used for years, and it’s not exclusively Glaswegian. Nice to meet you, albeit briefly, too!  (But sorry, I’ll never be a ‘Brit’) 😁