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Wilco — 6 September 2023, Belfast, Ireland (Mandela Hall)


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I’ll leave it to the set list meister to fill out the details once he returns from Cork, but this was a fun show, with Tweedy in jovial form.

 

The student Union venue lent itself to a ‘rock block’ finish, even though there were no students and most of the audience seemed to be pensioners. Or farmers waiting for a cattle auction to begin, going on the reactions next to me. 😬

 

Did I get the listing title right Paul?? 

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9 hours ago, 50footqueenie said:

Did I get the listing title right Paul?? 

 

I shall not comment, except that anyone can follow the format of previous thread titles. I wouldn't want to put anyone else off, so I hereby declare that everyone should just do whatever they please. This isn't a dictatorship, after all. Not to mention, I'm not going to make it to a bunch of shows on the upcoming U.S. tour anyway, so the inevitable will happen...:pirate

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23 minutes ago, bböp said:

so the inevitable will happen.

What, I'm going to spend 15 minutes a day with a cup of tea staring at a blank screen?

 

P.S. I don't mind any format as long as you get the numeric days and months the RIGHT way around (so month as month name is best).

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8 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

What, I'm going to spend 15 minutes a day with a cup of tea staring at a blank screen?

 

P.S. I don't mind any format as long as you get the numeric days and months the RIGHT way around (so month as month name is best).


I’m sure someone will find sufficient video clips and whatnot online to deduce what’s taken place. I’m awaiting the day, as forecast by the pandemic, when no one has to set foot out of their house at all and get to a gig. We’ll just live stream it all on demand replay-style, and no one shall have to endure the post-show descriptions of some lunatic.

 

And as for getting the date format “correct,” I believe that’s why I started doing the thread titles (trying to come up with a consistent format) that way in the first place! To satisfy bloody non-Yankees! :usa

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I've always had a soft spot for shows at college student unions, I guess just because the idea that a legitimate touring band would actually come and play a show in a building where students go every day to hang out, lounge around, meet friends, do homework, shop for groceries, books and other supplies, squeeze in a meal between classes and whatever else you can do at a student union these days seems so weird to me. The idea that a section of this campus building would be cordoned off and used as a de facto concert venue to which those not even affiliated with the school would also be admitted and whilst other student activities are simultaneously going on kind of boggles my mind.

 

Having had the good fortune to see a few such shows over the years (and regretted missing out on many more that Wilco have played in both the U.S. and U.K. in its earlier days), I've been charmed by the relative quaintness of it all. The room where the show actually happens is usually fairly intimate and the stage setup is often kind of ramshackle — which typically means a lower, more front-of-the-audience-friendly stage and one that allows the audience to be relatively close to the performers — so the gigs tend to have a certain kind of DIY-ness or at least a lack of polish that set them apart from, say, a typical LiveNation-type venue.

 

At the same time, I've come to realize that these kinds of gigs can sometimes be the most challenging ones for a veteran production staff/crew and those who are tasked with setting everything up and making the show happen because they are not working with folks who do this sort of thing every day. So what might be good things for us as fans are the same things that are the biggest sources of frustration for the behind-the-scenes folks. You can't make everyone happy all the time, I guess.

 

As for WIlco's first-ever regular headlining show in Belfast — the band had previously headlined a festival here in 2010 — I had heard that there were a few production challenges for the Wilcrew to get Mandela Hall up to snuff for a proper gig. The hall was simply an open ballroom with a standing capacity of about 1,000 on the ground floor of the very modern-looking and stylish Queens University Students' Union. The minute I saw it, I had the feeling we'd be ending the evening with some kind of "rock songs, etc." finale.

 

More to come, but for now here was the complete setlist as played for in Belfast (once again, I didn't see a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions...though I'm fairly certain there was at least one):

 

Handshake Drugs

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Whole Love

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

California Stars

The Late Greats

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I'm A Wheel

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  • Analogman changed the title to Wilco - 6th September 2023, Mandela Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
4 hours ago, bböp said:

 

I shall not comment, except that anyone can follow the format of previous thread titles. I wouldn't want to put anyone else off, so I hereby declare that everyone should just do whatever they please. This isn't a dictatorship, after all. Not to mention, I'm not going to make it to a bunch of shows on the upcoming U.S. tour anyway, so the inevitable will happen...:pirate

 

  • Analogman changed the title to Wilco - 6th September 2023, Mandela Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland

 

Seems our reluctant dictator has an accomplice ... ta indeed.

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6 hours ago, bböp said:

I've always had a soft spot for shows at college student unions, I guess just because the idea that a legitimate touring band would actually come and play a show in a building where students go every day to hang out, lounge around, meet friends, do homework, shop for groceries, books and other supplies, squeeze in a meal between classes and whatever else you can do at a student union these days seems so weird to me. The idea that a section of this campus building would be cordoned off and used as a de facto concert venue to which those not even affiliated with the school would also be admitted and whilst other student activities are simultaneously going on kind of boggles my mind...

 

Did you know that Trish did her semester abroad at Queens? And a cousin of mine was President of the QU Student Union a couple of years ago.

 

3 hours ago, theashtraysays said:

 

  • Analogman changed the title to Wilco - 6th September 2023, Mandela Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland

 

Seems our reluctant dictator has an accomplice ... ta indeed.

 

So I should be lodging my complaint about "Northern Ireland" with @Analogman, then? :P

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  • Analogman changed the title to Wilco - 6th September 2023, Mandela Hall, Belfast, Ireland
14 minutes ago, Analogman said:

Oh - I only added a comma. 

 

I fixed it. 

 

The last time I saw Wilco was in the student union here where I work. 

 

I didn't mean to make this into a political thread, but I'll take it!  Thanks!  :thumbup

 

I saw Wilco in a student union location much like bbop describes at Queens, I think it was in San Diego?  bbop was there, he might remember it.  I don't see anything on Wilcobase that looks like it matches my recollection.  Hmmm...

 

Edit:  Price Center "Ballroom" at UC San Diego, which is technically in La Jolla!  There it is!

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51 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Could have been worse - if they had played in Derry.

 

If it had been Derry, those farmers waiting for the cattle auction to begin would have for sure been my relations.

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10 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Also @bböp I may be neglecting you in the next month or so (weekends anyway) - it's RWC time! Hurrah!

 

Will the Tatlock be making an appearance in Le France? I hear Toulouse is nice this time of year. Best of luck to your ruggermen!

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14 hours ago, gogo said:

 

Did you know that Trish did her semester abroad at Queens? And a cousin of mine was President of the QU Student Union a couple of years ago.

 

I did not know that! I will have to quiz her about her time there next time we meet, and about pan boxty too! :wave

 

14 hours ago, gogo said:

I saw Wilco in a student union location much like bbop describes at Queens, I think it was in San Diego?  bbop was there, he might remember it.  I don't see anything on Wilcobase that looks like it matches my recollection.  Hmmm...

 

Edit:  Price Center "Ballroom" at UC San Diego, which is technically in La Jolla!  There it is!

 

Still one of my fave student union shows! Ah, La Jolla...kind enough to set up a "Line Starts Here" sign for me/us as well...

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22 minutes ago, bböp said:

 

Will the Tatlock be making an appearance in Le France? I hear Toulouse is nice this time of year. Best of luck to your ruggermen!

I have a week in Croatia starting in the middle of next week, so it is not in the plans unless Wales get to the very latter stages and the mania sweeps me up. Got to get past the tricky Fijians first on Sunday. Opening match was a good one last night. 

The Pyrenees/south west France area is my spiritual home in France - which is their rugby heartland. Nice castles too - which is a thing of mine. Cardiff played Toulouse in the first European cup final. I was there (though it was held in Cardiff not Toulouse), and I have met (twice) Thomas Castaignède!

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  • Analogman changed the title to Wilco — 6 September 2023, Belfast, Ireland (Mandela Hall)

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