nalafej Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 A Sunday night gig held within the confines of a convention center where the bar was down the hall in a conference room didn’t seem like the recipe for a great Wilco show based on my seasoned Wilco show going experience - but I was happily very very wrong. Wilco took the stage promptly at 8:30 and left the stage after the encore at 10:30. The audience took 3 songs to warm up and catch up to the excellence that the band was putting forward on stage, but once that happened, it just clicked. The highlights for me were the new songs and the pleasure of seeing who is playing which parts and with what instruments. Lots to take in on that front given the Cousin song count. The title track was a particular highlight- high intensity on that one. Meant to Be features Jeff and Pat on 12 string guitars. It was great to be part of the huge organic cheer for ‘the great southwest’ line in Hummingbird. Not a lot of banter from the stage and Jeff sort of indicated that was because they had as lot of music to play but he did acknowledge a delightfully engaging group of a dozen 20 something’s as they came back for the encore asking if they were in a band and agreeing with security’s decision to not let them storm the stage. Something to the effect of ‘you are great right there!’ A request for ‘Jane Smiley’ was denied with Jeff’s stated rationale being that we’d already experienced enough slow tunes and that wasn’t the right move for this crowd. To that point, this setlist really really worked. It’s a little sad to me that the band skips a 15 year period of their catalog but honestly that’s what I want them to do and I’m positive that I’m not alone. Pittsburgh was not on the setlist. Spiders was as the final song but got swapped out for the rock song encore! Pittsburgh Infinite Surprise Handshake Drugs I Am My Mother Cruel Country I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Kamera Soldier Child Side With The Seeds Hummingbird Cousin Bird Without A Tail / Base Of My Skull Meant To Be Via Chicago Impossible Germany Evicted Box Full Of Letters Jesus, Etc Heavy Metal Drummer A Shot In The Arm Falling Apart (Right Now) California Stars Monday Outtasite (Outta Mind) 5 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
billydee Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 I couldn't agree more with the review above. The venue was sweet, sound was excellent, the crowd was great and not uptight at all, security was chill, and the band looked to be having a blast. The new songs really set the tone and they all worked for me. Was great to be back in the zone w Wilco again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wehideandseek Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 Great review & looking forward to tonight! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bböp Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 On 10/1/2023 at 10:17 PM, nalafej said: A Sunday night gig held within the confines of a convention center where the bar was down the hall in a conference room didn’t seem like the recipe for a great Wilco show based on my seasoned Wilco show going experience - but I was happily very very wrong. Wilco took the stage promptly at 8:30 and left the stage after the encore at 10:30. The audience took 3 songs to warm up and catch up to the excellence that the band was putting forward on stage, but once that happened, it just clicked. The highlights for me were the new songs and the pleasure of seeing who is playing which parts and with what instruments. Lots to take in on that front given the Cousin song count. The title track was a particular highlight- high intensity on that one. Meant to Be features Jeff and Pat on 12 string guitars. It was great to be part of the huge organic cheer for ‘the great southwest’ line in Hummingbird. Not a lot of banter from the stage and Jeff sort of indicated that was because they had as lot of music to play but he did acknowledge a delightfully engaging group of a dozen 20 something’s as they came back for the encore asking if they were in a band and agreeing with security’s decision to not let them storm the stage. Something to the effect of ‘you are great right there!’ A request for ‘Jane Smiley’ was denied with Jeff’s stated rationale being that we’d already experienced enough slow tunes and that wasn’t the right move for this crowd. To that point, this setlist really really worked. It’s a little sad to me that the band skips a 15 year period of their catalog but honestly that’s what I want them to do and I’m positive that I’m not alone. Pittsburgh was not on the setlist. Spiders was as the final song but got swapped out for the rock song encore! Pittsburgh Infinite Surprise Handshake Drugs I Am My Mother Cruel Country I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Kamera Soldier Child Side With The Seeds Hummingbird Cousin Bird Without A Tail / Base Of My Skull Meant To Be Via Chicago Impossible Germany Evicted Box Full Of Letters Jesus, Etc Heavy Metal Drummer A Shot In The Arm Falling Apart (Right Now) California Stars Monday Outtasite (Outta Mind) Very nice report! Thank you sir, and glad you got to knock New Mexico off the list. You sure you don’t wanna take over full time? As for the evolving Cousin setlist, I’m looking forward to hearing Infinite Surprise and Meant To Be live. I’m a little surprised they’re not closing the main set with the latter. I know Shot is tough to top as a closer, but I think it would be cool at some point to have Meant To Be end the regular set with a nice gallop off stage… Cool that they audibled to Monday>Outtasite to end, as well. Monday on Monday…it has to happen, right? 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nalafej Posted October 4, 2023 Author Share Posted October 4, 2023 Meant to Be is meant to be a set closer. Couldn’t agree more and hope with time it resonates even more with the crowd. Monday 2 hours before a Monday so maybe we collectively experienced a case of the Sunday scaries! John and Nels were certainly pogoing around S if there life depended on it and I was right there along with them. I was happy to pick up reporting for that show but am absolutely returning the reins to your trusty hands. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.