Wilco — 11 October 2023, Los Angeles, CA (The Bellwether) [Night 1 of 2]

[bböp]

Well, it's nice to be (mostly) back on the Wilco Express for the remainder of this current U.S. tour. So what'd I miss while I was gone? Oh, I see that the band has set up camp in Los Angeles whilst busily promoting its new record, Cousin. Three full-length performances at the venerable Theatre At Ace Hotel, plus a national TV talk show appearance, a semi-secret, semi-private set for bigwigs of a certain local radio station, an autograph signing at a record store, a weekend festival appearance. Heck, maybe the band should randomly sign up for an open mic at a local bar and play some music for whoever happens to be around. Uh...

 

With all due respect to those varied settings, I'd venture to say that the most anticipated part of Wilco week(s) in L.A. — at least judging by the number of familiar fan faces that turned out — was this date at the new Bellwether venue adjacent to downtown. A general admission show in a relatively intimate 1,600-capacity ballroom? Yes, please. You can't take those for granted anymore, certainly not in the good ol' US of A. So it wasn't a big surprise, then, that this one sold out pretty quickly and eventually led to the addition of a second night.

 

For its part, the Bellwether largely delivered on its promise. It featured a nice-sized room with relatively good sight lines all around and a wide, but not-too-high, stage as well as a balcony that ringed the dance floor. I guess it kind of reminded me of a more intimate version of the Palladium in Hollywood or something like that. However, I must give it at least one very strong demerit for screwing over those folks who had waited in line for several hours by pulling that classic venue stunt of opening up its bar/restaurant in advance of the doors and encouraging people to go in there and then letting all of those people into the music room before those who had waited in line and chosen not to go into the bar/restaurant.

 

It would be one thing if they had said they were going to open the doors from the bar/restaurant first, but they were at best vague about it. I've seen this happen at a number of other venues, and it's just never cool. That's why a venue like the Fillmore in San Francisco always will be superior in my book because the folks who run that place don't pull shenanigans like this. In the end, I hope everyone who had waited a while in the "regular" line got an OK spot, but it definitely was a bit of a shitshow, IMHO.

 

Anyway, as for the show itself, I enjoyed the mix of Cousin tunes and older material. Even though we didn't get a single song off A.M. or Being There tonight, which I noticed is a consequence when the setlist goes a certain way lately, it does seem like the band is continuing to gradually expand its repertoire as the tour goes along. Tonight, for example, we got an unexpected At Least That's What You Said to kick off the encore, as well as Muzzle Of Bees early on. And building upon the final night at the Ace, when the full band played such staples as I'm The Man Who Loves You and Theologians for the first time in months, we got those two again on Night 1 at the Bellwether.

 

At one point, Jeff asked if anybody was coming back the following night (as he often does on the first night of a multi-night stand). When there was a smattering of applause in response, he briefly got an impish look on his face and joked, "Good, we can play the same set then. That's just what we want. These are the songs we like." Then he relented a bit and assured the crowd that the band would play a few different songs on Night 2. On a personal note, here's hoping we get a few of the Cousin tunes I've yet to hear live such as Levee and Sunlight Ends or even the as-yet unperformed A Bowl And A Pudding.

 

Banter Corner wasn't especially busy on this evening, I would say. Jeff's best line might have come at the expense of poor Nels, whose black shirt with a square pocket on the front could be viewed as resembling a garment one might wear to bed. After Impossible Germany, which featured a methodical, mesmerizing solo by the guitarist, and the audience's usual round of appreciative applause, Jeff couldn't help but take the piss, as it were, by quipping that Nels "didn't even get out of his pajamas today." Jeff also briefly responded to what I presume has been some of the critical response to Cousin by introducing Random Name Generator as being a song from the album Star Wars and joking about how it sure sounded like the "same thing we put out on every record...a delicate acoustic number. It's a delight."

 

But for the most part, Jeff and his bandmates let their music do most of the talking. They seemed to be having fun up there throughout, even though they've been road warriors for the better part of eight straight weeks now. One example of this came when Jeff began strumming the introductory chords to California Stars but had to wait to fully start the song while a minor issue with Nels' gear was sorted out. The rest of the band picked up on the groove and what ended up happening was an entertaining 20 or 30 seconds of an almost-Hawaiian sounding instrumental version of the song. It would have been great if they had just continued in that vein for the duration, but alas, we morphed back into plain old Cali Stars soon enough. And yet it was just that kind of night, by and large, with the band doing what it does best in front of some of its best appreciators.

 

"It's been fun playing music for you," Jeff said in his final comments to the crowd before delicately making his way off stage one final time. "This is what makes it all worthwhile."

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at the Bellwether (didn't glimpse a printed list, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions, though it didn't seem like it):

 

Pittsburgh

Infinite Surprise

Muzzle Of Bees

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Soldier Child

Theologians

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hummingbird

Evicted

Impossible Germany

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

The Late Greats

Random Name Generator

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

At Least That's What You Said

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

A Shot In The Arm

[Albert Tatlock]

2 hours ago, bböp said:

almost-Hawaiian sounding instrumental version of the song

I for one vote for a return of the Goth version of HMD. (FYI this is not a joke - I can't remember where I got it but it is in my iTunes and must be out there "playing Joy Division covers beautiful and alone")

 

Ta.

[50footqueenie]

I for other vote for a whole set played in polka 2/4 time with mazurka versions of the Rock Show Ending encore.

[nalafej]

Thank god Bbop is back on tour. Great recap as always and props to the band (I know, I know, who gives props in the year 2023) for expanding the repertoire. I too hope Bellweather #2 gets the rest of the Cousin songs.

[Brian F.]

I'm glad bbop is back, mostly because his writeup pretty much covers everything worth noting but also because it relieves the burden of filling in as chronicler during his brief hiatus. My biggest challenge was that I can longer see what I'm writing in a dark theater without my reading glasses so, scribbling the set list, I had to hope for the best that my notes would end up legible. And with quite a few deviations from the printed set lists on this tour, I knew I couldn't rely on the "official" lists. Having said that, I can confirm that last night's set as played matched the printed set list. EDIT: Apparently, I was wrong about the set matching the printed list. I was told by a credible source that "Meant to Be" was on the printed set list. I must have missed it when I glanced at the set list someone had after the show.

 

Amen on the shitshow. I arrived at 2 p.m. and was in line more than an hour before the next person arrived. One of the people working at the venue announced at about 5:15 p.m. that people in the restaurant would be given access at the same time as those of us in line, and he surmised that it would take them longer to get from the restaurant to the floor than it would take us to make it from the front door to the floor. A couple of folks who were twelfth in line (Jason and Larry) decided to scope out the restaurant situation, if for nothing else to know what to do on Night 2. You can imagine my displeasure when, after being the first one through the door, I walked into the room and saw that the entire rail was already occupied. Fortunately, thanks to Jason and Larry, I was able to claim the spot I had "earned" by showing up early. From what I could tell, it looked like most of the people at the front of the line did still end up on the rail, including Arlene, who traveled from Vancouver and was the next person in line after me and coldasgasoline, and Kidsmoke and Mr. Kidsmoke, who were next in line after Arlene and her friend. I saw that bbop did not end up on the rail, which his spot in line should have entitled him to, but I think I recall from other shows that he prefers to be a couple of people off the rail and dead center because the sound is better there-- am I remembering that correctly? Anyway, I intend to split the difference tonight. I will still get in line very early to establish a moral claim, but then I will go into the restaurant to "game the system" without feeling guilty about it. If anyone is in line before I get there, I will defer to them if I end up in the spot they wanted. L.A. folks may remember when the Wiltern pulled this crap in 2012. There were dozens of people lined up for hours on Wilshire Boulevard, and they came out and told us that, for twenty bucks, we would get early entry and access to a bar inside the theater. Everyone near the front of the line held firm for a while but, eventually, people who were further back decided to take advantage of the opportunity to jump the line, which created a cascading effect that led to most of the people near the front of the line caving in and ponying up the twenty bucks. The scene inside the bar was comical. Almost no one had any interest in patronizing the bar. We were just all hovering by the doorway waiting for the go-ahead to make our way down to the floor. Anyway, there ought to be a law.

 

As for the show itself, they really leaned into A Ghost Is Born. Both of the tour debuts were from that album, and both were welcome surprises. With respect to "California Stars," I actually commented to Jason along the lines of what bbop wrote as they were noodling while the gear issue was worked out, that I wouldn't mind if they just kept doing that for four minutes instead of actually performing the song. Jeff's pajamas comment really resonated because I had been thinking all night that Nels was rocking the Hugh Hefner look, at least from the waist up.

 

With respect to "A Bowl and a Pudding," yes, please. Honestly, at this point, with only two shows left on my itinerary, I'd settle for a bowl or a pudding. I have a feeling this one is tough to translate to the live setting because of the echoing vocals, and that's why we haven't heard it yet. But it is, with "Sunlight Ends," "Meant to Be" and "Infinite Surprise," one of the highlights of an album full of highlights, at least in my opinion.

 

I do have one issue with last night, and this may have just been a function of where I was standing, directly in front of the floor-level monitor in front of Jeff, but it was-- and I don't know if I've ever uttered these words before-- too loud.

 

Oh, also, I should note that this show was a double milestone for me. It was my 50th time seeing Wilco, and my 75th time seeing Jeff Tweedy. (If you don't count Jimmy Kimmel Live, then tonight's show will be my golden/diamond jubilee.) It took 28 years to get to 50 shows, from my first Wilco show at Tramps in New York City in June 1995. (My first Tweedy shows were a Jeff-and-Jay Bennett gig at the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, Mass., in 1997 and a Golden Smog show at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston in 1998.) May the next 50/75 be as awesome as the first 50/75, although at this rate-- I was 19 at my first Wilco show and I'm 48 now-- I'll be 77 by the time I get to 100/150, which is good because I need something to keep me busy until I'm 86 and Halley's Comet comes back.

[kidsmoke]

12 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

I for one vote for a return of the Goth version of HMD. (FYI this is not a joke - I can't remember where I got it but it is in my iTunes and must be out there "playing Joy Division covers beautiful and alone")

 

Ta.

This was in San Francisco on January 12, 2003 at the Great American Music Hall. That bouncy wooden floor was MOVING that night! I remember it was a quick show before they headed to Australia on tour. That is a terrific recording...that whole show! Jeff was so funny singing that goth version in his gothiest voice, and then he ended by posing, frozen, as if crucified, his head dropped. And held that position for a beat, then morphed back into Jeff, grinning, saying, "See? That's how I shoulda done it!" or something like that. It was a gloriously funny moment.

[kidsmoke]

Those of you lined up at the Bellwether tonight will hopefully have no issues with line management tonight. My husband Bob has been a house manager and so poor house management bugs him. Last night he sought out the house manager and paid his compliments to the venue, as due, but told her about the line fiasco. It appeared to be accidental, in that the restaurant doors upstairs had apparently been, ah, 'left open" by the restaurant security, and people up there just took advantage of it and streamed in early, having already been ID-checked at the restaurant. Vanessa, the House Manager, was very apologetic and assured us it would be corrected tonight.
I can't be there, but I hope that's the case.

[Brian F.]

4 hours ago, kidsmoke said:

Those of you lined up at the Bellwether tonight will hopefully have no issues with line management tonight. My husband Bob has been a house manager and so poor house management bugs him. Last night he sought out the house manager and paid his compliments to the venue, as due, but told her about the line fiasco. It appeared to be accidental, in that the restaurant doors upstairs had apparently been, ah, 'left open" by the restaurant security, and people up there just took advantage of it and streamed in early, having already been ID-checked at the restaurant. Vanessa, the House Manager, was very apologetic and assured us it would be corrected tonight.
I can't be there, but I hope that's the case.

 

Short update: It was corrected, and all was right with the world. Thanks be to Bob.

 

Longer update later.

[Albert Tatlock]

6 hours ago, kidsmoke said:

I remember it

Ha! So funny to hear that you were actually there. 

My (European) attendances started on the AGIB tour. I kind of miss that slight feeling of jeopardy about going to Wilco shows then - would it be 'moody Jeff'' or 'happy Jeff'. I used to like shows where I knew you were attending (e.g. Hammersmith, Montmartre) because I knew he would be happy since you were there! All this was after the post-Jay era of course when they were really loose (as far as I can tell) and often that was in a good way. I'd like to see a bit of organised chaos from time to time - maybe every show with a different take on a Wilco song. Maybe that sort of thing is reserved for SS that I'll never see, but it would be nice to have a bit of goofiness (don't like that word but can't think of another right now) not ultra professionalism from time to time.