Wilco — 25 October 2023, Kansas City, MO (Midland Theatre)

[bböp]

Well, Kansas City certainly seems to be having a moment, doesn't it? At least that's how it seems to this out-of-towner. Obviously there's the Taylor-and-Travis soap opera that has captivated the nation, but apart from that, as someone who's been visiting fairly regularly for years now, I've been impressed by the continuing revitalization of downtown, the gleaming new airport that makes the dumpy old MCI seem like a distant memory and just the general sense of a city on the upswing. Heck, Wilco's show on a Wednesday night was just a blip on a cultural landscape that featured an even bigger concert (The 1975) at the T-Mobile Center and a playoff game (Sporting KC in an MLS wild-card match).

 

About the only thing that was a drag on this visit was, yet again, the weather. It seems like Wilco is cursed with the gloomiest, rainiest days whenever it rolls through town in recent years, or is it the other way around? Fortunately, tonight's show was already scheduled to be indoors — unlike the band's previous visit, which Jeff recalled a couple of different times during the set at the Midland Theatre.

 

More to come on that, but for now, here was the complete setlist, as played (Soldier Child was on the printed setlist after Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull but was skipped, and the planned Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) encore was replaced by Spiders (Kidsmoke)):

 

Infinite Surprise

Handshake Drugs

Pittsburgh

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Kamera

Meant To Be

Side With The Seeds

Hummingbird

Cousin

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

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

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

[Brian F.]

See now if it was a real soap opera, Taylor and Travis would have definitely run into Matty Healy of the 1975 somewhere around town and there would have been drama.

[chisoxjtrain]

Recommendation for any baseball fans (even non-baseball fans like my wife) who visit Kansas City: The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a MUST see. So much history there. I was lucky enough to trail a tour given by the president of the museum to White Sox coaches a few years ago and it was incredible. A really cool music connection is that Geddy Lee bought and donated over 400 baseballs signed by Negro League players to the museum.

[Brian F.]

That's a great recommendation. True story: in my post above, where I wrote "somewhere around town," I first wrote "at the Negro Leagues Museum" but was afraid people might think I was poking fun at the museum. I then considered writing "at the Jazz Museum" and "at the Truman Library" before deciding that specificity was unnecessary.

 

I also strongly recommend the Truman Library as well as the Truman Residence in Independence. I actually didn't get to go to the Jazz Museum because I spent too much time at the Negro Leagues Museum. (They are in the same building.)