Wilco — 10 December 2024, Tulsa, OK (Cain's Ballroom) [Night 1 of 2]

[bböp]

Coming off a remarkable kickoff to this brief "Winterlude On The Road" tour in Austin last week, in which Wilco performed 98 different songs over the course of three shows, it seemed only natural to wonder what — other than the venue and the days of the week — would be different when the scene shifted to another favorite old stomping ground: Cain's Ballroom. Would the band play anything that it hadn't in Austin? Which songs wouldn't make the cut, given the two-night run in Tulsa (versus three in Austin)? Would the energy from the audience be the same? Would Jeff put on a jacket again? You know, the important questions...

 

Except for the issue of the jacket — some will be happy to note that Jeff once again sported an outer layer, opting for a denim number that fit the setting — I guess the answers to those questions depended upon your perspective. Well, I suppose the question of whether there would be any songs played that weren't in Austin was also a matter of fact — and the answer was no.

 

But lest that cloud your judgement about Night 1 at Cain's, let me assure you that it was still an above-average Wilco performance. As Jeff once again explained near the outset, the idea for these concerts was to take the special sorts of shows that he and his bandmates had periodically done around this time of year in Chicago to some different locales and get a chance to play some of the songs that they didn't get to as much usually. When thinking about places that "it would be fun to do that, this is one of the first places we thought of," Jeff said. "So it's not Wilco 101 for the next day and a half or so." (Amusingly he made that comment right before the band launched into I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and, realizing that he had just sort of contradicted himself, Jeff smiled and conceded off mike, "This is.")

 

The truth is, despite the two-set format and more than a few rarities and/or deep cuts, this Night 1 Cain's show probably was Wilco 101 in some ways. At least compared with the three nights in Austin. But did that make it a less-enjoyable performance? Well I suppose if you had attended all three shows last week, it might have felt like a slight letdown from a setlist perspective. For the vast majority of attendees, however — certainly those who weren't setlist scrutinizing — I think it was still a very enjoyable night.

 

I don't know how it felt from the back of the room, but if you managed to get a spot pretty close to the stage, one advantage that Cain's has over the ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin is its intimacy. The stage at Cain's is a bit lower and certainly much narrower than at ACL and that allowed the crowd, at least in the first few rows, to really feel a connection with the band. For example, during the second set after the Star Wars two-fer Cold Slope>King Of You, Jeff seemed to notice someone (a kid?) possibly nodding off and appeared to maybe apologize to their parents or something like that. I'm not sure if that's even close to what actually happened, but the point is there was certainly some kind of connection made between Jeff and someone in that moment. A little later, after Hate It Here, Glenn peered at some of us with a slightly dazed look on his face and indicated/lamented that he had accidentally poked himself in the eye with one of his drumsticks during the song. The show featured more than a few such moments of back and forth which, in my opinion, always makes for a better gig than those where the band is just looking out into blackness.

 

From a Banter Corner standpoint, Jeff once again had a little fun at Glenn's expense prior to Box Full Of Letters when he introduced the song as being from the band's first album — as he regularly does — and joked that Glenn didn't want him to say that because the drummer wasn't on that record and he "was being forced to play someone else's part." The natural segue after that comment would have been into Someone Else's Song, on which Jeff broke out the Flying V guitar he has been using on this tour in Austin. But although the Flying V did come out just then, it was instead for Random Name Generator (which, for those keeping track at home, made the count three songs from Star Wars and none from Being There or Summerteeth; the shutout of those two records was amazingly broken only by the inclusion of Outtasite (Outta Mind) in the encore). After the frenetic RNG, Jeff paused for a second and quipped, "I had to catch my breath a bit after that guitar. I'm still thinking about it. It's essential."

 

Of course you knew that being at Cain's, just a short distance from the Woody Guthrie Center, we were likely to get some Mermaid Avenue material. And that came during the first set, when not only did the full-band Remember The Mountain Bed resurface for one of the few times in the past decade — Jeff had an almost-imperceptible lyric flub about halfway through, one of several during the show — but we also got Secret Of The Sea and Hesitating Beauty back to back as well. In briefly introducing those songs as being by Guthrie, Jeff deadpanned, "He was a lefty. Did you know that?"

 

By the time we got to the end of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour show, during which Jeff had also surveyed the audience to see how many people would be coming again the following night (a lot, it seems) as well as apologized if anyone hadn't gotten to hear the song they had wanted to hear (he rehashed a joke he has made about there being "pamphlets in the lobby" to help people deal with their favorite song not being played), we had nevertheless gotten to hear 33 songs. And enjoyed more than a few amusing moments.

 

I'll just mention one more of those here, which occurred during Casino Queen. During the breakdown before the third verse kicks back in, Jeff looked over at Nels, who was bent over at the waist with both arms fully raised behind him in what almost looked like a yoga position and his guitar dangling from his upper body just by its strap and almost got so distracted by the sight that he forgot to start singing again and leading the handclaps. It's hard to do justice to the image, truthfully, but it was just another example of the little details you could observe because of the relative intimacy of this venerable old honky tonk and that alone made for a fun evening. Solid by any measure, if not spectacular only when compared to the mind-melting marvels that were the Austin shows.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 at Cain's (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):

 

Set 1

Sky Blue Sky

Company In My Back

Remember The Mountain Bed

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Country Disappeared

Everyone Hides

It's Just That Simple

Shouldn't Be Ashamed

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Quiet Amplifier

Secret Of The Sea

Hesitating Beauty

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

 

Set 2

Infinite Surprise

Annihilation

At Least That's What You Said

Hummingbird

Panthers

Whole Love

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Side With The Seeds

Box Full Of Letters

Random Name Generator

Jesus, etc.

Hate It Here

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Casino Queen>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I'm A Wheel

[Albert Tatlock]

Big thumbs up for Company In My Back

T(uls)a

[Albert Tatlock]

On 12/11/2024 at 7:53 AM, bböp said:

You know, the important questions...

Like will they ever play The Unwelcome Guest? That and Wales beating the All Blacks in my lifetime are the great hopes (granted technically we won in 1978 were it not for one of the most heinous acts in all of sport but the scoreboard says otherwise). To think that my Dad saw them beaten twice in 3 weeks by Cardiff and Wales in 53 - I was with a friend and her mother once when we met Bleddyn Williams - her Mum practically curtsied. To be honest I don't see either happening anytime soon . . .

 

EDIT: The only thing to soften the blow in 78 was that we had a day off school because there were too few teachers left - the game was on a Wednesday afternoon and they all had tickets. On the other hand that did mean that I watched it live on TV so was a witness to the shamefull deed. Oh and God how I loved Terry Holmes.

[jhuml1]

On 12/11/2024 at 1:53 AM, bböp said:

"I had to catch my breath a bit after that guitar. I'm still thinking about it. It's essential."

 

I think he said it was sensual rather than essential. He was really just trying to recover from the guitar being so heavy!

[bböp]

37 minutes ago, jhuml1 said:

 

I think he said it was sensual rather than essential. He was really just trying to recover from the guitar being so heavy!

That makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification!