Wilco — 11 December 2024, Tulsa, OK (Cain's Ballroom) [Night 2 of 2]

[bböp]

Well, Wilco Wednesday certainly didn't disappoint. That was the kind of barnburner of a show we hoped for when Wilco announced that it would play two nights at the storied Cain's Ballroom as part of this brief "Winterlude On The Road" tour, and while Night 1 was a fine performance, Night 2 really saw a little of everything — from wild jams and wonky notes to reinvented tunes and fan favorites, from a rowdy audience member apparently getting removed but ultimately being allowed back in to an adorable young fan in the front row literally receiving the microphone off of Jeff's stand from the frontman himself (among other gifts).

 

It was the kind of night when you look back and try to remember if all of that really happened. I suppose I'm here to attest that, after 35 songs and three hours and 20 minutes (including a 17-minute intermission), it really did.

 

Let's start with the nine- or 10-year-old(?) boy with a baseball cap pulled down low who was just tall enough to peer over the rail. He apparently captured the heart of anyone within sight of him with a little boy in their lives, including at least a couple of band members. After the first set, as he was leaving the stage, Mikael came over with his setlist and tried to hand it to the boy, who apparently didn't know to take it at first. When he finally did try to grab it, it unfortunately fell into the photo pit. But have no fear because Mikael jumped down off the roughly three-foot-high stage and retrieved it for him. Mikael also came and handed the boy his Set 2 setlist at the end of the show, too, and Jeff actually unscrewed his microphone and came over and handed that to the boy. I can't recall that happening before. The kid also got a pair of drumsticks to complete the memorabilia haul, and when we left, his dad (I assume) was taking a photo of him proudly displaying all of the gifts.

 

In some ways, it seemed almost like the Night 2 crowd was split between families — such as parents bringing their kids to the show, surely pleasing to Jeff and those behind the "Raised On Wilco" marketing campaign — and people out to have a good old time, if you catch my drift. The latter threatened to derail the show in the first set when one guy in the middle toward the front continued to make a spectacle of himself (you sort of figured there might be some issues when a full-on soccer-style chant broke out in that area before the show even started). I wasn't close enough to observe exactly what was happening, but obviously it caught the attention of not only Jeff but his tour manager and some of the Cain's security staff, who started to mobilize in that direction. Things came to a head toward the end of Set 1 when the guy apparently loudly requested a song and Jeff tried to deflect as usual by talking about how he should have gone through the process of requesting it on the band's Web site. The guy insisted he had, voting for whatever song it was "two or three times." Jeff replied in part, by joking, "Only two or three times? That's not gonna do it. Don't you know anything about elections?"

 

A couple of songs later, before Meant To Be, the guy was apparently still being disruptive because Jeff paused and rehashed one of his favorite lines about it being "like some Navy SEALs training to see if I can remember the lyrics." Then, gesturing toward the disrupter, Jeff continued, "I love you, man, but you gotta..." and then made a hand signal for calming down (those around him agreed, judging by the applause). Not long after that, security apparently reached the rabble-rouser and took him away. That caused Jeff to quip, "Now I feel bad. I just want everybody to know that I didn't have that man removed for having a good time. (It was) all you spoil sports around him. Now I miss him."

 

(This whole "storyline" continued into Set 2, believe it or not. After One Wing Jeff seemed to notice that a friend of the disrupter had also disappeared from where he had been standing previously and mentioned it when he checked in with the audience. "Everybody OK? Still here," Jeff said. "Where'd that friend go? Did they put him in Cain's jail?" Then a few songs later, after Dawned On Me, Jeff noticed that the disrupter had apparently been allowed to return. "He's back," Jeff said, then addressing the guy directly, "They let you back. I'm glad to see you're back. Thank you.")

 

Aside from audience shenanigans and interactions, though, there was plenty to discuss about the show just from a musical standpoint. Continuing and developing upon what they had done at the Austin shows the previous week, Jeff and his bandmates continued to keep even the die-hard fans on their toes with some new arrangements of a few songs from the back catalog. Art Of Almost returned to the set in its acoustic form, for example, and Someone To Lose featured a jammy outro that omitted the usual ending bit where Jeff goes "All the way...it's OK." Theologians, meanwhile, featured the rare "big riff" ending, which us nerds always root for, while relative rarities such as You Satellite, Laminated Cat and Camera brought their usual electric guitar pyrotechnics.

 

The revelation of the night, though, was almost certainly Kingpin, which had already morphed into a bit of an extended jam when the band played it on Night 3 in Austin. But the version of it that came off the stage at Cain's was something beyond. After the first verse, Jeff and Co. took it into Allman Brothers territory for a bit and when they finally made it back to the "I caught the flu and away I flew..." start of the second verse, they expanded further upon that southern rock vibe and just sort of took off tempo-wise into what seemed like double time for at least three or four minutes before eventually getting to the "Statue of Liberty play..." start of the third verse. As in Austin, they never reached the usual conclusion of the song with the "How can I give my love to you?" finale. I'm definitely not doing it justice, but perhaps it's indicative of the uncharted territory Wilco had ventured into when I saw Nels give Jeff a quick look afterward as if to say, "Did we just do that?" (That brief meeting of the eyes between Nels and Jeff kind of served as a bookend to the start of the show when Nels hit a slightly wonky note right out of the gate and Jeff sort of looked over at him with a slightly perplexed expression.)

 

Anyway, this was a show that did indeed feature a little bit of everything. By the time the band left the stage for the last time, following Glenn's energetic drum solo on Let's Not Get Carried Away, I would say that the show reached — and in some ways, maybe even exceeded — the lofty expectations set by the first half of this "Winterlude On The Road" series. I guess the only little nit I could pick would be the omission of Just A Kid as a show closer, which would have been perfect. But when you get a genuine connection between Jeff and his bandmates and their audience, two sprawling sets of music from across the Wilco catalog (including even some "proper" music, as Jeff joked when introducing Falling Apart (Right Now) at the start of the encore), a venerable venue with character and charm to spare, what else could you really ask for — a guitar on the way out?

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at Cain's Ballroom (I didn't see a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Set 1

Wishful Thinking

Evicted

Art Of Almost (acoustic arrangement)

Handshake Drugs

Blue-Eyed Soul

What Light

Muzzle Of Bees

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Someone To Lose

How To Fight Loneliness

You And I

Pot Kettle Black

Forget The Flowers

Meant To Be

Via Chicago>

Many Worlds (coda only)

 

Set 2

Hell Is Chrome

You Satellite

You Are My Face

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Camera

One Wing

War On War

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Passenger Side

Theologians

Dawned On Me

Walken

Kingpin

The Late Greats

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Let's Not Get Carried Away

[Albert Tatlock]

OK, I'm in a holding pattern with plenty of fuel^*. No panic.

 

[TA TO COME].

 

P.S. ^* Bran flakes, banana, and big mug of tea in case you were wondering

[lost highway]

What a blast! I'm jealous. Any data heads keeping track of how many different songs they've played in the last week?

 

Also how have they not dusted off Born Alone?

[TCP]

1 hour ago, lost highway said:

What a blast! I'm jealous. Any data heads keeping track of how many different songs they've played in the last week?

 

...It's my time to shine!

So, Austin had 98 unique songs played across three evenings.

Tulsa had 68, including the coda of Many Worlds. 

All 68 of those songs were all played in Austin, with the possible (debatable!) exception of the coda of Many Worlds, as Austin had the full Many Worlds.

Austin had 32 songs a night, and Tulsa had 33 (night one) and 35 (night two).

[lost highway]

10 hours ago, TCP said:

 

...It's my time to shine!

So, Austin had 98 unique songs played across three evenings.

Tulsa had 68, including the coda of Many Worlds. 

All 68 of those songs were all played in Austin, with the possible (debatable!) exception of the coda of Many Worlds, as Austin had the full Many Worlds.

Austin had 32 songs a night, and Tulsa had 33 (night one) and 35 (night two).

Merci! Excellent work, sir.

[bböp]

On 12/12/2024 at 2:47 AM, Albert Tatlock said:

OK, I'm in a holding pattern with plenty of fuel^*. No panic.

 

[TA TO COME].

 

P.S. ^* Bran flakes, banana, and big mug of tea in case you were wondering

 

I'll have that TA now...

 

Or maybe just a cuppa (TeA) to ward off the chill of Minnesota?

[chaslor]

Thanks for the recaps. Interesting about Kingpin. As you know, that used to be a standard but I personally have not heard it live in quite some time it seems. I need to hear this new live version. 

 

Here's the handclap from way back when in 2004...

 

 

[Albert Tatlock]

13 hours ago, bböp said:

 

I'll have that TA now...

 

Or maybe just a cuppa (TeA) to ward off the chill of Minnesota?

Ta gratefully sent. I did need more than the banana and bran flakes though. The old fish and rice cakes regime kept me going.

 

.