Wilco — 14 December 2024, St. Paul, MN (Palace Theatre) [Night 2 of 3]

[bböp]

I doubt that the weather conditions had anything to do with the setlist Wilco put forth on the middle night of its "Winterlude On The Road" stint in St. Paul, but Mother Nature played much nicer to those of us waiting outside for an extended period of time for the doors to open. Certainly veterans of upper Midwest winters would have hardly batted an eye. But whatever your tolerance level for cold and snow/ice, this Saturday night special by Jeff and Co. was almost guaranteed to send you home with some warm rock 'n' roll feelings in your heart (and perhaps also a little sweat on your brow).

 

All you really needed to do to judge this to be #RockNight is look at the last five songs of the show — three at the end of Set 2 and then the two-song encore — which pretty much represent the band in its liveliest form. Glenn has provided the show-closing pyrotechnics now on a couple of nights of this run, doing his best Keith Moon (or is it Neil Peart?) impression with his massively entertaining drum solo on Let's Not Get Carried Away. I can't emphasize how much I'm enjoying this recent resurrection of this B-side, which the band last played a handful of times in 2014 and 2015 before bringing it back for the "deep cuts" set at last summer's Solid Sound Festival. As someone who was around for the song's original era back in 2006, I'm glad that a whole new generation of fans (including many who jumped on the Wilco bandwagon post-Sky Blue Sky) is getting a chance to experience it in all its glory.

 

On Night 2 at the Palace, the Flying V guitar that Jeff has been playing usually once a show on this run finally made its appearance on the 31st and final song of the evening — the aforementioned Let's Not Get Carried Away — and gave us the heat we needed to venture back out into the night. When Glenn launched into his solo, Jeff and the Flying V actually took a seat for a few moments and took in the whole spectacle with the rest of us, but Pat joined in with some percussive accents like tambourine and maraca, which I don't remember him doing before.

 

Pat also egged on the crowd to give Glenn a final round of applause as the the band was leaving the stage, and the drummer might have even uncharacteristically fired a towel into the crowd at some of his fans/cheerleaders/hecklers (ahem). It was certainly a contrast — but no less exceptional — to the band's departure from the stage about 90 minutes prior when the sextet gradually exited one by one as the drone from Less Than You Think took hold. As in Austin last week, Less Than You Think proved an ideal closer for Set 1 of the show. As the drone stretched on for at least five minutes into the approximately 20-minute intermission before it gradually faded out and the house lights went up, the crowd had a chance to ponder what had already taken place and what was to come.

 

As for what had already happened, Set 1 began in somewhat surprising fashion with Spiders (Kidsmoke) finally making its first appearance during this run of shows — albeit in an acoustic arrangement. The original version circa 2002-2003 is a favorite of many longtime fans, but this acoustic version isn't entirely that nor the more "modern" one with the current lineup. Instead it's kind of a hybrid of the two, and it adds another dimension to the song, And tonight, Jeff and Co. used the chaotic outro as a perfect segue into Wishful Thinking. I would be remiss if I also didn't mention the excellent acoustic rendition of Art Of Almost that the band has been performing of late, which re-imagines The Whole Love tune as an almost-psychedelic jam with electric guitar flourishes provided by Nels and Pat.

 

[MORE TO COME]

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 at the Palace (only got a quick look at the printed setlist, but apparently Shouldn't Be Ashamed was omitted from Set 1, though I didn't see if it was replaced by something not on the printed list):

 

Set 1

Spiders (Kidsmoke) {acoustic arrangement)>

Wishful Thinking

Evicted

Art Of Almost (acoustic arrangement)

Muzzle Of Bees

Sunken Treasure (acoustic arrangement; Jeff on acoustic, no harmonica)

She's A Jar

Handshake Drugs

Either Way

Bob Dylan's 49th Beard

Remember The Mountain Bed

If I Ever Was A Child

Quiet Amplifier

Less Than You Think

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

Blue-Eyed Soul

Whole Love

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)

Camera

Side With The Seeds

What Light

Jesus, etc.

Say You Miss Me

Hate It Here

Monday>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

I'm A Wheel

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

Casino Queen

Let's Not Get Carried Away

[denholm123]

I haven't been to one of their shows since Ode to Joy, and this was such a great way to come back to them. The first set felt like it was tailor made for me. I would love an album in the style of the "acoustic" arrangements of Spiders and Art of Almost. Jammy, loose, meditative, mildly psychedelic, and tasteful as hell. Somehow restrained and indulgent at the same time. Throw in some Bird Without a Tail and a One Sunday Morning and it would be an all timer.

 

Things I didn't expect to see checked off my bucket list:

-I may have seen Muzzle of Bees in the past, but it still feels very special

-Full version of Less Than You Think! (I texted a friend saying we were going to riot if they didn't do the drone, glad it didn't come to that), and followed up by Late Greats!

-Another classic pairing, Cold Slope-King of You

-Face-melting Laminated Cat

-Confirmation that Jeff can still do the crazy train whistle scream thing

 

Not sure if Roadcase is still going on, but I'd really love a recording of this one.

So much fun, wish I was going again tonight.

 

Also, really fun to see TCPs comment from yesterday about their hopes for the show. Congrats! Haha

 

 

[wilcolovesyou]

This show goes down in the books for the loudest and most energetic Wilco show I’ve ever experienced to date. Sadly, not the night to forget my trusty earplugs in my hotel room and yet I did. 
While we’re all anxiously waiting on Paul’s tease of ‘more to come’, I’ll add my notables:

*Sometime during the Mon>Outtasite>Wheel trilogy, it was so hot and on fire Mikael did things I’ve never seen. He looked right at the audience and had a moment straight out of a KISS show— tongue all the way out, shaking his head and smiling and then tossed his pillow so far up in the air, I wasn’t sure he would get it back!! EPIC!

*Camera was such a highlight. They were so tight, a sonic wall of guitars, rolling down the road like semis on a supersonic highway, side-by-side. Glorious.

*If I Ever Was a Child was countrified and a fun take on a beloved song.

*Set 1 was a perfect set. I will never tire of the acoustic arrangements and re-arrangements of Spiders, Art of Almost, & Sunken Treasure. Muzzle of Bees was also enhanced but I don’t remember how so I hope bbop fills us in.

*Pat’s monitor or amp was malfunctioning early in the show and it just stopped working entirely during Handshake. He was visibly bummed to not be playing his usual guitar riffs on Handshake and it took Austin quite a while to get it sorted. But eventually he was back in action and doing windmills for us all, later in the show.

*The 2 encores were utter perfection: all 6 looked happier than kids at Christmas during Casino Queen. Damn—the sheer power and joy rolling off of them was palpable.  During the closer, seeing the whole band turn and watch or sit in reverence to witness Glenn shine was very touching. Given they all have crazy raw talent, to see the love and respect they afford one another is yet just another amazing layer in the Wilco cake of genius.

 

 

[TCP]

Last night was fantastic. I really, really, really liked that acoustic arrangement of Spiders straight into Wishful Thinking. Absolutely sublime. Acoustic Art of Almost was great too. 

Due to geographical restrictions I wasn't able to attend many Wilco shows from 2004 - 2015, I knew Let's Not Get Carried Away would be a highlight but I didn't know how hard it would hit. Glenn turned into a maniac for a few minutes there, and it was wonderful.

Seven songs again last night I hadn't heard the band play before, that's 14 total across two nights. 

As for the weather, I heard someone, who was probably some incredibly tough Canadian, was walking around in a tshirt before the show, so it wasn't that cold. Night 1 got a little chilly when you were standing still in line though. The room itself felt much warmer last night but luckily the Palace security team was handing out bottles of water.

Really nice to meet a few VCers these past few nights including @nalafej and @wilcolovesyou!! 

 

On 12/14/2024 at 10:53 AM, TCP said:

But maybe we'll get Remember the Mountain Bed tonight.

......Am I... magic??.... Maybe we'll get ELT tonight, maybe we'll get ELT tonight, maybe we'll get ELT tonight.

[TCP]

Oops, also, I forgot to mention I think the technical issues Pat was having was with his pedal board. That seemed to be what they were looking at and between sets Austin came out holding a few pedals, that I'm assuming he swapped in. Pedal boards can be big complicated messes. If it stops outputting sound, it can be very time consuming to diagnosis where the issue is. Has a pedal died? Or a cable between the pedals? Good on Austin for getting it sorted. I'm curious what Pat said to Jeff, I'm guessing that he can do keyboard parts on the upcoming songs, but perhaps that's why Shouldn't Be Ashamed was cut.

[theashtraysays]

3 hours ago, denholm123 said:

 

-Full version of Less Than You Think! (I texted a friend saying we were going to riot if they didn't do the drone, glad it didn't come to that), and followed up by Late Greats!

 

 

Oh great catch there! I missed that pairing (separated by the intermission break).

 

I think the power drill that Glenn left running when he walked off was a ryobi for all you power tool gear heads out there. 

[nalafej]

What a band, what a show. I could use a dose of that rock block on a weekly basis.

 

Nice meeting some message board folks Friday/Saturday. Wish I could catch the finale, but alas...

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta.

So are we definitely back to rock/singing Jeff rather than whispering Jeff?

[knotgreen]

13 hours ago, nalafej said:

What a band, what a show. I could use a dose of that rock block on a weekly basis.

 

Nice meeting some message board folks Friday/Saturday. Wish I could catch the finale, but alas...

Good chatting with you!