Wilco — 29 April 2025, Miami Beach, FL (Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater)

[bböp]

I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to suggest that Florida is a weird place and, in my experience, it almost seems to get weirder the further south you get. So with Wilco’s “Sweet And Sour” tour reaching its southernmost U.S. point tonight with a rare stop in Miami Beach — it was the band’s first show in South Florida in nearly 13 years, I believe — I guess I should have expected things to be a little off.

Not that the show was a trainwreck or anything, or that even the vast majority of attendees would probably give anything other than a rave review, but I will just say that from my perspective it was, um, perfectly fine. I’ll stop short of calling it a “professional show,” but I just think when I remember this day years from now — if I remember it — it will probably be less for the band’s performance than things like the venue and the audience. Or, for that matter, what I had for dinner beforehand. (Wouldn’t you like to know? It was really good, though.)

Anyway, let’s start with the venue itself. Once again — and this seems to be a theme with Florida venues on this tour — its name just rolls off the tongue. Ah, The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater. The band has played this room twice before, in 2010 for the first-ever “Evening With…” show as well as in 2012, but at least at the former, which I attended, it was general admission standing on the floor, so that was different from tonight with its reserved seating throughout. I’m not sure if that setup accounted for the band being set up oddly far back — there was an approximately six-foot gap between the band and the edge of the stage — but the proportions just seemed kind of weird somehow. Perhaps because the stage is so relatively low (maybe three feet high), Jeff and Co. had to be that far back because otherwise folks in the far reaches of the distant balcony wouldn’t be able to see them or something. Jeff even remarked on this kind of odd sensation of the room feeling both intimate and cavernous at the same time when he observed at one point that “it feels like different factions” of the audience would respond to something he said in separate waves, like folks up front would react and then a second or two later, the balcony would chime in.

So there was already kind of an odd dynamic there, and then you add the crowd itself and things got even stranger. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard Jeff comment during Wilco’s set on something an audience member had said or done during the opening band’s performance, but it happened tonight when after eight songs, Jeff said he heard someone yelling during Waxahatchee’s set to play California Stars. “That was dumb,” Jeff said. “I just wanted to say Waxahatchee is awesome, and you shouldn’t be yelling other people’s songs at them. You can yell that at us, and we might play it later.” He didn’t even sound super annoyed about it, but just more miffed than anything else.

And that could probably apply to any number of things that various audience members were yelling at Jeff and his bandmates over the course of their set — and that was just those within my earshot. People were just yelling seemingly anything and everything, like the guy who kept shouting, “Golden Smog, baby!” Or the gentleman next to me who kept putting his arm around me and exclaiming, “That was a ripper!” after, like, every song. Or the honest-to-goodness, “Freebird!” I heard after the Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull jam. None of it was belligerent, and I’m sure it just stemmed from overexcitement more than anything else, but it all still made for a kind of a weird atmosphere.

All of which makes it kind of funny to think that Jeff had ever considered that a song like Less Than You Think could work as the main set closer, which is what was listed on the printed setlist. At one point as the show reached its climax, Jeff went over and appeared to whisper some kind of audible to John, who then communicated it to the crew on that side of the stage. Perhaps that had to do with the addition of Heavy Metal Drummer, which wasn’t on the printed list — and, if so, I’m glad it did if only because in order to try and calm down a lady near me who kept loudly yelling for that song for a while earlier in the set, I informed her that it was definitely coming. Oops (almost)!

Despite the random crowd (non) interactions, Jeff himself did pay a couple of notable visits to Banter Corner. At one point, he shared how he had taken a dip in the ocean the previous day and “my hair smells like a mermaid’s toilet.” Mmm…okay. Something I didn’t really want to think about. A little earlier, after Either Way, Jeff said that Glenn “just told me I did a good job on that one. We’ve been playing together for 25 years and that’s the first time he’s ever said that to me. And I’ve never said that to him. I do have a face that looks like it needs encouragement, (like) ‘Is he gonna make it?’” Then a couple of songs later, Jeff told the crowd, “Is everybody doing OK? We’ve got a lot more for you. I just saw a few dates go, ‘Aughggh.’”

To the audience’s credit, I will say that it was generally pretty enthusiastic (sometimes cringe-ily so) and mostly on its feet from start to finish. In a setting that could have devolved into a sitting-versus-standing situation, I didn’t hear anyone get “shouted down” for standing or anything like that — and that’s always a plus. Not that Jeff would have said anything one way or another, but he seemed happy to just leave people be on this night. He even let go without comment two folks in the front row right in front of him who got up and walked out right after the band had started playing one of its newer songs, which I’ve certainly seen him notice — and give people a little grief about — before.

So that was kind of the story in Miami Beach: A breezy, solid Wilco show that certainly seemed to scratch the itch of those south Floridians who had been waiting for the band to return for a good long while. Clocking in at just over two hours, it hit just about all of the notes that Jeff and Co. seem to want to present at this point in their career — without really capturing that extra bit of magic that elevates some shows to a truly transcendent level. But that’s just my humble take, so take it for what it’s worth.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, Less Than You Think was listed as the final song of the main set but wasn't played and Heavy Metal Drummer was not on the printed list, but was added between Annihilation and I'm The Man Who Loves You):

 

Wishful Thinking

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

At Least That's What You Said

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

If I Ever Was A Child

Muzzle Of Bees

Whole Love

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

I Am My Mother

Cruel Country

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

Hummingbird

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

The Late Greats

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

[bböp]

And for anyone interested, here was Waxahatchee's setlist as played:

 

3 Sisters

Evil Spawn

Ice Cold

Can't Do Much

Problem With It [Plains]

Right Back To It

Crowbar

The Wolves

Lilacs

Six O'Clock News [Kathleen Edwards]

Fire

[Albert Tatlock]

That was a ripper - Ta!

[Powerpop Steve]

So it would seem they're playing about 8-10 fewer songs when Waxahatchee opens, With no disrespect to them, I guess I caught a break in St. Pete when they didn't and we got 33 songs from Wilco with "Muzzle of Bees" the only one they played in Miami that they didn't in St. Pete.
 

[bböp]

27 minutes ago, Powerpop Steve said:

So it would seem they're playing about 8-10 fewer songs when Waxahatchee opens, With no disrespect to them, I guess I caught a break in St. Pete when they didn't and we got 33 songs from Wilco with "Muzzle of Bees" the only one they played in Miami that they didn't in St. Pete.
 

They had three shows (the tour opener in Fairhope, AL, St. Petersburg and the last show of the spring U.S. run in Louisville in a few weeks) that were designated as “Evening With…” shows with Wilco playing two sets. I mean, obviously, if you’re just there for Wilco, then it’s best to have gotten to one of those. But Waxhatchee is pretty popular these days as well, so some people might prefer to catch a set from them as well as a slightly shorter Wilco set.

[worldrecordplayer]

I didn't have any sort of weird atmosphere where we were sitting on the floor. Jeff's comment about the Cali Stars request notwithstanding. A solid Wilco show in front of an all standing crowd. My first FL show was a keeper. Hopefully tonight holds up the same. 

[bböp]

22 hours ago, worldrecordplayer said:

I didn't have any sort of weird atmosphere where we were sitting on the floor. Jeff's comment about the Cali Stars request notwithstanding. A solid Wilco show in front of an all standing crowd. My first FL show was a keeper. Hopefully tonight holds up the same. 

Glad you had a good experience. Florida is weird, though. 

[lost highway]

I stumbled upon a video of them performing "Quiet Amplifier" at this show. It was outstanding.

 

Also a note for gear nerd corner:

Jeff appears to be playing his acoustic guitar through overdrive pedals and amps for this song. I'm guessing here, but I'm assuming it would accomplish the goals of keeping that very delicate fingerpicked portion compressed and loud enough to hear amidst tribal drumming and sheets of sound from the other members, and also it allows him to chime in with a more distressed sounding strummed part for the crescendos.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhOczN0aiRw