Wilco — 15 May 2025, Charlotte, NC (Amp Ballantyne)

[bböp]

After a stormy start to the week, the weather finally cleared tonight in Charlotte, where Wilco used a trio of birdies — One Wing, Hummingbird and Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull — to card a round of three under par and take a stunning lead after the first round of the 2025 PGA Championship, one of the four major tournaments on the professional golfing calendar that is currently taking place at the Quail Hollow Club here.

What’s that you say, indie/alt rock and pro golf don’t go together? Or just that sort of music and the well-heeled game of fairways, doglegs and bunkers in general? Well, I think there surely must be some intersection somewhere…but I don’t think Jeff and his bandmates are it. And judging by some of his banter, I’m pretty sure Jeff knew it.

“This is not golf-adjacent music,” Jeff admitted pretty early in Wilco’s set. “It’s weird having these two worlds in the same space, but hopefully…there’s some people who have already been eliminated. Does that happen? I was eliminated right off the bat.”

Then again, maybe there is something to the air of exclusivity that sometimes permeates the sport. Unlike many other stops on this Southeastern shed tour, it hadn’t been that long since Wilco had actually played a show in the Queen City. As a matter of fact, it was less than a year ago that the band was in town for a private gig. But lest any Charlottans(?) feel as if they missed out that night, they might be heartened to know that of the 22 songs Wilco played at that show, over half were repeated tonight at the Amp Ballantyne.

With an expansive lawn that gently slopes down a hill toward the wide stage, which is surrounded by a pit area with a few sections of reserved seating, it's an outdoor venue that lends itself to enjoying a pleasant night of music — especially if the weather cooperates, which it certainly did. Who knows if that caused Jeff to be especially chatty, but he definitely seemed to be in a mood to visit Banter Corner. One funny comment came about halfway through the show when Jeff correctly observed, “What a nice night. I will say this about this audience: There’s a lot of milling about. I’m not saying it’s wrong; I’m just saying there’s a lot of movement. It’s noted. Where are you all going?”

Certainly Jeff had no trouble engaging with the crowd throughout. He spotted one familiar face near the front at one point and asked the person, almost off mike, if they had been wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt at a show the other night. “Glad to see we converted you,” Jeff deadpanned. Later, he gazed off to his left and jokingly made another golf reference when he asked some other folks, “You guys playing through?” Jeff followed up that quip by noting that along with the PGA Championship being in town, Shakira was also playing tonight. “Sorry you guys couldn’t get tickets to that,” Jeff said of the Hips Don’t Lie songstress. “You know, I got new hips — and I got the Shakira brand.”

Perhaps the biggest audience response Jeff got all night came in the encore when he somehow connected with a straw-chewing security guard up front. It came out that the guy wanted to hand Jeff a card of some sort. Jeff accepted it, joking that it was a nice change from the previous show the band had played when a woman walked up the center aisle and flipped him the bird with both hands. Anyway, Jeff looked at the card and proclaimed to the crowd, “Oh my God, it’s from the President. He’s resigning!” After a loud cheer went up, Jeff backtracked, first by saying it was from “the president of music,” then that he was “just kidding, he’s not resigning.”

After that bit, Jeff shared what the card really said: “Thanks for being here. You’re a blessing.” Jeff then said that it addressed each band member by name, except it left Glenn out (to which Glenn hilariously could be seen making an incredulous face). Finally Jeff relented and said that Glenn was actually included, but his name was spelled wrong. “There’s two ‘n’s in Glenn,” Jeff said. “Glenn’s hoarding ‘n’s.”

All in all, it was a fun night even if the setlist didn’t vary much at all from what the band has settled into on this run of shows. Jeff did mention that it had been very enjoyable for him and his bandmates to share this tour with Waxahatchee and said they would miss Katie Crutchfield and her band, though Jeff admitted that “I’ll see the drummer a lot.” Will we see the two bands together on stage in some form? If tradition holds, then it will happen on their final night together in Asheville.

But as for Charlotte, after a 2-hour, 5-minute performance by Wilco, it will just have to content itself for the rest of the week with a few more days of competition in a sport that has been often dubbed “a good walk spoiled.” “We’ve been up here a long time, but it’s flown by,” Jeff observed near the end of the main set. “It’s been a nice night. Good luck with your golf game.”

Here was the complete setlist, as played (there were no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

If I Ever Was A Child

Meant To Be

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

War On War

Cruel Country

Quiet Amplifier

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer>

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta. Thanks for chipping in. I'd be hard putt to read a more eagle eyed zinger of a report on a slice of Wilco action, and you've gone a fair way to making my day after a rough start. I'm green with envy. 

P.S. Can't quite fit in mashie niblick.

[bböp]

45 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta. Thanks for chipping in. I'd be hard putt to read a more eagle eyed zinger of a report on a slice of Wilco action, and you've gone a fair way to making my day after a rough start. I'm green with envy. 

P.S. Can't quite fit in mashie niblick.

Ta(p-in)! Well, you hit the fairway on all the terms I couldn’t quite fit onto my scorecard. Double bogey for me! 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 5/16/2025 at 3:09 PM, bböp said:

Ta(p-in)! Well, you hit the fairway on all the terms I couldn’t quite fit onto my scorecard. Double bogey for me! 

Thank you. Yours Albert Ross Tatlock

 

P.S. Make sure you see CMAT in Chicago! See Belter thread.

 

P.P.S. albatross - geddit?