Wilco — 17 May 2025, Louisville, KY (Iroquois Amphitheater)

[bböp]

Wilco wrapped up the first leg of its 2025 touring calendar in tornado-ravaged Kentucky the same way it began three weeks earlier in steamy southern Alabama: With an extended “Evening With…” performance featuring two sets of music that offered a little something to just about every level of the fanbase, from casual to diehard.

 

As someone who was lucky enough to attend both the first and last shows of the run, you could debate about the different setlist choices between the two and you might have detected a hint of tour weariness after a relatively grueling jaunt through the Southeast. And weirdly, despite the extended show by Wilco, it almost felt like something was missing after so many gigs in a row with support from Waxahatchee. But then again, I can’t imagine too many fans at the Iroquois Amphitheater could find fault with a 3-hour, 7-minute (including intermission), 34-song outing by Jeff and Co.

 

As with that first show in Fairhope, Ala., I think you could argue that the first set in Louisville was actually the more interesting of the two. Though at the latter the band perhaps strayed a bit further from the “Evening With…” structure in terms of a quieter first half followed by a louder second, it still meant some more interesting song choices overall in the first set. With the so-called “hits” reserved for the back half of the show, we got such numbers as the complete Many Worlds and oldies-but-goodies Say You Miss Me, Forget The Flowers and Sunken Treasure in Set 1 that haven’t been played a ton on this tour. And those came after the always-welcome opening two-fer of the acoustic arrangement of Spiders (Kidsmoke) and Wishful Thinking.

 

Jeff didn’t venture over to Banter Corner much during the first set, preferring to focus mostly on the music. Early on, he did remark on some empty seats toward the front. “Is everybody here?” Jeff asked. “I feel bad for people that might not have read the fine print about the ‘Evening With…’ (format).” Then he expressed some concern about the people who theoretically should have been occupying a particular pair of empty seats right in his sightline before quipping that maybe their absence was intentional. “(Wilco is) like a Gallagher show,” Jeff said. “People are usually afraid."

 

Set 2 featured a more verbose Jeff, but probably a more expected group of songs. One (or two, I guess) exception to that came in the form of the Star Wars duo of Cold Slope>King Of You, which pretty much are fused as one tune at this point. The inclusion of those songs tonight, Jeff explained, came from Wilco’s crew, which apparently gets to make a request (or requests) on the last night of a tour. “This is the only song they like,” Jeff said of Cold Slope>King Of You. “So if you don’t like the next series of songs, it’s their fault.” Just before that, he had expressed sincere thanks to the Wilcrew for all their hard work in making the show happen every night. But of course he couldn’t resist giving them a bit of guff as well. “I promise to learn their names for the next tour,” Jeff joked.

 

Jeff did have a couple of other earnest visits to Banter Corner during the second set, though. After Impossible Germany, with no real prompting, he once again flattered the locals by remarking on how much he loved Louisville. “It’s such a weird place, in all the good ways,” Jeff said. A song earlier, before Jesus, etc., the frontman had gone through his usual “I’m not David Lee Roth” routine in saying he hoped people would sing along even if he didn’t rile them up to do so. “I personally think it’s one of the best things humans can do is sing together,” Jeff reiterated.

 

One final funny bit of chat came in the encore when Jeff introduced Falling Apart (Right Now) by saying, “This song’s about taking turns falling apart. In a relationship, you can’t both fall apart at the same time.” The humorous bit, though, came after the song, which ends with Pat doing his B-bender-esque bit where he alters the pitch of his Telecaster in a drawn-out spectacle. Jeff commented, almost laughing at himself while he was saying it, on how that part “is meant to represent one partner falling apart. Every musical moment has significance.” You could almost hear the peanut gallery responding, “Does it?”

 

A couple of songs later, Jeff and his bandmates finally signed off for the night (and presumably headed home for a very short bit of rest before embarking on their first South American run in nearly a decade). “Be good,” Jeff said just before departing, as he has many nights on this tour. “Be good to each other.”

 

The show, as a whole, was a pleasant enough way to wrap up this stretch. It wasn’t a total barnburner, but as shed-type venues go, the Iroquois is a pretty nice one. It’s set in a leafy park in a neighborhood west of downtown Louisville and, without the huge lawn that many modern amphitheaters have, it has a pretty intimate feel. One characteristic is a fairly sizeable orchestra pit that separates the stage from the first row of seating (I always feel like Too Far Apart should be played here; it was when the band visited in 2015).

 

Anyway, afterward, the usual scrum for setlists and other memorabilia ensued. But because of the gap created by the orchestra pit, the crew had to toss stuff to people and, inevitably, a couple of things got dropped and fell into the pit. One “casualty” came in the form of a pair of drumsticks and setlists taped together that can be a special gift given by the Wilcrew at some shows, and as much as any detail from the show itself, I will probably remember this woman — apparently the intended recipient — going around to various security guards desperately asking someone to rescue the prize lying there about 10 feet below. I wonder if she ever got it. I guess we might never know…

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (Random Name Generator was listed on the printed setlist as the last song of Set 1, but wasn't played):

 

Set 1

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)>

Wishful Thinking

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

If I Ever Was A Child

Meant To Be

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

Many Worlds

Say You Miss Me

Forget The Flowers

Cruel Country

Quiet Amplifier

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

War On War

Via Chicago

Either Way

The Late Greats

 

Set 2

At Least That's What You Said

Hummingbird

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Side With The Seeds

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Theologians

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta. Re biscuit scenario. I am away that week on holiday. Sorry about it.

[bböp]

2 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Ta. Re biscuit scenario. I am away that week on holiday. Sorry about it.

 

Alas! Hope you'll be somewhere appealing (and I don 't mean just Cardiff for the ruggers)...

[Albert Tatlock]

'Ruggers' (WTF?) has been alot less appealing in terms of results the last couple of years. However renouncing my birthright is not an option, and our default stance being Welsh is always underdog, so we will endure. 

Also re Gallagher - I remember my early shows having that whiff of jeopardy about them - happy JT or grumpy JT. I used to like it if I knew Donna would be present (she came to Europe a few times) as I thought JT would play nice then. Now I'm sure the same applies whenever your aura is detected if ever JT is veering to the grumpy side. He knows you can imagine him standing there with no clothes on. There is no putting that cat back in the bag. Ha!

[SarahC]

I can't wait to see Wilco play here again down the road. This amphitheater was great. The staff were really friendly, and honestly super welcoming compared to most of the other venues. It felt a bit more "mom and pop" than the other spots this tour, and I think that carried through the vibe in the crowd as well. I think capacity wise, it's just shy of 3,000 so it was the 2nd smallest show of the run too, which definitely helped the intimate feeling. The sound was really good too. I do hope we get to go back to Louisville eventually for another show.

 

This is the set that I wanted throughout the whole run.

Some unexpected surprises mixed in with the songs you can bet they'll play most nights, if not all nights, in 2025. 

 

Super stoked to hear "Say You Miss Me" and "Sunken Treasure" was wonderful. That one made me cry for sure. Maybe it's the nostalgia of having seen shows for the last 20 years, or that it was the last night of a super fortunate run of 6 shows over 9 days for us (a first for any one given leg of a tour, thanks to finally having a job with a PTO benefit), but so many songs hit extra hard. 

 

"At Least That's What You Said" was great to hear as well, a first out of all the shows we saw this run.

I kept hoping they'd do "Hell Is Chrome" because I'd been trying to rig the request box since January for that one... it wasn't meant to be this time. 

 

The two-fer of "Star Wars" tunes really was glorious too, and I wish they'd revisit more songs from "SW" more often besides "RNG" every so often.

Funnily enough, that's the song they seem to soundcheck the most these days. 

 

I appreciated the crew's ingenuity in set list distribution. Nels tech (I haven't met him, and don't know his name) actually folded the set lists into paper airplanes during the rock block portion of the encore. It was fun to see him launch them toward the fans at the front, one crashed into the abyss of the pit, and I think the other made it to somebody. 

[theashtraysays]

'Twas a delightful evening indeed.  Louisville is my only real shot at a "local" show, so it was great seeing all my local Wilco pals out and about for this one.  I do love the venue, despite the abyss in front of the stage.  Fond memories of my second-ever Wilco show there ("Panties??"), and more than one rebuke of the NovaSign ("We know you stuffed the ballot box, and we don't support that kind of chicanery", and "No, we're not gonna play that one.  You should probably just leave now").  Ah, youth....

 

For some reason I was thinking that the "Evening With" shows had a shorter first set and a longer main set (more like actually opening for themselves), but as the first set reached the one-hour mark I knew we were in for quite an evening.  Sunken Treasure scratched the wayback itch, and Quiet Amplifier is my new favorite recent release.  But plenty to like in this extended edition show. 

 

The empty front row spots (once announced from the stage) led to more than one would-be seat hijackers coming down the aisle next to us and attempting to claim them, only to be displaced by the rightful owners appeared.  But overall security wasn't too concerned about folks slipping down the aisle and hanging out for a bit, as long as there was some space in the aisle to walk.  Since the crowd started standing and remained standing the whole time (YAY!!), they kinda blended in.  And since the rail itself was 10-12 feet away through the deep pit from the actual front of the stage (and since the band was set back a few feet from that precarious edge of the massive stage), there wasn't much point in trying to crash the rail. 

 

I did try and start a PAT PAT PAT chant at the end of Falling Apart, but that got zero traction and a couple odd glares.  Sheesh. 

[SarahC]

1 hour ago, theashtraysays said:

I did try and start a PAT PAT PAT chant at the end of Falling Apart, but that got zero traction and a couple odd glares.  Sheesh. 

I was going to try to get one going for Mikael and John, but never thought of a good moment to try. I doubt the folks around me would have joined in. The guy directly next to me spent the intermission googling pictures of Glenn Kotche... but I mean, who hasn't had that man as their phone background at one point or another.... (remember the RSBF thread....  )