Wilco — 30 May 2025, Buenos Aires, Argentina (C Art Media)

[bböp]

Well, now I feel like I’ve been to a genuine, proper South American show. With apologies to Uruguay, tonight’s show in Argentina was more of what I expected when I finally got the chance to experience a Wilco concert in this part of the world. Soccer-style chants (“Olé, olé, olé, Wheel-co, Wheel-co…”)? Check. Singing along with not only lyrics, but entire guitar riffs? Sure. Unbridled enthusiasm for just about anything that took place on stage? Yes, indeed.

 

Jeff and Co. had played in the land of tango, empanadas and Messi once before — an appearance at the Festival BUE to close out their short South American tour in 2016 — but it’s probably fair to say that tonight’s performance at the C Art Media venue in Buenos Aires was their first proper gig here. And the space, which essentially was kind of a dingy, warehouse-like club, offered a chance to get pretty close to (and intimate with) the band in a way you just can’t at a festival. The fervor of the crowd was almost immediate from the time the band took the stage promptly at 9 p.m., with the “Olé, Olé” chants breaking out after just one tune. (And, for the record, they were still going when the band finally left the stage 2 hours and 12 minutes later.)

 

“We’ve got a lot of songs (to get to),” a flattered Jeff said, almost sheepishly, one song into the show. “Let’s do that later.”

 

It wouldn’t be the last time Jeff had to kind of tamp down the cheering audience in order to keep the show relatively on track. For the most part, the enthusiasm seemed good-natured and simply an expression of the joy most people had about Wilco returning to their country for the first time in nearly a decade. I try never to take it for granted how lucky I’ve been to be able to travel and see Wilco in many different settings and places around the planet over the years, but in chatting and making new friends with some people here, it especially hit home how privileged many of us in the U.S. and Europe are to be able to go and see the artists and bands we love when and where we want to a lot of the time. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why audiences down here want to savor every second of the time they get when performers who rarely visit are actually here in the flesh and clicking on all of the proverbial cylinders.

 

“Aw, we don’t wanna leave,” Jeff said after Jesus, etc. “You’re too nice to us. You’re not gonna get rid of us.” After some back-and-forth with people yelling requests for various songs, Jeff tried to let some of the requesters down easy.  “I can’t tell what you’re saying,” he said, pointing down at his feet. “I think you’re yelling the names of our songs, but we have a list.”

 

There weren’t as many visits to Banter Corner by Jeff as at the previous show in Montevideo, but what chat there was revolved mostly around the pretty remarkable “singing of the riffs” that would periodically take place, even unexpectedly on songs such as Hummingbird. “That was some of the most challenging singing along I’ve ever heard,” Jeff said afterward. A few songs later, he commended the audience after a boisterous effort on Either Way and before launching into Impossible Germany by saying the former “was even harder to sing along with than (the one) before. Let’s see if you can sing along with this one.” When one person audibly yelled back, “We can!” Jeff concurred with a smile, “I bet you can.”

 

Another amusing bit came before Annihilation when Jeff introduced it as being from the band’s most recent release and, half jokingly, suggested that “maybe if we come back in nine years, you’ll be singing along to this (riff).” Then he sort of began to sing that riff himself, but apparently Glenn didn’t hear him because he started to play the song. Jeff stopped him and said, “Hey, hey…I was singing that!” But I guess Jeff quickly realized that Glenn couldn’t hear him in his monitor and so he gave the drummer a pass.

 

I have no reason to suspect that anything was amiss with logistics of the production, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of those shows where the band couldn’t hear themselves particularly well on stage. Fortunately, we had large fill monitors across the front of the stage to help fill in the gaps in sound. And I think it was just one of those gigs where the atmosphere made any acoustic shortcomings seem minor, at least from an audience perspective.

 

By the time we got to the encore, that crowd was soaking it all in. Despite some very persistent requests for Spiders (Kidsmoke) — and it was actually on the printed setlist as the “optional” show closer — Jeff and his bandmates opted for the punkier conclusion with Outtasite (Outta Mind) tacked onto I Got You (At The End Of The Century) instead of the aforementioned Krautrock-inspired jam. Given the audience participation level, it would have been easy to give into the Spiders ending and I definitely would have enjoyed experiencing that, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor quibble. Like most of my fellow attendees, I suspect, the sheer pleasure of being in that room at that moment in time, seeing and hearing what we were, outweighed everything else.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, Spiders was on the printed setlist as the potential final song of the set, but it was replaced by the unplanned Outtasite (Outta Mind):

 

Company In My Back

Evicted

Handshake Drugs

Side With The Seeds

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

I'll Fight

Pot Kettle Black

Hummingbird

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Via Chicago

You Are My Face>

Whole Love

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Hate It Here

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer

A Shot In The Arm

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

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Walken

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

Outtasite (Outta Mind)

[Albert Tatlock]

(Evi)Ta

[DiamondClaw]

I watched several YouTube clips from this Argentina show and all I can say is wow! The enthusiasm from the audience is just incredible. The chants to the "Impossible Germany" riff and the "Either Way" solo were especially invigorating to hear like that. I can't believe Jeff resisted playing what would have been an epic "Spiders."