Wilco — 20 June 2025, Dortmund, Germany (JunkYard Open Air)

[bböp]

After seeing Wilco play the second of two “Evening With…” shows in Germany, this one in a junkyard outside the city center of Dortmund, I have so many questions. Like, did the Sanford and Son theme song run through the minds of Jeff or his bandmates at any point before or during the gig? Like, did all of the band members — but especially Glenn — put on an adequate amount of sunscreen? Like, which Central Europeans are more reserved when it comes to concert behavior: Germans, Belgians or the Dutch? Like, did we just witness the first-ever pyrotechnics at a Wilco show?

 

Let’s start at the, uh, end. As Jeff and Co. battled what was apparently a hard 10 p.m. curfew, they were approaching the frenetic climax of their final song of the evening — I Got You (At The End Of The Century) — when to the surprise of some of the audience (including yours truly), a burst of heat suddenly enveloped the front few rows after several flamethrowers atop the stage ignited and sent multiple bursts of fire shooting toward the sky. It happened several times during the song, and I’m sure the band members were forewarned. But man, in all my years of attending Wilco shows, that might have been a first. I’ve seen fireworks shows after a Wilco performance before, but I cannot recall stage pyrotechnics during one. What is this, KISS? And on a stage that I would hardly describe as elaborate, where the front of the crowd was close enough to fully feel the residual heat…whoa.

 

As I said, the venue for this show was indeed a former junkyard — that was creatively named JunkYard — and it was a place that wouldn’t have felt out of place in, say, Austin, Texas. It reminded me, in a weird way, of the type of locale that might host a day party at the South By Southwest music festival. There were large metal shipping containers stacked to the left of the stage, one with a small car atop it, and more shipping containers actually surrounded the stage on either side. Unlike the previous night in Dachau, the area in front of the stage was (thankfully) level and there was more of a traditional concert setup with a barricade and a gap between that and the front of the stage.

 

The tough thing for the band with this stage configuration was that it faced west and, with the relatively early start dictated by the curfew, that meant that for much of the show Jeff and Co. had to deal with the sun right in their faces as it very slowly began its descent. Half the band, including Jeff, Nels and Mike, sported sunglasses for the first set, while Mike also sported a baseball cap and Pat had a Panama hat on. Glenn, of course, had neither sunglasses nor hat, so I worried about him getting a bit too much color, but at least he seemed to be hydrating more than usual. “How’s everybody doing?” Jeff asked about five songs into the show. “We’re melting. This is the most sun any of us have had in decades.” Toward the end of the first set, Jeff quipped, perhaps as a bit of self-encouragement as much as anything else, “The sun’s gonna go down eventually. That’s been my experience.”

 

Of course the date for this show with prime sun exposure lined up with the summer solstice, so the band probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to play here. But that didn’t keep them from mixing things up a bit in the first set, which included Wilco’s first performance of Tired Of Taking It Out On You this year as well as a couple of tunes that aren’t played every night such as One Wing and the rearranged Everyone Hides. Either Way as the Set 1 closer was especially apropos, as Jeff gestured toward the sun while singing the opening line. Eventually, the sun did relent enough for everyone to ditch their shades and it didn’t seem like as much of an issue in the second set. There was a funny bit in that second set when Jeff and Glenn had a little private back and forth after Side With The Seeds and Jeff shared that Glenn had particularly enjoyed those brief few moments at the end of the song when Jeff steps back during Nels’ outro solo because Jeff shielded him from the sun.

 

Jeff and Glenn’s brotherly antics also led to one of the best visits to Banter Corner during the show. Before Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff was interacting with the crowd after someone yelled “We love you, Wilco!” and he had apparently spotted a guy to his right wearing a Bob Dylan T-shirt and joked about how he had been drawn toward him all night. Anyway, they continued to have a little exchange that went a little longer than normal and at one point, Jeff realized that Glenn was simply letting him go on and on. “This is the part of the show where Glenn leaves me hanging,” Jeff explained, “because he’s supposed to start the next song, but he just lets me keep saying stupid shit.” All the while, Glenn just cracked up behind Jeff, which was amusing to see.

 

Jeff had a couple of other good quips during the course of the show — he joked, “Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk,” for example, after his usual spiel about how Annihilation being played right after Box Full Of Letters demonstrated the band’s artistic growth over the past 30 years — but the chatter was generally kept to a minimum as the night went on because of the impending curfew.

 

Because of said curfew, Spiders (Kidsmoke) was perhaps an unexpected choice to close out the second set but I suppose the opportunity it offers for crowd participation is too good to pass up. It’s certainly been an interesting test case on this tour for just how out of their collective shells different crowds will come. Jeff, as usual, made his case for singing the “ba-ba bada ba-ba-bada-dada…” in part by arguing that you, the audience member, would definitely not look back on your life in old age and think, “Thank God I didn’t sing along at the JunkYard in Dortmund” that one time. I have no real barometer for how many people accepted Jeff’s invitation to participate, but of the previous three nights, this one probably seemed the least participatory. Then again, maybe it was just all of the direct sunlight and it would have been more boisterous if it had been a little darker. Who can say?

 

What I do know is that after 2 hours, 41 minutes (plus a 21-minute interval), people were still clamoring for more. It’s a testament to the depth of Wilco’s catalog that this “Evening With…” format can barely contain all of the songs people want to hear. How will we ever go back to “normal” shows? That’s a question for another day, I suppose. For now, we can just enjoy getting to hear 30-plus songs each night and, hey, if they want to throw in some literal fire shooting out of the stage every now and then, I, for one, would be down with it.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn't see the printed setlist for either set, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Set 1

Wishful Thinking

Company In My Back

Handshake Drugs

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

One Wing

Evicted

If I Ever Was A Child

Via Chicago

Tired Of Taking It Out On You

Forget The Flowers

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Cruel Country

Everyone Hides

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

 

Set 2

At Least That's What You Said

Cold Slope>

King Of You

Side With The Seeds

Whole Love

Jesus, etc.

Hummingbird

Impossible Germany

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Heavy Metal Drummer

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

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

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[bböp]

Not to reply to my own post, but I had to add a photo of the pyrotechnics, even if it’s not the greatest pic. I would love to see a photo of it from further back in the crowd or, even better, a video of it if anyone managed to capture the flames going off.

 

Edit: There’s a clip on Wilco’s Instagram/Facebook stories right now. Four flamethrowers!

 

[Ghost Of Bob Cumming]

Hmm, Sandord & Son?? A junkyard?? Not a US sitcom based on Steptoe & Son, by any chance, I'm wondering?

 

Quick Google result: of course it is.

[bböp]

59 minutes ago, Ghost Of Bob Cumming said:

Hmm, Sandord & Son?? A junkyard?? Not a US sitcom based on Steptoe & Son, by any chance, I'm wondering?

 

Quick Google result: of course it is.

But did Steptoe & Son have a bitchin’ theme song? (I have no idea.) 

[jackpunch]

Jamie Vardy is playing Steptoe in the remake later this year.

[Ghost Of Bob Cumming]

6 hours ago, bböp said:

But did Steptoe & Son have a bitchin’ theme song? (I have no idea.) 

 

It did! Memorably, and hilariously, mashed up with Blur's Parklife on a radio comedy about 20 years ago.

 

If I wasn't about to head to bed for an early(ish) start travelling to the Smoke for tomorrow's show, I'd put some sort of link on here.