Wilco — 3 August 2025, Gilford, NH (Bank Of New Hampshire Pavilion) [Outlaw Music Festival]

[bböp]

On the third and final show of their brief jaunt aboard this year’s Outlaw Music Festival tour, Jeff and Co. seemed to finally hit their stride as far as fitting into a large amphitheater bill that also featured such luminaries as Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams. To me, it was probably the most comfortable that the band looked on stage all weekend and I think its performance, banter and collaborations all reflected that.

 

The Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion is a venue that Wilco had actually headlined not all that long ago — just shy of three years, actually, as part of an August 2022 tour leading up to an appearance at the Beach Road Weekend festival on Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get up to New Hampshire for that one, though I heard that only a fraction of the 9,000-capacity venue was filled. When I walked into the barn-like covered pavilion with a large lawn behind it as well as a rather high (six feet) stage flanked by a cadre of security guards, my thought was that I wouldn’t love seeing shows there on a regular basis. But I suppose if you have a decent seat and pleasant-enough people around you, it can be tolerable. The facility itself was actually pretty nice as far as Live Nation amphitheaters go with, among other things, a small (fake) lawn with cornhole games as well as a secondary stage with music before and after the main event.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned, Wilco just seemed to finally be fully integrated into the whole event. When the rest of the band came out for their cameo at the end of Nelson’s set on the gospel medley of Will The Circle Be Unbroken? and I’ll Fly Away — Glenn having already been on stage for the preceding Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die — all five confidently marched on stage in perfect synchronicity with handclaps already going and launched right into their harmony vocals. (Nels apparently got cajoled into joining his bandmates after not coming out the previous two nights, while Glenn remained on stage for the show-closing The Party’s Over and even stayed up there chatting with Nelson drummer Billy English after the show concluded.)

 

As for their own set, Jeff and Co. didn’t change things up nearly as much as they had from the first Outlaw show to the second. In fact, the second and third Outlaw sets were nearly identical with the exception of one song. I guess the band must have found the right combination of material it wanted to present during its allotted 75 minutes and decided to stick with it for one more show. Fortunately that included another performance of the acoustic arrangement of Spiders (Kidsmoke), which was definitely a highlight despite Jeff’s minor stumble on a lyric in the first verse. I bet hardly anyone noticed, but Jeff and Nels definitely exchanged a brief look that said something like, “Good job saving that one.”

 

As usual, Nelson band member Mickey Raphael joined the band to add harmonica to the set-closing two-fer of California Stars and U.S. Blues. “This has been so much fun,” Jeff said to no one in particular near the end of Wilco’s set, as Raphael came on stage. “Why are we getting kicked off this tour? Oh well…”

 

Overall, Jeff’s visits to Banter Corner tonight were almost certainly the most fruitful of the three Outlaw nights. When he noticed a few folks finally get out of their seats and shake their butts a bit during Hummingbird, he took the opportunity to laud them while also simultaneously taking the piss out of the situation as only he can. “Some of you are dancing really crazy; that’s the idea,” Jeff said. “Now that we’ve got you revved up, let’s play another ballad. This’ll get you off your feet.”

 

After Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, which he once again mysteriously introduced as “the oldest song we’re gonna play tonight…it’s from the 16th century,” Jeff did his usual gesturing toward both Pat and Nels for their guitar work on the jammy track. Of the gestures, which drew the requisite applause, Jeff quipped (in a lightly exaggerated Chicago accent): “That’s the international symbol of ‘What about these guys?’”

 

It was clear that Jeff and his bandmates were pretty chuffed to be a part of this traveling festival, if only for the three nights. I think it was the perfect amount, actually. Enough to still feel the charms of getting to witness and be in the presence of Willie and Bob, etc., but not so much that you get worn down by the repetitiveness of each day or all the machinations of what must be a pretty intense operation behind the scenes with so many moving parts.

 

“It’s such an honor to get to play on this bill,” Jeff said in a moment of earnestness during Wilco’s set. “Thanks for having us.”

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco's Outlaw set at BankNH Pavilion (didn't see a printed setlist, so can't say if there were any changes/omissions):

 

Story To Tell

Handshake Drugs

If I Ever Was A Child

Cruel Country

Forget The Flowers

Evicted

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hesitating Beauty

Hummingbird

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars (w/Mickey Raphael on harmonica)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead] (w/Mickey Raphael on harmonica)

[Albert Tatlock]

A veritable plethora of reports recently. Ta.

14 hours ago, bböp said:

cornhole games

I had to google that. I go more for this:-