Wilco — 12 August 2025, Chesterfield, MO (The Factory)

[bböp]

Well, sadly, I had to sit this one out, so I can't offer any firsthand reportage. But I do know that at least one VCer was there who can, so hopefully that person will chime in at some point and give us some more details. I have actually been to the (very creatively named) Factory before, though, so I know that it's a relatively spacious indoor venue outside of St. Louis with a wide, open floor.

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played, according to the good folks over at Wilcoworld (as usual, their system seems unable to delineate where the set break happens but I'm going to rely on setlist.fm as well as some educated guesses about arrangements and such):

 

Set 1

Story To Tell

Handshake Drugs

Art Of Almost (acoustic arrangement)

If I Ever Was A Child

Cruel Country

Forget The Flowers

Evicted

I'm Always In Love (acoustic arrangement; Jeff on acoustic)

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Meant To Be

Hesitating Beauty

Hummingbird

Via Chicago

Quiet Amplifier

Either Way

It's Just That Simple

California Stars

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

Theologians

Side With The Seeds

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

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

Jesus, etc.

Impossible Germany

Hate It Here

Walken

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

Casino Queen

[theashtraysays]

Imagine my surprise - and anxiety - when I looked around the rail and saw neither hide nor hair of our reliable reporter on the premises.  A quick communique confirmed that he was indeed not in the building but apparently chose sportsball over Wilco for the evening.  Sigh.  Unprepared as I was (with not a shred of paper on me or my rail companions), I accepted my fate and tried to capture a few moments of witticism and general observations about this almost-but-not-exactly St. Louis show. So here goes.

 

The Factory is one of those newer indoor venues that many of you have started seeing, with a giant open floor,  seated wraparound balcony set far back, a "premium" area which in this case was a slightly raised deck behind the GA section, and a kickass sound system.  Folks mentioned that it reminded them of the new Pinnacle in Nashville, and to me it seemed like a larger version of the Andrew J Brady music center in Cincinnati or perhaps a slightly smaller and newer version of the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco.  This one in suburban St. Louis has a stated capacity of 3400, and although Ticketmaster still showed available GA tickets and even a few singles of reserved balcony seats, it seemed pretty close to full.  We did notice quite a range of age / generations in the room too.  The venue was at one end of a large new strip mall / entertainment area called The District which had several bars, restaurants, shops (including a hair "salon suites" which had individual rooms with a salon chair for those who wanted their do done in private except for the fact that each one had a full glass window onto the walkway of the mall.  But enough about that..) and had a TopGolf anchoring the other end.  A huge stage, high ceiling, and definitely that aforementioned kickass house PA, along with an equally kickass and highly welcomed air conditioning system to give us sidewalk folks some relief from the 90+ degree mostly sunny afternoon.  Jeff mentioned "nice place you got here" which was met with a "nah" from someone in the audience (I presume because it wasn't one of the venues that Wilco had played all those years ago) to which Jeff replied "No? Well you're here".  Oh, and there is a HUGE mural of Jeff just inside one of the entry doors which was fabulous.

 

On to the show then.  They opened with Story To Tell as they have a few times on this run, and for the most part the setlist was typical of the summer of 2025 "evening with" shows.  Jeff quickly noted that it was good to be playing in Chesterfield, noting "and yes I know the difference (between it and St. Louis)" but that it was "still a hometown show" for him.  After that opener, with the audience being quite respectful and almost polite in applause (to the rather mild "Story to Tell" opener) Jeff noted that this was quite a reserved audience for St. Louis for the smattering of applause that died off quite quickly, and said "that's OK... we've played Japan" before adding that it would be better if we all applauded more and fully into the next song.  Which of course we all did from then all through the rest of the show.  After a couple of very obvious runs of that exaggerated long & loud applause between songs, Jeff challenged us saying "let's see if you can keep that up during the 15 minute break".  So that particular pandering paid off quite well for them.  After a generous applause for Nels after Impossible Germany Jeff said "and we get to listen to that every night!". 

 

There were of course plenty of hometown mentions and references throughout the show too.  After Hummingbird Jeff said "that was for my dad, wherever he is".  During the second set he dedicated a song (Falling Apart Right Now) to his Aunt Gail, who he said was one of the only relatives of his left in that area and that he spent as much time with her as his (immediate) family, also noting that the song itself wasn't exactly the best for a dedication to her.  Ahead of Heavy Metal Drummer he told how the next song was about an actual place (the Landing) and asked if it was still around as such.  It isn't, per the audience feedback, to which Jeff quipped "To be honest I never liked it to begin with, but I did write a song about it."  And of course no hometown show would be complete without the obligatory "Casino Queen" which Jeff intro'ed by saying " I already played one for my dad but my mom liked this one too" for the final song of the encore.  

 

Aside from the banter, a few noticings worth a mention.  Meant to Be finally made it to the setlist, but somehow Pat's electric guitar failed to get plugged in during the swap from the previous song.  So that first little intro riff was short one guitar which was quite noticeable.  He quickly recovered and grabbed the cable and joined in.  Perhaps in recognition of the indoor room, Jeff had exchanged his newfound light colored ensemble and was back to his black jeans and dark (plaid) shirt.  For those of you who've seen Jeff struggle with a lyric or two, we had a couple of those too.  But first on the opposite side of that coin, I am happy to say that Jeff did get the "I take out the trash" closing line correct this time on Hate It Here (unlike the total flub in the prior Chicago Salt Shed show).  I was directly in front of him during the show and let out a congratulatory "YAY" when he got it right, which was met with a rather sheepish grin from our hero.  According to my rail-mate, he tangled up more than a few of the words in Forget the Flowers (which I didn't notice).  But the winner in this category was for sure at the opening of Casino Queen, which to be fair isn't played all that often.  At the start of the song it's both Jeff and John singing that opening line "Well the money's pouring down/And the people all look down/And it's floating out of town".  Jeff totally spaced out and just skipped that entire part of the song, stepped back from the mic, then jumped back in to "hit the second deck" with another sheepish look on his face.   John got it right, so folks might not have actually noticed the flub. 

 

A good time was had by all from my vantage point.  All smiles heading out of the show which started promptly at 8:00 and ended about 10:50.

 

The setlist above is accurate.  Spiders was listed as the second encore song but was not played.

 

Would love for anyone else in attendance to chime in with whatever I missed (I know I only got about 2/3 of the banter at best...)

Cheers!

Vince

[Albert Tatlock]

Just like a brother from another mother. Ta.