Wilco — 16 August 2025, Denver, CO (Mission Ballroom)

[bböp]

More housekeeping, since I wasn't able to make it to Mission Ballroom this time around. It's a fairly large indoor venue of the sort that you'll find in many cities these days with a wide general admission floor and reserved seating (I think) in the mezzanine level. And being a Saturday night, I'm sure there was quite a lively crowd in attendance...hopefully someone will chime in with some more thoughts/observations/etc.

 

For now, here was complete setlist as played, according to the Wilcoworld minders (having seen photos of the printed setlists on social media, I feel fairly confident in reporting where the set break occurred and can use educated guesses about arrangements and such; incidentally, it appears that Heavy Metal Drummer and I'm The Man Who Loves You were added to the planned end of Set 2, having been written in by hand before the encore):

 

Set 1

Story To Tell

Handshake Drugs

Art Of Almost (acoustic arrangement)

If I Ever Was A Child

Cruel Country

Forget The Flowers

Evicted

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

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

Hesitating Beauty

Hummingbird

It's Just That Simple

Quiet Amplifier

Falling Apart (Right Now)

Via Chicago

California Stars

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

You Are My Face

Theologians

Side With The Seeds

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

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

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

Hate It Here

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

[lost highway]

I missed this one. Best I can offer is whatever notables my buddy recalls.

[Muzzle of Dan]

My wife and I traveled out to CO for this show and the one in Vail. The Mission Ballroom show in particular felt like one of the most special/best Wilco shows we've ever attended. I started seeing Wilco in 2009 and my wife saw her first show with me in 2010 (funny enough it was the Aspen Jazz show in CO in August 2010, so this was our 15 year anniversary of seeing Wilco together). I bet we've seen 40+on shows in  total and the Mission Ballroom show was easily one of the best.

 

The venue is great. It was our first time seeing a show there and it was really just a great place for seeing music. I love a GA show more than anything, especially a GA Wilco show. We always show up early to get a spot near the front. We luckily showed up extra early for this show, not realizing how early EVERYONE ELSE would get in line - in Los Angeles it's pretty easy to show up an hour and change before doors and be at the front because everyone shows up late or right at the start time. I was shocked and pleased at the way everyone in Denver showed up so far in advance of doors and waited around with the place nearly filled for the 90 minutes between doors opening and Wilco hitting the stage. The sound at this venue is also some of the best sound I've heard at any show for any band. The sound was quite loud but also super clear. You could really pick out what everyone was doing in in each song because nothing was muddied together. Jeff's vocals sounded wonderful and floated above the rest of the mix. Parking at this venue was also so easy (never underestimate the power of easy free parking).

 

This was my first opportunity to see an Evening With show and I wish they would do them more often. It was so satisfying to get two sets with such a variety of material. As Jeff noted in his banter for these shows "we get to stretch out and take a chance to listen to each other" (or something similar to that...) and I really appreciated that about this show/tour. The jams were long and had time to develop. Nels really got a chance to make a meal out of IG in a way that I haven't heard before (even though this song is always amazing). The acoustic Spiders got to a point of rocking pretty hard (quite a bit more than I've ever heard this subdued version get and more so at this show than at the Vail show). The alternate arrangement of Art Of Almost is spectacular and I'm so glad I got a chance to hear it live. I've heard Jeff play it at Largo in a solo environment but the full band version was so good. Sunken Treasure is a personal fav and the one at this show was incredible. I loved the new arrangement of Always In Love also. Getting so many songs off SBS was a real treat. Side With The Seeds and You Are My Face are such bangers and it was crazy to get them both in one show. Walken really slapped hard. It was fun to hear them break out US Blues again for the final song of the show. All around one of my top times seeing the band.

[Muzzle of Dan]

I forgot to mention how much Theologians absolutely ripped and ocked so hard at this show and it deserves a special shout out. It's one of my fav songs to see live and this one was maybe the most rocking versions I've seen The crowd was also sooooo into it. I don't know if anything will beat this crowd screaming "No one is ever gonna take my life from me!" at the tops of their lungs along with Jeff. Absolute cathartic bliss.

 

Also wanted to mention Jeff's banter leading into Love Is Everywhere. I won't attempt to recreate it because I don't remember his actual wording but it was something to the effect of how everyone in the room was unique and deserving of love. It was heartfelt and he really seemed to be enjoying the crowd and all of their participatory singing along and rocking out at the show.