Wilco — 17 August 2025, Vail, CO (Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater)

[bböp]

Now this was a show I would have loved to have made it to because I'm sure Vail is lovely in the summer and I used to go there in the winter with my family many moons ago. Anyway, when it comes to Wilco shows in Vail, I always think of the previous one in December 2012 (as part of the Vail Snow Daze festival) when the temperature was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill was maybe -10. I honestly don't know how anyone who had to play a stringed instrument made music come out of one that night. Who had the brilliant idea to play a nighttime outdoor show in the mountains in December?

 

By contrast, I trust that this "August Evening With..." performance took place under much more pleasant conditions. I haven't been to a show at the Ford Amphitheater in Vail Village myself, but I'm pretty sure it is a fairly cozy outdoor venue with reserved (and covered) pavilion seating and a general admission lawn section sloping up and around it.

 

As for the setlist, here was what was played according to the folks manning Wilcoworld (again, the set breaks were not delineated so I'm using setlist.fm for that and my own educated guesses about arrangements and such):

 

Set 1

Story To Tell

Handshake Drugs

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

If I Ever Was A Child

Cruel Country

Forget The Flowers

Evicted

I'm Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

Spiders (Kidsmoke) (acoustic arrangement)

Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

Hesitating Beauty

Hummingbird

Via Chicago

It's Just That Simple

You And I

Falling Apart (Right Now)

California Stars

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

You Are My Face

Theologians

Side With The Seeds

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)

[Albert Tatlock]

23 hours ago, bböp said:

I always think of

When it comes to Wilco, I think of you as the computer who wore tennis shoes.

 

 

P.S. Only today did I see that it was Kurt Russell. I always thought it was that guy from the Waltons. One of the first films I saw in a cinema, along with Herbie the Love Bug and The Battle of Britain the same year (still traumatised by the image of the pilot who got his eyes shot out).