Wilco — 27 August 2025, Vancouver, BC, Canada (PNE Pacific Coliseum [Chevrolet Stage]) [Summer Night Concerts; Night 10 of 15]

[bböp]

Sadly couldn't make this one, as I had a prior commitment with another Canadian — Uncle Neil — back in Chicago. Heard from a couple sources that it was a bit of an odd gig, though, in the sense that it was theoretically part of the "August Evening With..." tour and thus people thought that the usual two-set, 30-something-song performance was forthcoming. But instead it simply turned into a "standard" set — and kind of a short one at that — with a brief encore.

 

I guess more than a few attendees were miffed, including our resident Kentuckian. Hopefully he'll chime in with a few more details about the event as a whole, which was I believe was Wilco's first Vancouver appearance in nearly three years. It almost seemed to be like an indoor fair/festival of sorts with a main stage and a couple of smaller ones, in addition to other spectacles. Wilco's show was part of a series of headlining summer night concerts over two weeks at the venue — hence the creatively named series, "Summer Night Concerts" — that also includes/included Counting Crows, Flo Rida, Foreigner and Megan Trainor, among others. I also read that the venue in which Wilco played was reserved seating and most of the crowd sat for the bulk of Wilco's set until finally getting up for the last few songs. Please correct me if I'm wrong/fill in details if you can.

 

Here was the setlist, as played, according to the Wilcoworld wonks (I'm using educated guesses in terms of arrangements and such):

 

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

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

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Hummingbird

It's Just That Simple

Via Chicago

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

California Stars

Walken

I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

[theashtraysays]

"It's really great to be back playing the EnormoDome!" 

 

And with that, Wilco began their Western Canada 3-city finale to the "August Evening With" tour of 2025.  But as mentioned above by our absent-once-again humble correspondent, the usual two-set-plus-encore format was *not* Meant To Be this evening.  There was plenty of character (and a couple characters) however to make it a memorable evening for what seemed like a very eager Vancouver crowd attending the show as part of the PNE Fair.  

A ticket to the concert included admission to the fair, so a few of us arrived early to check out the Fair Fare along with a performance by SuperDogs, a cheesy but delightful canine agility troop which was clearly a favorite of fair-goers.  Fair Fare was on point, rivaling the best state fair cuisine I've seen plus the Canada-obligatory poutine stand.  Carny rides and exhibits of farm stuff made for a interesting pre-show afternoon, and I doubt we even saw half of it!  One refreshing aspect was that there was no metal detector / wanding for entry to either the fair or the concert.  I even saw one guy in the venue with a backpack.  Nice to be in Canada, eh?  Conversely I did find it odd that there wasn't a single photographer in the pit at this show. 

The actual venue for this show and the others during the fair was a coliseum inside the grounds, which also housed hockey games (matches? I'm not a local) and the like.  Big place, I heard it can hold 17,000 or so, but for this show the entire upper level was closed off.  Still a big place, with folding chairs on the floor and 100% reserved seating.  Cool wooden radial ceiling.  Downright cavernous with a huge stage and a bit of an echo starting off with Jeff's vocals and acoustic on Story to Tell.  

 

Even with the short show, Jeff had quite a bit of banter for the crowd. After just the second song, he mentioned "It was my birthday a couple days ago.  You're late." 

A couple songs after the EnormoDome comment, someone in the crowd near the front yelled out "I BROUGHT WEED", to which Jeff replied "You brought weed?  Do you know how long rock shows have been going on?  Back in my day we didn't have to announce it."  The weed theme continued on a bit through the evening.  After Spiders, Jeff said "Did you use your 'pot' on that song?  That was a good song for that.  This one is even better" before starting into Bird / Base.  Similarly he recommended "I don't suggest the weed for this one" before Annihilation.  

After Evicted, Jeff noticed a rather bald guy in about the fifth row and commented "There's a guy right here with WILCO on his forehead. I really hope that isn't a tattoo.  But if it is it's great!" (perhaps not wanting to dis the guy's affection just in case it really was permanent). After Either Way, he said 'Last time I played that I got stung by a bee!"  "Where at?" (perhaps asking about which city this occurred) "On the back of my neck".  Oh, OK.  

Flubs?  Yep, we got those too.  Big flub on the opening lines of Box Full of Letters (you'd think that one would be burned into long term memory).  And then on CaliStars, once again the transition from someone's solo into the next verse got tangled up by Jeff AND John, prompting a "we both fucked it up!" from Jeff after the song ended.  

And as happens rather frequently, there were several open seats in the center front section, including a couple front row and probably 8-10 in a row in the 3rd or 4th row.  Just ahead of Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff made his usual comment about noticing that, saying that apparently he must spit a lot, and like Gallagher they ought to sell ponchos down front.  But the comment, along with the crowd favorite HMD, seemed to grant permission to the ever-sitting crowd that they ought to claim said empty seats and make a rail rush.  Folks poured into the empty seats and jammed the aisles up against the rail and squeezed into the front row rail.  Everyone else stood.  That lasted a couple songs including the set-closing I'm the Man, before security came and shoo'ed everyone away who was in the aisle.  We also stood for the encore.

Musically, I noticed a couple things I hadn't before.  The acoustic Spiders has a healthy dose of cowbell now.  Nice.  And in Walkin, Jeff holds the last note of "You're just riiiiiiiiight" for a remarkably long time.  

As for the short set... I, and I'm sure the other die hard fans out there, were fully expecting the "evening with" format that Wilcoworld indicated for this show of two full sets with a long-ish break and then a regular encore.  Somewhere early in the set I thought Jeff said something along the lines of "we're gonna play then come back", which I took to be his usual preface for the intermission and the format.  It wasn't exactly his same speech as the one he's used in the "real" evening with shows, and I didn't really pay attention to it, so he might have given some hint that it wasn't going to be the full monty.  And a couple times he said "I wish we had more time" which I thought was odd.  But once the main set went into the couplet of Impossible Germany / Jesus etc, I realized something wasn't quite right.  Then HMD and I'm The Man, and I really wondered what they were gonna do for set 2.  They left after that, but came back 2 minutes later and started CaliStars. After the usual Walkin / I Got You, they left the stage for good, again saying they wished they had more time and see you next time.  The show started at 7:47 and ended at 9:37, so a little under two hours.  I was really more puzzled than disappointed, and very few folks in the crowd even seemed to notice or understand.  There were no Boo's or "WTF's??" or anyone really looking puzzled except a couple of us frequent guests, so I don't think it caused an international incident.  I presume the fair was closing at 10, so they wanted everyone out by then.  And BBop's comment that it was probably that way to stay consistent with the other concerts during the fair is very likely the case.  In talking with Wilco folks later, they said that they were only contracted for a regular (sub-2 hour) set, and it wasn't really clear who-knew-what-when about the needed adjustment to the format.  

All in all a great set, definitely a concentrated, crowd-pleasing version of the current set of songs they've been playing this run.  And if the Canadians were disappointed, they were as always too polite to mention it.  

Cheers!
Vince

 

[Albert Tatlock]

Ta

[TCP]

Great recap Vince! Despite the shortened set, it's a show I wish I could have gone to, alas, Uncle Neil was also playing Vancouver a few days after the Edmonton Wilco show and I had to draw the line somewhere. 

 

On 9/2/2025 at 2:41 PM, theashtraysays said:

The actual venue for this show and the others during the fair was a coliseum inside the grounds, which also housed hockey games (matches? I'm not a local) and the like.  Big place, I heard it can hold 17,000 or so, but for this show the entire upper level was closed off.  Still a big place, with folding chairs on the floor and 100% reserved seating.  Cool wooden radial ceiling.  Downright cavernous with a huge stage and a bit of an echo starting off with Jeff's vocals and acoustic on Story to Tell.  

 

 

Sorry, a little late to this but...

The arena's name is the Pacific Coliseum, which hosted the Vancouver Canucks from their inception as an NHL team in 1970, till the end of the 1995 Stanley Cup Playoffs (where they were defeated by some team from Chicago, ew). They then moved to what is now the Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver, hence why the 2011 Stanley Cup Final Riots were downtown. Though now that I write that I wonder where in Vancouver the 1994 Stanley Cup riots were? 

And they play games, not matches. Next time we're in Saint Paul for three nights of Wilco in the middle of winter, we're going to a Wild game.

[Albert Tatlock]

57 minutes ago, TCP said:

why the 2011 Stanley Cup Final Riots were downtown. Though now that I write that I wonder where in Vancouver the 1994 Stanley Cup riots were? 

Are there always riots then? Gloves off for riots too?

[TCP]

Just now, Albert Tatlock said:

Are there always riots then? Gloves off for riots too?

Vancouver does love a hockey riot. I believe they also rioted once back in the 90s when Guns N Roses canceled a concert after doors opened. But both times the Canucks almost won the Stanley Cup, Vancouver rioted after game 7. The second time, in 2011, they did a huge downtown block party with giant screens to watch on. I remember a lot of people being worried about what would happen when they lost. And then they did lose (one of the great heartbreaks of my life) and next thing you know, department store windows are being smashed. My hope is that next time they go to the finals they win/lose in 6 or less.

[Albert Tatlock]

6 hours ago, TCP said:

one of the great heartbreaks of my life

But you did get a nice new coat and some perfume for the wife out of it.