Wilco — 30 August 2025, Edmonton, AB, Canada (Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium)

[bböp]

“We’ll see you next year,” Jeff said, giving one last wave to the capacity crowd at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium as he left the stage with his bandmates for the final time in 2025. Truth be told, I think the Edmonton audience probably would be thrilled if Wilco did return next year since it had surprisingly (amazingly?) been more than 15 years since the band’s last show in town. And of course, Jeff probably will be back this way sometime in 2026 as he now turns his attention to supporting his forthcoming Twilight Override solo release. But I think, in some way, he was maybe speaking to the Wilco fanbase at large.

 

As with the end of every tour — and the final show of a given year — there is of course some sense of the ending of an era. And with apologies to Taylor Swift, it will be interesting to see what era Wilco enters next on the heels of this “Evening With…” age. Can we actually go back to “regular” length shows with, gasp, an opening act? Will we have to wait until a new Wilco album before Jeff and Co. tour again in earnest (outside of special occasions like the Sky Blue Sky and Solid Sound festivals)? I, for one, will miss this format if it goes away for a while, even if it did become a tad formulaic toward the end of this August stint.

 

Jeff joked early on tonight about having a sense of déja vu after having played “the exact same room” the previous night in Calgary. “I think they just told us we drove overnight, and they brought in new people,” Jeff said. I wasn’t at that show, but I can imagine what Jeff said to literally be true since that venue was called the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium and it would be so Canadian to have twin venues like this in different cities (Twin Cinema, anyone? Just me? OK.) For anyone who attended that Calgary show — or indeed any other show recently — there probably was a similar sense of déja vu in the sense that Wilco wasn’t about to reinvent the wheel for this final show of the tour.

 

So with one or two swapouts and/or reorderings, these two sets were pretty much what we had come to expect as far as the songs that were played. There were no curveballs to speak of, but it’s a testament to the professionalism of the band members that everyone looked to be engaged and still having a reasonable amount of fun. And there are still small, subtle things from night to night that guys do to keep it fresh for themselves — and for anyone following along closely — such as tonight’s little feedback outro on the acoustic version of Spiders (Kidsmoke), Jeff singing with a slightly varied cadence on a song here and there or even a bit of goofiness with the recurring Jaws theme intro to the second set.

 

The encore did offer a chance for a little bit of a good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll ending, and we got some of that in the form of a rousing U.S. Blues to close the show. But time did seem to be working against the band somewhat, even if they were able to go well past the presumed 11 p.m. curfew for that last number. (Of note, the printed setlist I glimpsed had Monday and Outtasite (Outta Mind) in addition to Walken, with U.S. Blues added by hand and with question marks.) “We just want this to be the last song we play for a while, so thanks for listening,” Jeff said of closing with U.S. Blues.

 

In terms of other visits to Banter Corner, Jeff leaned heavily on the previous night’s gig in Calgary and the rivalry between that city and Edmonton. In addition to the aforementioned jokes about the similarity between the two venues, Jeff also used the classic frontman tactic of appealing to one night’s crowd by (jokingly) denigrating a previous audience. But after doing that with Calgary, Jeff apologized for picking the low-hanging fruit. “That’s too easy, I’m sorry,” Jeff said of calling the Edmonton crowd “way better” than Calgary. “How many of you are from Calgary?” When a woman yelled out she was from Saskatoon, Jeff replied, “Saskatoon? Ok. I didn’t ask that. We’ll go around at the end of the show and (each person will) say where they’re from.”

 

Another noteworthy bit of banter by Jeff concerned that aspect of a show that is always going to be an issue when the band plays in a reserved seat situation — namely, sitting versus standing. Jeff usually doesn’t get involved in that, but apparently it had worked the previous night in Calgary, so he went back to the well again. This was before Box Full Of Letters, and though he didn’t explicitly ask the crowd to get on its feet, he basically gave it permission and that’s all Canadians need, it seems. “At some point you’re gonna want to stand up,” Jeff said, adding that there weren’t very many slow songs left in the set. “It’s up to you to decide.” So of course, everyone took the suggestion and stood for Box and its setmate, Annihilation.

 

After that, of course, someone asked, “Can we sit down?” Jeff replied, “You can sit down if you want. You might not be able to see, but I’m not gonna tell you what to do.” Then, realizing that one of those slower songs (Either Way) was coming next, Jeff relented, “Ah, go ahead and sit down. I’m gonna do this (strum the opening chords) until you sit down.” After Either Way, Jeff added, “I just realized I may have been the first rock band frontman to tell an audience to sit down. I’m glad you disobeyed. Not like those people in Calgary. You won’t tell (Edmontonians) what to do.”

 

I suppose the same could be said of Jeff and his bandmates, who took some inspiration from Bob Dylan at the start of this August run and the way he continues to present his music the way he wants to present it. Of course Jeff couldn’t end a tour without thanking the Wilcrew for its support, if not exactly by name. “It’s the last Wilco show of the year,” Jeff said. “We’ve played a lot this year — from South America to the southern U.S. — and we would like to thank all the people who travel with us and make this possible who don’t get the applause. We would suck without them. We’re gonna learn their names next year.” And what would a Wilco show be without a little back and forth between Jeff and Glenn? “Glenn won’t start (the next song) until I apologize to all the people in our crew whose names he thinks I don’t know,” Jeff shared. “I know all of their names.” Does he? I guess we’ll never know for sure…

 

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, the printed setlist for Set 2 had Monday and Outtasite (Outta Mind) in the encore but neither were played):

 

Set 1

Story To Tell

Handshake Drugs

Art Of Almost (acoustic arrangement)

Company In My Back

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

Via Chicago

California Stars

Falling Apart (Right Now)

 

Set 2

The Late Greats

You Are My Face

Theologians

Side With The Seeds

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

Box Full Of Letters

Annihilation

Either Way

Impossible Germany

Hate It Here

Jesus, etc.

Heavy Metal Drummer

I'm The Man Who Loves You

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

Walken

U.S. Blues [Grateful Dead]

[TCP]

Great recap, glad to have you back for this one.

It was definitely a weird feeling walking into the same exact lobby as I did the night before, despite driving three hours north. Same thing after walking into the actual auditorium. I sat two seats over from the equivalent seats in Calgary and at times it felt like this was just night two of a two night run.

Random thoughts:

1. The Edmonton crowd definitely seemed a bit more excited and engaged.
2. I think this might be the first "standard show" (as in, not an SSF theme night, or a no repeat residency, that sort of thing) I've seen that didn't feature IATTBYH.
3. My parents were in Edmonton and I had two sets of tickets so they came to their first ever Wilco show. They both had a lot of fun. Dad saw the Dead a bunch of in the 60s/70s and I think he appreciated moments like Base Of My Skull... and then, like they knew, the band ended with a Dead cover. Great way to convert TCP Sr into a Wilco fan, guys! Mom enjoyed them too but remarked to my wife during the intermission "I didn't think that one song was ever going to end!" which I'm assuming was the aforementioned Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull. So maybe it's a good thing One Sunday Morning was swapped out, even if I would have liked to hear it again! 
4. I fear in my Calgary recap I positioned 'Bird' as a purely Pat showcase, when obviously it is, at its core, a guitar duet with Nels. I was thinking about that as I was witnessing the two performing it again in Edmonton. Though, I do feel it would be fair to say if one of their guitars was more lead than the other lead guitar, it would be Pat's.
5. I'm not doing Sky Blue Sky (I don't like heat, long flights, beaches, or the sun) so hopefully I don't have to wait too long into 2025 to see my favourite American rock ensemble again.
6. TCP Trivia: This was my first Edmonton rock show since July 16 2003, where just a wee teenage TCP saw My Morning Jacket and Pete Yorn open for the Foo Fighters at the Shaw Conference Centre, not too far from the NAJA. 
7. I'm pretty sure I blocked bbop's view all night. Sorry bbop!! Thanks for not throwing anything at the back of my (admittedly large) head.

[Albert Tatlock]

9 hours ago, bböp said:

we would like to thank all the people who travel with us and make this possible who don’t get the applause

 

Ta Bbop!