Perhaps it was fitting that the unique complex where Jeff and his bandmates played the first of two Italian shows this week is named after the late, great film composer Ennio Morricone because there certainly was a bit of drama involved with tonight’s show. Wilco drama, mind you. Nothing overly serious, but material more befitting a dramedy than anything else.

Before I get into it, though, a few words about the venue. Designed by the famed Italian architect Renzo Piano, the Auditorium Parco della Musica complex opened in 2002 and consists of three indoor concert halls arranged radially around an open-air amphitheater — Cavea (which refers to the tiered-seating section of such a space) — with a capacity of around 5,000 in its mixed standing and seating configuration. It’s a memorable venue, to be sure, with the impressive arena-like cavea looming over and around the general admission standing floor in front of a wide, fairly low stage. I’ll bet there probably weren’t too many bad views in the place, unless you just had a tall person standing directly in front of you.

On a muggy Monday night in late summer, the venue wasn’t nearly at capacity for Wilco (whose show, apropos of nothing, came the day after a band called Cosmo), but there was still a decent turnout — maybe 2,000. The gig was part of the Roma Summer Fest concert series, which featured a diverse lineup of musical acts ranging from John Legend to Djo and the Village People to Judas Priest. Wilco was due on stage at 9 p.m., but in a departure from its usual trademark promptness, the band didn’t emerge until 9:12. When in Rome, I guess…

And that’s when the comedy of errors began. Like I said, it was hardly Shakespearean or anything, but when the band launched into its opening number — Art Of Almost — it seemed like there was a problem with Mikael’s laptop, which probably controls the glitchy sound effects in that song, bringing it to an abrupt halt. “We’re gonna get this right,” Jeff said, but despite a minute or two of trying to fix the issue (and Jeff nervously trying to fill the dead air with pleasantries), the situation remained awkwardly in flux. Finally, the band decided to move onto the next song. I had a feeling that might sadly be the end of AOA for the night, which ultimately proved correct.

Fortunately, things proceeded without any more technical difficulties for the rest of the show. But Jeff did flub a verse in California Stars, accidentally singing the “they hang like grapes on vines that shine” line instead of “I’d love to feel your hand touching mine,” the second time through (which was made worse because of John singing the correct line alongside him). And Jeff also didn’t change the “hello” lyric in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, as he almost always does in foreign countries.

Maybe Jeff was distracted by another minor drama he had going on with himself — namely, The Case of the Stray Facial Hair — that formed the basis of easily his most amusing visit to Banter Corner during this show. After Love Is Everywhere (Beware), Jeff commented on the beautiful evening before going into his personal struggle with “one mustache hair that must be invisible.” Rubbing his finger under his nose, Jeff told the crowd, “If you see me doing this, it’s not because I’m doing cocaine. It’s because I have a ghost mustache hair that’s fucking with my nose.” One song later, after Theologians, he insisted, “Don’t worry about my mustache hair. It’ll be OK.” (In the same breath, however, he did remember that he wanted to “send that last song out to the Chicago pope.” The “big riff” ending was a little something extra for the American pontiff, I gather.)

Other bits from Banter Corner included responding to a small “Wheel-co, Wheel-co” chant that broke out near the end of the main set. Jeff apologized for cutting it off to say something else, and said they could revisit it later after a couple more songs. But the crowd wouldn’t be deterred and started the chant up again, causing Jeff to quip, “I wasn’t asking for that.” Jeff also had kind of an amusing, at least to me, moment when he was trying to do a variation on his usual bit comparing Box Full Of Letters to Annihilation. “It’s a totally different thing,” Jeff joked. “You’re not gonna recognize (the band that played one song from the band that played the other).” When the joke seemed to be mostly lost on the Italian audience, though, Jeff gave up with a mock sigh. “Ah, never mind,” he said.

In the end, this show didn’t differ from the other headlining sets Wilco has been playing on this European run despite the lack of a support act. There had been some speculation, perhaps fueled by something on social media or in one of the band’s email blasts, that these would be longer two-set “Evening With…” performances. That it turned out to be “just” a regular show didn’t seem to faze the vast majority of the crowd, which was probably excited to have Wilco playing — remarkably, for just the third time ever — in Rome.

vMy only “disappointment” was the apparent lack of bootleg T-shirt stands outside the venue, which I’ve come to associate with Italian shows over the years. It’s always amusing to see what the bootleggers come up with — maybe not to Wilco’s merch guy Andy, but definitely to me. At this show, the bootleg merch was nowhere in sight. Just a big tent outside the venue entrance marked “Official Merchandise.” Borrrrrrrrrinnngggg. Maybe there’s been a crackdown since my last Italian show in 2019, maybe Wilco’s audience has aged out of buying bootleg T-shirts or maybe the band isn’t popular enough to bootleg anymore (gasp!)

Anyway, more than making up for my bootleg blues was the very nice and much appreciated birthday shoutout from Jeff before a rip-roaring Monday>Outtasite (Outta Mind) combo to close out the night. Actually it was one day after my birthday, but I didn’t mind. It’s hard to think about time over on this side of the pond — the days get all screwed up in your head because of the time difference when you see stuff from back home and tour life messes with your day-to-day reality anyway.

Most importantly, Jeff and Co. got the day of the week correct — and Monday on a Monday is always welcome. Jeff delivered not only the whistle and the scream, but also the “sonofabitch” leading into Outtasite, while his bandmates did their thing, as always, to bring the show home in satisfying fashion. Bravi ragazzi!

Here was the complete setlist, as played, (there were no changes from the printed setlist, other than the abandoning of Art Of Almost to start the show):

1. Art Of Almost (aborted)

2. Handshake Drugs

3. If I Ever Was A Child

4. Via Chicago

5. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

6. California Stars

7. Evicted

8. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

9. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

10. Box Full Of Letters

11. Annihilation

12. Hummingbird

13. It’s Just That Simple

14. Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

15. Theologians

16. Impossible Germany

17. Jesus, etc.

18. Heavy Metal Drummer>

19. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

20. The Late Greats

21. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

22. Monday>

23. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

Before Wilco’s set at the Rock en Seine Festival, when I saw a young woman at the rail of the AXS Stage who had drawn “ELT” on a small sketchpad that she was clearly planning to flash in Jeff’s sightline during the show, I didn’t want to shatter any hopes she might have harbored of actually getting her request played. So I kept my mouth shut, and just kept what I was thinking to myself: Comment dit-on longshot?

In reality, longshot would have been a major understatement. If there somehow existed a prediction market for Wilco songs being played — c’mon Kalshi, you don’t see any potential in that? — I’m not sure ELT would have even been in play. I mean, Jeff and Co. could barely fit the obligatory songs into their one-hour set, much less a song that hasn’t been in rotation in years. Looking at the printed setlist afterward, it was almost comical to think that they could have squeezed in Spiders (Kidsmoke) as a final number when they already had to cut Heavy Metal Drummer for time earlier in the set.

This is the problem with a band like Wilco at most festivals — namely, that their catalog is too big at this point to fit into such a limited time slot. Earlier in this run, at the Green Man Festival in Wales, the band had a headlining position (and accordingly, a longer set time) so that it was able to play something resembling a normal set. But at most of the festivals that Jeff and his bandmates have played, at least the two I’ve attended, it honestly feels like they’re barely there. I suppose it’s sort of like a big fish in a small pond versus a small fish in a big pond sort of thing.

As I’ve said before, I understand how festivals fit into the economics of touring bands and why they play them. I also don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the logistics — perhaps Wilco actually requested for some reason to be on what was clearly the third of four stages at Rock en Seine in terms of prominence (judging by the size, the presence of video screens, the acts booked, etc.) — but it was hard to walk away from tonight’s set not feeling like the band was kind of an afterthought amid other acts like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Franz Ferdinand, The Black Keys, Sparks and Wet Leg, all of whom seem quite popular in France and were on one of the top two stages. Who knows, maybe hard-core fans of those other artists felt like “their” bands also got short shrift — well, except for headliner Nick Cave since he got a full two-hour slot on the main stage — but they were certainly more prominent than Wilco in the pecking order.

Not that there weren’t at least a few positives, at least as I saw it, to Jeff and Co. being on a somewhat smaller stage. For one, it was pretty easy to get right to the rail. I think anyone who was determined enough to get up close was probably able to do so, and that mostly meant the biggest fans were the closest during their set (which isn’t always the case at a festival since you usually have fans of other acts jockeying for position throughout). It was nice to see a few familiar, friendly faces up there, and French audiences have always — in my experience — been among the best for Wilco over the years.

Certainly one of the highlights of the set came right away with the electric version of Art Of Almost. If I’m not mistaken, it was just the third time the song has ever been performed in France — and the first time in nearly a decade. We also got pretty good crowd participation on Hummingbird (after which Jeff gave a quick “merci beaucoup”), followed by I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (during which he changed the “…when we said hello” line to “bonjour,” as he usually does).

Via Chicago, meanwhile, had me wondering — as it always does now in festival-type situations — if someone seeing Wilco for the first time thinks it’s just completely bonkers the way that one now-infamous Redditor did after seeing it at the Outlaw Music Festival/Willie Nelson’s 4^th of July Picnic earlier this summer. Since Wilco apparently has some sort of connection with Sesame Street/The Muppets now, maybe there’s some hope that Animal will actually join Glenn behind the drum kit someday.

Anyway, it was clear as the Rock en Seine set rolled on that things were becoming extremely rushed in the second half. After Impossible Germany, Jeff was visibly letting his bandmates know that the setlist would have to be amended in some way. And even with very limited visits to Banter Corner — I think Jeff only paused to express gratitude for the better-than-expected weather (mercifully, no rain!), say “thanks for having us,” and announce that the band had time to squeeze in a couple more songs — the hour Jeff and Co. were on stage seemed to go by rather quickly.

Oh, and what about that request for ELT? Well, I guess the good news was at least Jeff saw it and acknowledged it. Of course he still demurred, albeit with regrets: “Sorry, we’re not gonna get to that one. I apologize.” In retrospect, I think we all could have seen that one coming (but wouldn’t it be amazing if they had just somehow magically conjured it up out of nowhere? One can always dream…)

Here was the complete setlist, as played, at Rock en Seine (as mentioned, Heavy Metal Drummer was on the printed setlist after Jesus, etc., but was cut, and “Spiders or I Got You” was listed as the final song of the set, but neither got played):

1. Art Of Almost

2. Handshake Drugs

3. If I Ever Was A Child

4. Hummingbird

5. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

6. California Stars

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. Via Chicago

9. Impossible Germany

10. Jesus, etc.

11. I’m The Man Who Loves You

    

As Jeff and his bandmates walked off the stage following the second of two nights at the OLT Rivierenhof for the second consecutive year, he sort of casually shrugged and said, “See you next year.” Will Wilco really play two shows in a park in Belgium every summer for the duration of its existence? I guess it remains to be seen, but there certainly are much worse places in the world to perform.

Of course I’m underselling the lovely and intimate 1,200-capacity amphitheater nestled in Antwerp’s largest park, the Rivierenhof (technically the Provinciaal Groendomein Rivierenhof, but that’s a mouthful). Someone asked me recently what my favorite venues to see Wilco are and I’d be hard pressed to come up with a better outdoor choice than this place, which has just about everything you want — both good standing and seated options, a perfect stage height, excellent sound and a beer garden-type area with above-average food and drink options. I mean, I’m sure I could nitpick something or other (bathrooms, maybe?) but it’s just a really good spot to be an audience member.

Happy crowd makes band play loud? Well, I don’t know if we can say that across the board but Jeff and Co. certainly bookended Night 2 this year with a differently noisy set of tunes than the more expected ones from Night 1. Opening with the electric version of Art Of Almost — in contrast with the acoustic version they did during one of last year’s “Evening With” sets here — set a tone right away (and Nels apparently played so hard out of the gate that he broke a string almost instantly; fortunately, he switches out guitars midway through the electric AOA anyway).

Then with the closing salvo of Monday and Outtasite (Outta Mind), the band sent the Flemish — and German, American, Italian, Dutch, British and French-speaking Belgian, etc. — fans flocking furiously homeward. It was especially fun to hear Monday for the first time in a little while (and just the third time this year full band). I’m not sure if Jeff just forgot to do the whistle or skipped it intentionally, but he did mouth — albeit, off-mike — “sonofabitch” to lead into Outtasite, which made me smile.

In all, there were nine different songs played on Night 2 than Night 1 (and it would have been 10 if Via Chicago hadn’t been swapped in for You And I). So a respectable amount of changes for a 22- or 23-song set. Sadly we still didn’t get the guitar duel version of Kingpin, perhaps on account of the reluctance to “boogie dabble” overseas, but swap-ins like Kamera and Hate It Here were nice. Perhaps we’ll get Kingpin during one of the upcoming “Evening With…” sets in Italy or Croatia since tonight was the final night with the duo version of Hovvdy as support (Jeff cleverly thanked them during I Am Trying To Break Your Heart when he modified the lyric, “What was I thinking when we said hello” to “…when we said howdy.”)

Perhaps Jeff was just feeling a little more uninhibited than usual because of the friendly crowd. Despite his early declaration that “we have quite a few things we’d like to achieve tonight, so I’m not gonna talk as much as I did last night,” he didn’t really adhere to that too strictly. Almost immediately after, possibly caught off guard when a small portion of the audience started to sing “Happy birthday” to him for the second night in a row, Jeff mentioned the previous night’s medical incident when there was an extended delay after somebody passed out and quipped — much to Glenn’s horror — that “we had to wait for them to be buried before we could go with the show, so drink up. Drink some water.” A couple of songs later, perhaps rethinking his sarcasm a bit, Jeff clarified that he had been kidding about the burial comment, but didn’t think the person who had passed out was at tonight’s show anyway.

Fortunately, slightly more tactful visits to Banter Corner ensued. Such as when Jeff shared after Annihilation that the band’s most recent release, the Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP, was “named after a sushi restaurant called Hot Woks Cool Sushi in Chicago…some of (my bandmates) didn’t even know that.” Then Jeff recounted, somewhat apropos of nothing, how someone had yelled out for him to introduce the band the previous night. After thinking about it for a second, Jeff pointed to the giant Wilco backdrop behind them and said, with mock incredulity, “We’re fucking Wilco. It’s right there!”

Another audience comment — a request for Via Chicago — prompted Jeff to seemingly shoot down the suggestion because he and his bandmates had played it on Night 1. “We didn’t put it on the setlist tonight,” he said. “Maybe that was a fucking mistake. We might have to correct it.” A few songs later, they made good on that with Jeff commenting, “We don’t do this often, but we’re gonna honor a request.” Afterward he added, “We honor requests all the time, just not ones that are shouted at us. But there seemed to be more than one person that wanted to hear that one. Ah, I don’t have to explain myself…”

By this point, after four shows in two years, it seems like there is at least a certain comfort level between Jeff and Co. and the audience that turns up at the OLT Rivierenhof (and Jeff even started the encore by saying “we need to come back here every year.”) But maybe there isn’t complete simpatico quite yet. For instance, after Jeff’s comment, that same small group of people started to sing “Happy birthday” to him yet again and another guy shouted out, “Play something by Jeff Tweedy!” (by which I think he meant something from Jeff’s solo catalog…after all, the Tweedy band had just been in Antwerp in February on the Twilight Override tour). Jeff responded to all of this with another bit of mock incredulity, observing in part, “You guys have lost control of yourselves. What is happening? Are we at a TGI Friday’s or something?”

Dear reader, I regret to inform you that there are currently no TGI Friday’s in Belgium (though apparently there once were plans to open a series of them). But maybe let’s just keep that stereotypically American vibe away from future Wilco shows over in Europe, shall we? Because I personally think the one at the OLT Rivierenhof is quite lovely as it is.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 2 (as mentioned, You And I was on the printed setlist in the main set after It’s Just That Simple, but wasn’t played when the band decided to play Via Chicago instead):

1. Art Of Almost

2. Handshake Drugs

3. If I Ever Was A Child

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. Kamera

6. Evicted

7. Forget The Flowers

8. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

9. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

10. Box Full Of Letters

11. Annihilation

12. War On War

13. Hummingbird

14. It’s Just That Simple

15. Via Chicago

16. Impossible Germany

17. Jesus, etc.

18. Hate It Here

19. Heavy Metal Drummer>

20. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

21. The Late Greats

22. Monday>

23. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

Well, I suppose Jeff won’t have too much trouble remembering his 59^th — um sorry, I mean, 39^th — birthday. From the sad news about Dolly Parton’s death breaking just before Wilco was about to start its set to the crowd singing “Happy Birthday” to him the second he stepped on stage to a medical situation in the audience causing an uncomfortably extended pause near the conclusion of the show, Jeff’s special day ended up being a pretty eventful one.

Let’s start from the end — I just mean in general. The show was coming to a frenetic climax in the encore during Spiders (Kidsmoke) when midway through, just as Jeff was singing the first “it’s good to be alone,” he pointed out at an area in the crowd where someone had apparently passed out and people were trying to get some help. Almost immediately, the song came to a halt and Jeff tried to help summon security and venue staff.

Unfortunately this type of situation has seemingly happened more often everywhere in recent years, but I’ve never seen one go on quite as long. Usually someone from security gets out to the person quite quickly and things pick up again in relatively short order, but this one just seemed to take an agonizing amount of time — like almost 10 minutes, maybe? I couldn’t really see any of it from my vantage point, so I hesitate to speculate too much but I guess they were trying to get a wheelchair or something out there to take the person out.

Anyway, because it took so long, Jeff definitely wound up filling some dead air. One audience member yelled out, “Introduce the band!” Jeff seemed to be surprised, briefly considered it and then scoffed as Glenn looked at him with a mock sad face. “It’s my birthday,” Jeff replied with a smirk. “They’re not that needy.” Then Jeff shared that he had gotten a cake which, if I’m not mistaken, he said was shaped like either a hot dog or a hamburger. He also said he had received the gift of a Cameo video from none other than Right Said Fred, who informed him, of course, “Jeff, you’re too sexy for your shirt.” After that, someone else in the crowd bellowed something about playing some music. Jeff handled that dummy pretty well, essentially saying that we should be looking after our neighbors and that’s what they were trying to do in this case. Finally, the situation was resolved with Jeff making extra sure he got a thumbs up from security/venue personnel that it was OK to proceed. Without any significant verbal communication between them, Jeff and Co. somehow picked right back up where they had left off and finished the rest of the song, ba-ba-ba-ba-bas and all.

I thought that would almost certainly be the end of the night given the time, but guitar tech Jeff Tweedy brought out another guitar and handed it to actual Jeff Tweedy ( #twotweedys ). The latter explained that he and his bandmates had been given permission to go past the 11 p.m. curfew a bit, so they played one more song — I Got You (At The End Of The Century) — to close out the show.

One of Jeff’s numerous visits to Banter Corner tonight did involve his namesake guitar tech, who he singled out after Everyone Hides. “You know his name is Jeff Tweedy, too?” actual Jeff told the crowd, clarifying that they had different middle names (and unfortunately I didn’t catch guitar tech Jeff Tweedy’s). “He’s been my guitar tech for a little while. It’s unacceptable that he doesn’t have the same birthday, though, so we’re changing your birthday (to today). So happy birthday!” It was one of several references to his birthday that frontman Jeff Tweedy made over the course of the show, including saying it was “the best birthday ever…just kidding, not really, but it’s my 39^th so it’s not that big of a deal.” After the capacity crowd of 1,200 at the OLT Rivierenhof, where Wilco played a two-night stand just over a year ago, sang “Happy Birthday” to Jeff right when the band came out, he seemed genuinely touched and quipped, “Happy my birthday to all who celebrate.”

At the start of the encore, Jeff thanked the audience for singing to him at the start of the show, calling it “very sweet.” Early on he also tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to nip in the bud some awkward audience interactions such as when a guy loudly yelled out “Jeff Tweedy is my babysitter!” “My birthday wish is for us to stop (doing that),” Jeff said. “Just kidding. Maybe don’t do it as much, OK?” (In case anyone was wondering, since Wilco played its first shows in 1994, this was just the eighth time Jeff has performed on his birthday. Most of those — five, to be exact — have come since the pandemic, including last year in Seattle.)

More significantly, Jeff remarked that he had been “having a good birthday until Dolly died. That sucks.” The sad news arrived during Hovvdy’s opening set, so even if Jeff and Co. had wanted to play something in tribute, there wasn’t much time to learn anything. “We’re not gonna play any Dolly songs. We wish we could, but we’re not that talented.” That didn’t stop a guy in the audience from suggesting it anyway, and I don’t know if Jeff heard him or not, but ultimately Jeff simply apologized for having “just brought things down.”

He needn’t have been too concerned, however, since the 2-hour, 2-minute set (including the lengthy pause) made up for what it arguably lacked in uniqueness with a pretty loose, energetic vibe overall. Jeff certainly contributed to the looseness with a couple of lyric flubs, including the Diet Coca-Cola line in Ashes Of American Flags. We also got the “big riff” ending to Theologians with Jeff flashing a smile and seeming to wordlessly ask his bandmates “Should I, or shouldn’t I?” before finally giving in. And as Jeff noted after a crowd-pleasing Walken (even though Wilco played it on both nights here last year), “We don’t dabble in boogie much overseas. Boogie dabbling is…uh, not legal over here.” Given the sad news about Parton, however, I’m glad Jeff and Co. decided to make an exception, if only as a birthday treat. After all, if we subscribe to the mantra of WWDD? — What Would Dolly Do? — I’m guessing that boogie dabbling would be something she would have strongly endorsed.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (Outtasite (Outta Mind) was on the printed setlist as the final song of the encore, but wasn’t played):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. California Stars

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. Everyone Hides

10. Annihilation

11. Hummingbird

12. It’s Just That Simple

13. Theologians

14. Impossible Germany

15. Jesus, etc.

16. Walken

17. Heavy Metal Drummer>

18. I’m The Man Who Loves You

    ---

Encore

19. Ashes Of American Flags>

20. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

21. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

    

Talk about making an impact. Literally. Back on 24 October 2011 when Wilco first played at the relatively genteel Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, a fight broke out somewhere in the balcony while Jeff and his bandmates were playing one of the quietest songs in their catalog — Rising Red Lung — and Jeff recalled “a sickening sound of a fist on a face” before security arrived to haul the combatants out.

It’s a story Jeff has recounted on more than one occasion since then, and he did so again tonight during the band’s return to the GRCH. I’m going to go out on a proverbial limb — which I’m sure someone will find a way to break — and suggest it was one of the five most infamous audience “incidents” in Wilco history. (On that list, of course, would also be the “Deli Tray Incident” in New York from 1997, as well as the physical altercation Jeff had with a stage crasher in Springfield, Mo., in 2006, a London crowd shaming in 1997 and a run-in with a drunk woman in Houston, Texas, in 2005. That last one might be tied with another Texas episode in San Antonio in 2006. I know I’m leaving out some confrontations over cameras and video recording over the years, but I can’t recall one that stood out over the others. I’m also not including noteworthy episodes like the admonishment of chatters during a 2006 solo show, as captured on the Sunken Treasure: Live In The Pacific Northwest DVD, “the Kavanaugh affair” in 2018 or the “Mayor of Cedar Rapids’ daughter” fiasco in 2011 since those took place at Jeff solo shows.)

But anyway, as I was saying, Jeff once again brought up the Glasgow skirmish five songs in after an unexpectedly early California Stars when he said, unprompted, “We’re trying not to play any of our most tender songs because (of the fight). … We’re trying to keep the volume at a certain level tonight.”

Of course that didn’t stop one determined bloke from, just a few songs later, bellowing a request for One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend). At first Jeff countered by saying, “Oh, you want to fight? Are you the guy with the fists?” Then a couple of songs hence, he demurred a bit more thoughtfully when he addressed the requester again: “I heard what you said. I appreciate that you know the name of one of our songs — and even like it — but that song is way too quiet. We can’t risk it. Sorry.”

Unlike other occasions when Jeff shoots down a request only to relent later in the set, there would be no caving in with OSM, which incidentally opened that infamous show here in 2011. But at least one request — according to Jeff — was granted when the band played You And I for the first time on this European run (and the first time as a sextet on this side of the Atlantic in nearly three years). “This might have been some of your wedding songs,” Jeff said by way of introduction. For what it’s worth, I noticed that Nels didn’t do anything with his Electroharmonix 16-second digital delay to create a little outro as he has done in the past as a way of paying sonic tribute to The Byrds’ Younger Than Yesterday album. I’m not sure if he decides whether to do that or not in the moment, but I just happened to take note of it during this show. (Then again, perhaps Nels was just saving his energy for the remarkable confluence of things he has to worry about during the electric version of Art Of Almost, which includes switching guitars mid-song and negotiating a variety of different effects. “He runs the equivalent of 10 miles just turning his pedals off and on,” Jeff quipped.)

In the grand scheme of things, You And I wasn’t a terribly huge ask since that song has remained in fairly regular rotation. But it was still fun to hear as part of a mid-set, love-song trilogy that also included Love Is Everywhere (Beware) and the acoustic arrangement of I’m Always In Love. The latter has been a staple of Wilco sets since last summer, and Jeff as usual encouraged the audience to sing along even after some people (as usual) came in early at the climax. “It’s confusing, that one little break,” Jeff said reassuringly. “You feel like you should be doing something, but it’s my part.”

The nearly sold-out audience of about 2,000, which I think was about evenly split between standers on the so-called arena level and sitters, exuded pretty welcoming vibes and seemed happy to sing along and participate — whether or not it had the parts down pat or not. That was clear on Spiders (Kidsmoke) when it took a little longer to get in sync with the clapping and ba-ba-ba-ba-bas, though things eventually came together. In typical frontman fashion, Jeff even tried to get the crowd going a little further by invoking the performance of the Welsh crowd at the Green Man Festival the previous night.

Segueing into Spiders to start the encore had been Ashes Of American Flags, which once again featured a drone outro with Glenn using a drill instead of the usual soaring Nels guitar solo. Instead of letting the drone proceed for a bit longer as they did two nights earlier in London, however, Jeff and Co. cut it off pretty quickly tonight in order to transition right into Spiders. It was another example of the band playing with different pairings of songs, like earlier in the set with I Am Trying To Break Your Heart into California Stars, in order to keep things somewhat fresh despite playing many of the same songs from night to night.

By the time Wilco reached the end of its 1-hour, 59-minute set, Jeff had already alluded to his Scottish heritage a couple of times — “It’s good to be home,” he said early on — but it really did seem like he and the rest of his bandmates were feeling pretty comfortable up there. The fact that all remained quiet on the Scottish front on this Saturday night helped, I’m sure. “No fights,” Jeff said, smiling, as he gave a final goodnight wave. “Good job.”

Here was the complete setlist, as played (I Got You (At The End Of The Century) was not on the printed setlist as the final song of the show, but got added):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. California Stars

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. Box Full Of Letters

10. Annihilation

11. Hummingbird

12. It’s Just That Simple

13. You And I

14. Impossible Germany

15. Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

16. Art Of Almost

17. Jesus, etc.

18. Heavy Metal Drummer>

19. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

20. Ashes Of American Flags>

21. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

22. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

    

I’m sure I’ve expressed this before, but sometimes I feel like I do an inadequate job with these recaps in terms of giving a sense of what a show is really like. How could my take represent what the average person who attended the show took away from it, especially someone like this Redditor who was seeing Wilco for the first time. I can’t — or am scared to — even think back to what my first show was like. I’m sure I sang along too loudly and annoyed someone standing near me. (Um, maybe things haven’t changed all that much.)

Of course I realize everyone at a given show has their perspective and is coming to it from a unique place, and in the end, I’m writing these pieces for myself (and with a handful of other nerds in mind) as I always have, and if anyone else gets anything out of them, then all the better. Still, occasionally I can’t help feeling like someone who went to a show and reads something I wrote might walk away thinking, “What the heck is he even talking about?” or “He barely mentions the music,” or “I just wanted to know how the show was, dummy.”

That’s particularly true in a city like London, which obviously already features a very diverse mix of people. Just in my immediate vicinity tonight at the Eventim (née HMV, Carling, Labatt’s, Hammersmith) Apollo, it seemed like there were folks from different parts of the U.K., as well as both the U.S. and Europe and probably even further away — some who came here to work or study and others who took a holiday to come to see Jeff and Co. The age range also seemed wider than at a lot of other Wilco shows these days, including more than a few on the younger end — though, interestingly, not as many actual kids as you often see in the U.S.

(Incidentally, I happened to see Go-Go’s drummer Kathy Valentine post on her Instagram and Substack about getting to hang out with the band. Apparently she is friendly with guitar tech Jeff Tweedy and maybe a little with actual Jeff Tweedy as well. As many times as I can write about #TwoTweedys here, I intend to. This being London, I’m sure there were at least a few other musicians in the house as well. I remember a widely circulated photo of Nels smooching old friend Thurston Moore after last summer’s show at the Royal Albert Hall that somehow got picked up by Parade.com of all places — yes, the Parade that used to come in a lot of Sunday newspapers in the U.S., which is hardly a bastion of indie rock goings-on, as far as I know.)

Jeff alluded to that marquee RAH gig in one of his most noteworthy visits to Banter Corner tonight at the Apollo. “We’re having a fucking blast,” he said about halfway through the set, before adding, “I can’t remember the name of the dump we played last time, but this is cooler.” The RAH certainly is a picturesque and legendary venue, but in my opinion, the 5,000-capacity Apollo had a better atmosphere to properly experience a Wilco performance. This was the third time the band has played here, following gigs in 2005 and 2019, and though I can’t quite identify another venue it reminded me of at the moment, it was a good place to feel a connection with the band, at least if you were close, because of its relatively low, three-foot stage. I don’t think the show completely sold out, but it seemed pretty full, both in the seated balcony and on the standing room-only floor that gently slopes down to the stage.

Though Jeff had declared early on that “there’s a fair number of things we’d like to accomplish tonight, so I’m not gonna talk that much,” it wasn’t as if he completely clammed up for the rest of the show. (Amusingly, right after he said that, someone apparently said, “Yay,” and Jeff smiled and replied, “Yay? I heard that.”) At any rate, he didn’t chat a ton, but he did respond to an “I love you, Jeff!” with a pretty funny look of mock resignation on his face. “I know,” Jeff said. “I say I love you to my wife sometimes and she says, ‘OK.’”

Other brief quips by Jeff included joking at one point that the security guards up front handing out clear plastic cups of water were actually distributing shots of tequila, and that “tonight is flying by, man” after Theologians. And when the main set really was heading toward its inevitable conclusion, Jeff deployed one of his patented lines — “We’re getting pretty close to the end. I just mean in general,” — that works every time.

I was interested to see how, and in what way(s), the Apollo setlist might vary from the RAH one since the two shows were only about 14 months apart. By my count, 12 of the 23 songs played at the RAH were also played at the Apollo. Sadly neither show featured the rearranged Kingpin, but especially at the latter since Jeff and Co. had made it such a prominent part of their American sets this year. Aside from the obvious “livin’ in…London” missed lyric change opportunity, I empathize with the fans on this side of the pond who haven’t gotten to experience that one live. I mean, it’s not too late yet and there’s at least a chance it gets played sometime during next week’s two-night stand in Antwerp, Belgium, but it doesn’t seem like there’s the time and/or the inclination by the band to include it in most of the shows over here.

The news wasn’t all bad as far as setlist surprises, however. After playing the electric arrangement of Art Of Almost at the previous show in Amsterdam for the first time in a long time in Europe, it made another appearance tonight (and was received just as well, I think). Theologians — complete with the always-fun “big riff” ending — also made a reappearance after somewhat surprisingly not having been performed on this side of the Atlantic since one of the Iceland shows in 2023. And while I’m burying the lede here, I would suggest the real eye-opener came at the start of the encore with the return of Ashes Of American Flags after a couple of years.

It wasn’t so much that Ashes hadn’t been played in a little while, but how it was played that was noteworthy. Usually it slowly builds up to a soaring Nels solo, as heard on the Kicking Television live album, but that never came tonight. Instead, after Jeff literally saluted as he delivered the final verse, the focus turned to Glenn and his use of a handheld electric drill to end the song on a uniquely drone-y note. I can’t recall Ashes having been played live that way before — was there a demo or outtake on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot box set with something resembling that arrangement? — and I thought for a second that maybe the band would somehow segue into Less Than You Think. After all, that’s the Wilco song (which was played at the RAH last year, for what it’s worth) known for the use of a drill. But instead of going even further off into that more avant-garde realm, which would have been something, things returned to more conventional rockage with the feel-good energy provided by the concluding I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind).

They say you can’t be everything to everyone, and that’s certainly true, but I have to give Jeff and Co. credit for pretty deftly toeing that line during their 1-hour, 51-minute set. From the diehards who’ve seen the band dozens of times to the casual fan who is most excited to hear Impossible Germany to the first-timer who is just happy to be there, I don’t think too many people walked out of that venerable venue regretting having come to the show. And that’s an achievement in and of itself for a group that has played here relatively often over the years.

Here was the complete setlist, as played, at the Apollo (there were no changes from the printed setlist):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. Kamera

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. Everyone Hides

10. Annihilation

11. Hummingbird

12. It’s Just That Simple

13. Theologians

14. Impossible Germany

15. Art Of Almost

16. Jesus, etc.

17. Heavy Metal Drummer>

18. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

19. Ashes Of American Flags

20. California Stars

21. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

22. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Wilco perform in the main room (grote zaal) of Paradiso…four, maybe five? The band has been playing this venue since its earliest days as a band — “forever,” as Jeff said at one point tonight. But as someone who usually prefers to get as close as possible to the front for shows, I think I’ve always had a bit of a stigma about Paradiso because of the height of its stage.

I have memories of barely being able to see Glenn at all, or having to crane my neck uncomfortably to see the back line of Mikael, Glenn and Pat, or having my view partially blocked by a monitor while pressed up against the base of the stage. Though I’ve personally never headed upstairs to one of the two U-shaped balconies that ring the room, I know more than a few front-row folks who instead opt for that bird’s-eye view. But tonight I decided to once again take my chances up front, and I’m glad I did. The stage is definitely on the high side, but it’s only about five feet (instead of the — I don’t know — eight in my mind), and though I usually love venues where there is no barricade, the presence of a rail actually helped in this case because it gave folks in the front a slightly better viewing angle, if that makes any sense.

Of course it’s not perfect, and with Jeff and Co., there will always be monitors, but it’s hard not to contrast tonight’s setup with the one the previous night in Nijmegen. Would you rather have a lower stage but the band set up way back on it, or would you rather have a higher stage with the band much closer? I’d opt for the latter. In my mind, moving forward, I’ll think of Paradiso similarly to how I think of another iconic club venue that Wilco has played often over the years, The Fillmore in San Francisco.

Anyway, after Jeff indicated at the end of the Nijmegen show that he was aware some members of that audience might also be in Amsterdam, you knew there would be at least a few setlist changes. By count, there were six swapouts from Nijmegen — not as many as I know some veteran European fans would like, but still nearly a third of the 21-song, 1-hour, 48-minute set. And a couple of those changes were definite doozies, including Say You Miss Me as the back half of an A.M.-Being There two-fer (John’s composition It’s Just That Simple being the first part). It was just the third time that song has been played this year and one of just a handful of times over the past few years. I had missed the two previous performances of it in 2026, so that one was a treat for me.

And then there was the electric version of Art Of Almost, which just like at this year’s Solid Sound Festival, sort of came out of nowhere mid-set and stole the show. Within the relatively intimate confines of Paradiso, AOA reminded me and the other 1,500 or so members of the sold-out crowd how thunderous it can be in its original arrangement and proved to be an early climax for the evening. Even Jeff seemed pleased with the performance, smiling slyly as he told the audience, “We haven’t played that one in a little while. Not on this continent.” (For the record, the band played the acoustic arrangement of AOA on the first of two nights in Antwerp, Belgium, last year, but hadn’t done the electric version on this side of the pond since a handful of European festivals in the summer of 2017.)

Actually, now that I think of it, it had been a little while since Jeff and Co. had even played at Paradiso. If I’m not mistaken, this was Jeff’s first time back since before the pandemic; he has appeared much more frequently over the past decade, whether with Wilco, the Tweedy band or solo, in one of the rooms inside the Tivoli Vredenburg complex in Utrecht. “Good to see you again,” he said relatively early in the set. “It’s been a while.” (A woman in the balcony then shouted, “Jeff Tweedy!” To which Jeff paused, smiled and replied, “Guilty as charged.”)

Other amusing visits to Banter Corner included complimenting the crowd after the acoustic I’m Always In Love when Jeff said, “Thanks for singing along. You did pretty good. A lot of people don’t know when to come in on that (final ‘I’m always in love’ before the outro), myself included.” Prior to starting Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff once again lauded the audience on its collective singing during the preceding Jesus, etc., and deadpanned, “Don’t sing along with this (next) one. Just kidding. It really would help me, so I can just take a break.” During Jesus, etc., incidentally, another funny little moment happened when Nels did something that caused an odd sound. He looked up a bit sheepishly from his lap steel stool when Jeff gave him a quick look and quipped, “Settle down over there.”

One other noteworthy bit of crowd interaction came between Everyone Hides and Annihilation during one of Jeff’s innocuous check-ins. “How’s everybody doing?” Jeff asked, to which a certain Scotsman standing in the front row whom I know quite well responded, “How are you doing?” Jeff somehow was able to understand this fine gent through his brogue and seemed like he might go into a little soliloquy about the state of things when he said, “There’s a lot of shit going on, but we’re doing OK.” He continued, “I’m gonna answer questions honestly, not like those other fucking bands.” Who knows if he had anyone specific in mind, but ultimately Jeff simply concluded the little moment by saying how happy he was to be here and expressing gratitude on behalf of his bandmates to get to play for this audience.

Perhaps the only disappointment of this return engagement at Paradiso came in the encore when Jeff and Co. waved goodnight with about 12 minutes left before a presumed 11 p.m. curfew. After I Got You (At The End Of The Century), it seemed like we might get one more song — and indeed Spiders (Kidsmoke) was once again on the printed setlist as the final number — but plans were amended for the second straight show. Perhaps Jeff just wasn’t feeling it or there was some other reason we’ll never know, but it didn’t seem to be a time issue as it had been in Nijmegen. Instead, the crush of souls assembled inside the slightly stuffy, venerable rock club gradually spilled back out onto the lively streets of Amsterdam late on this Tuesday night certainly having been rocked — but not quite as thoroughly as they might otherwise have been.

Here was the complete Paradiso setlist, as played (Spiders (Kidsmoke) was listed as the final song of the show on the printed setlist, as mentioned, but got cut):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. Kamera

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. Everyone Hides

10. Annihilation

11. Hummingbird

12. It’s Just That Simple

13. Say You Miss Me

14. Impossible Germany

15. Art Of Almost

16. Jesus, etc.

17. Heavy Metal Drummer>

18. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

19. The Late Greats

20. California Stars

21. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

    

A good friend of mine once had a regular Monday gig playing music at a Greenwich Village bar and he would often say, “A Monday night in New York City is like a Saturday night anywhere else.” Finding myself in Nijmegen on a Monday night seeing Wilco perform for the first time ever there, I wondered if the audience in the ancient Dutch city could somehow ascend to a similarly elevated level of enthusiasm.

Welllll…let’s just say that Jeff didn’t make any comments about the crowd being better than expected (which usually comes in the form of something like “You’re a [insert early day of the week] audience, but it feels like you’re a [insert later day of the week] audience.”) Yet he did seem genuinely happy to be here, whether or not he could actually pronounce the name of the place, and he even did something I’ve never seen him do before. During the outro of Hummingbird, he came over to two very enthusiastic young guys at stage right and then proceeded to quickly jog down the line toward stage left giving high fives to the entire front row.

“You guys are so far away — I just wanted to put my hands on you,” Jeff explained afterward. Then he added, jokingly: “But (this gap between band and audience) is for your safety. We’re contagious. No, we’re not.”

If Jeff had really wanted to be cheeky, though, he would have put Too Far Apart on the setlist. How else to describe the layout for this show at the Concertgebouw De Vereeniging, a venue that apparently holds about 1,800 for non-classical concerts between a good-sized general admission standing floor, some seats behind that and a U-shaped balcony? On the plus side, there was no barricade and the stage was a nice height for those up front, maybe about four feet high. However, that was countered by the band being set up almost comically far back from the front row — at least 12 feet, by my estimation — for some reason. (If I had to guess, it must have had something to do with the sightlines for the people sitting in the back on the orchestra level.)

In any case, the physical disconnect between band and audience resulted in Jeff trying especially hard to forge a connection during the 1-hour, 50-minute set. Early on, he tried to get the pronunciation of Nijmegen right before telling the audience members he might just call them, “You guys.” Then Jeff added: “We’ve never been here before. We always love going somewhere new,” before looking around at his bandmates and asking, “We’ve never been here before, right guys? Just checking.” (At least Jeff didn’t make the mistake support act Hovvdy did by calling Nijmegen a “nice little town,” which drew an audible reaction — and not in a good way.)

Other amusing exchanges with the Nijmegans (Nijmegites? Nijmegians?) included a brief back-and-forth when Jeff said in part, “You guys are awesome.” In response, someone apparently yelled back, “I told you!” which left the frontman confused for a second before he replied, “Oh, that you guys would be awesome? I knew that.” As the set continued, Jeff told the audience, “We’ve got more. We’re only about halfway through. No, actually, we’re getting toward the back half.” When someone booed the notion of the show winding down, Jeff shot back in a sarcastic tone, “Sorry. We’re not here for fucking ever, man.” Another quip came when Jeff introduced the new song Losing Traction — which was performed for the first time outside of the U.S. — and asked, “Are there any Americans here? I don’t blame you for being quiet.”

After weeks of a pretty static setlist with the two-set “Evening With…” format, it was nice to see things jumbled up at least a little bit despite it being a shorter show overall. Sunken Treasure was an excellent surprise mid-set, not having been played since the first “regular” (i.e. non-Sky Blue Sky Festival) show of the year in Fort Wayne, Ind., while the full band broke out A Shot In The Arm for the first time in nearly a full calendar year — 25 August 2025, a.k.a. Jeff’s birthday, for what it’s worth.

There seemed to be a little confusion at the start of the encore, as guitar tech Jeff Tweedy initially brought out an electric guitar for actual Jeff Tweedy — that will never get old — before switching to an acoustic. That sometimes indicates an audible, but apparently not in this case since the encore went according to the planned setlist (minus The Late Greats and Spiders (Kidsmoke), which got cut). I found it kind of funny that Jeff and Co. thought they could actually get in a five-song encore, including Spiders, given the presumed 11 p.m. curfew they already exceeded by nearly 10 minutes. But one thing was for sure — that Wilco would send this crowd home with, Jeff said, “a little bit of rock ‘n’ roll because it never goes out of style.” And so despite it being a bit late, those who stuck it out got just that with I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and all of the Jeff screaming, Pat windmilling and Glenn cowbelling that goes along with it.

My only gripes? Well, the lack of Monday on Monday, of course. I wasn’t expecting it, but come on, give the people what they want. (There’s one more Monday show on this European run, in Rome on Aug. 31…hint hint.) And more importantly as it relates to this show, could we not get Kingpin, if only to hear Jeff try to change the lyric to “livin’ in…Nijmegen”? Total missed opportunity! I would have paid extra to hear Jeff try to pronounce that in the moment. Alas. Maybe next time. I bet a Saturday night show — and crowd — in Nijmegen would be epic…

Here was the complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, The Late Greats and Spiders (Kidsmoke) were also in the encore on the printed setlist, but weren’t played):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. new song-Losing Traction

9. Annihilation

10. Hummingbird

11. Sunken Treasure (acoustic arrangement; Jeff on acoustic, no harmonica)

12. War On War

13. Jesus, etc.

14. Impossible Germany

15. Hate It Here

16. Walken

17. Heavy Metal Drummer>

18. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

19. A Shot In The Arm

20. California Stars

21. I’m The Man Who Loves You

    

Standing at the rail at the Under Himlen stage before Wilco’s set at the Syd For Solen (South Of The Sun) festival, I listened to a few folks nearby talking about their excitement for the set — sharing how many times they had seen the band, discussing songs they hoped to hear and that sort of thing — and I felt both a bit envious of their enthusiasm and some pity they wouldn’t get to experience much of what really makes the group great.

For 10 songs over the course of 61 minutes, from 5:45 to 6:46 p.m., Jeff and Co. did their thing. It was relatively well received, I guess. But did they really make any new fans? I’m not sure they did. And as day turned into night and subsequent acts like Turnstile, Iceage and Lorde took their turns in the spotlight, it sort of felt like Wilco had barely even been there at all.

What was the point of this festival appearance (and the one in Oslo, Norway, the day before and the one in Gothenburg, Sweden, the day after)? Of course I understand that the economics of touring bands in this day and age are such that a few festival bookings cover most of the costs for the rest of a tour and that can be especially great for artists who probably thrive in a festival setting.

Lorde, for instance, had production design befitting a headlining festival performance, from a light show to visual effects to backup dancers. Iceage, which certainly benefitted from being hometown heroes in Copenhagen, saw a mosh pit gradually develop in front of the stage that got bigger and bigger as their set went on. Turnstile also performed to a large mosh pit and I’m pretty sure its lead singer crowd surfed on more than one occasion. Even Paris Paloma, who preceded Wilco on the Under Himlen stage, descended the metal staircase that led from the stage down into the pit between the stage and the barricade and partially sang her final song while interacting with fans in the front row.

Now I don’t expect any of those sorts of things from Wilco — the closest thing to a spectacle that happened during its Syd For Solen set was a smoke machine that got a little too cranked up at one point, about which Jeff quipped, “It might’ve looked like a lot of things caught on fire just now. We’re OK,” — and that’s why Jeff and Co. just aren’t a festival band. Never really have been, though they have certainly played plenty of festivals over the years. And while they can certainly rock out and appeal to a more primal element, I would say one of their biggest strengths is versatility and so they are also much better experienced over the course of a longer set, in a more intimate setting and by an audience that appreciates their collective musicianship and Jeff’s lyrics. Basically the opposite of a European festival, no offense.

But again, I completely understand why Wilco continues on that festival circuit. It’s just something that makes the whole touring ecosystem work, I suppose, and so as fans, we simply have to endure it — or not, and just attend the “regular” shows. I realize it’s a privilege to have that choice, though, and so as I mentioned earlier, I do sometimes empathize with those people who’ve only really gotten to see Wilco in a more impersonal, limited setting.

Whether it was the setting or just the relatively low stakes of the set itself, Jeff didn’t have his best day from a vocal standpoint. He had a flub at the end of the first verse of Via Chicago when he tripped over the “Buried you alive in a fireworks display” line, though he didn’t let on as he sometimes does, so I don’t know how many people noticed. Later, during Spiders, he clearly sang the “This recent rash of kidsmoke/All these telescopic poems” couplet twice (instead of the correct “Fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke/From a microscopic home” the second time), but I’d bet I was the only person who picked up on that one. At least Jeff ingratiated himself to the Danish crowd by uttering tusind tak (meaning “a thousand thanks”) a couple of times. “That’s all I know how to say, but I mean it,” Jeff said.

Without much else in the way of Banter Corner, one was left to ponder things like why Glenn’s drumhead continued to change. One featuring the cat from the Mermaid Avenue Vol. II album cover had been in use at the end of the U.S. tour last month, but a photo I saw from the festival in Norway that kicked off this European run showed a Cruel Country drumhead. One day later at Syd For Solen, a different one that resembled artwork from the Ode To Joy era adorned Glenn’s kit. Who knows what that means, if anything?

Ah, so many things to ponder on such a lovely Danish afternoon. Am I being too harsh about festivals? Can’t we just enjoy being outside with a bunch of other people on a perfect day listening to a great band while clapping and singing ba-ba-ba-ba-bas together? What’s wrong with that? Maybe the sun will shine today and maybe I won’t feel so afraid, as a certain songwriter once suggested. (Oh hey, it would’ve been nice to hear that one. I guess there wasn’t enough time. Bah, festivals. Here we go again…)

Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Wilco’s set at Syd For Solen (there were no changes/omissions from the printed list):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. Annihilation

3. Hummingbird

4. If I Ever Was A Child

5. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

6. Via Chicago

7. Jesus, etc.

8. Impossible Germany

9. I’m The Man Who Loves You

10. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

    

After five straight weeks of touring leading up to and following its own Solid Sound Festival, which came on the heels of another couple of weeks on the road in April and May — both of those stretches consisting almost exclusively of longer two-set “Evening With…” performances — Wilco must have arrived in Columbus for its final scheduled American date of 2026 feeling a little bit punchy.

How else to explain the fact that this show will almost certainly be remembered for one thing: Jimothy. Yes, that raccoon in Seattle with a presumed spinal deformity that became an Internet sensation earlier this month after a local resident posted an Instagram video of the creature and gave him his now-famous moniker. (Incidentally, I do not recommend doing too much Jimothy viewing on social media lest your feeds get infested by the algorithm for the seemingly endless array of Jimothy products apparently now being hawked online. An unfortunate personal lesson learned.)

Anyway, when Mikael was apparently having a computer malfunction before Walken, Jeff invoked Jimothy in an attempt to fill time and almost created a little viral moment of his own — at Glenn’s expense. When an impatient audience member yelled out, “Let’s go!” after a short delay, Jeff shot back, “Hold your horses, buddy. We’ve got to get our shit together. We don’t have any tracks or nothing like that going on up here. We have a computer, but it’s from 1999. This has never happened before…”

As the delay continued, Jeff eventually turned to his usual punching bag. “Let’s see…what else has Glenn said lately?” Jeff mused aloud. “Oh, you ever seen Jimothy? He thinks that Jimothy should be put down. That’s what he said.” Glenn immediately denied the allegation, reacting with mock horror at the idea, and Jeff quickly relented even as the technical issue was fixed and the rest of his bandmates finally tried to start the song. “Wait, hold on for a second,” Jeff said, interrupting. “I want to clarify something. Glenn didn’t say that. … It was a joke. Also, Jimothy is not in pain and his family takes care of him. They don’t even climb trees because they stay on the ground and take care of him. If you care about Jimothy, I care about Jimothy too. I love him so much. Thank you. And I want to say whoever named him Jimothy nailed the fuck out of that. This is dedicated to Jimothy...”

You can watch that whole scene for yourself here, but it wasn’t the first time that Jeff had thrown Glenn under the proverbial bus during the show. Another “incident” occurred earlier in the second set when Jeff took time to give a shoutout to the Wilcrew as he usually does during the last show of a long tour (though he joked that he would “learn all their names next year.”) After a pretty funny quip about his namesake guitar tech — “We looked all over so we could have techs with our own names, but (Jeff Tweedy’s) the only one we’ve found so far,” — Jeff called for a bigger round of applause for the Wilcrew and couldn’t resist a little dig at Glenn as well. “Did you hear that somebody said (screw) Glenn?” Jeff said, teasingly. Glenn responded, off mike, “What did I do?” And Jeff jokingly claimed something to the effect that Glenn didn’t think the crew deserved the extra applause, which caused Glenn to actually get out from behind his kit and pretend to storm off, saying he refused to continue playing until Jeff apologized.

Perhaps Jeff just wanted to get a little revenge on Glenn for giving him a hard time at the end of Set 1 when the frontman rambled on a bit while introducing Falling Apart (Right Now). He dedicated the song to “all the households who take turns falling apart.” Then Jeff told the audience, “You look like people that have a lot of problems … in a good way. If you don’t have problems, you’re not my friend. Uhh, we got through this set pretty well up to now.” At that point, Glenn visibly urged Jeff to start the song by giving him that “Enough, already” look.

It was just that kind of show, I guess. Like I said, punchy. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that after dealing with a number of weather challenges at amphitheater shows in the week leading up to this gig, Jeff and Co. knew that wouldn’t be an issue at the nearly sold-out 2,695-seat Palace Theatre. The nearly century-old former movie palace was renovated in 2018, and this marked the second time Wilco has played there since that facelift. “We’re having a great time,” Jeff said midway through the first set. “We’ve been playing a lot of shows outdoors (lately) and we were running out of luck.”

Not that the setlist was dramatically different than any of the other shows on this run, but we did finally get that electric version of Company In My Back that had been on the printed list the previous night in Lexington, Ky., before it was one of the songs cut because of the storm that interrupted that show. Ultimately it wasn’t that drastic a rearrangement of the A Ghost Is Born favorite, but Jeff played electric guitar on it and there was sort of a Neil Young-esque introduction that was new. That version of Company kicked off Set 2 — Jeff called it “a little bit of a palate cleanser to the second course,” — which also featured You Are My Face (only played a handful of times this year) as well as the new song Losing Traction.

As I suggested earlier, this show will probably go down in the memory books as The One With Jimothy — Jimothy Jubilee, anyone? — but it ought to also be remembered as one final hurrah in the busy spring/summer of 2026 when Jeff and Co. pushed themselves as hard as they have in a good while. Even though it would only be a few short weeks before they commenced another run in Europe, you got the sense that everyone involved in the touring wing of Wilcoworld would particularly enjoy this break. “This is our last show in the U.S. for a while,” Jeff told the Columbus crowd early on in the evening. “We’re happy to be here, happy to survive the last seven weeks. Everything’s OK. Everything’s perfect.”

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn’t see a printed setlist for Set 1, but in the encore Spiders (Kidsmoke) was listed as the planned final song of the show but ended up being swapped out for Outtasite (Outta Mind)):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. Shouldn’t Be Ashamed

12. Love Is Everywhere (Beware)

13. War On War

14. Via Chicago>

15. California Stars

16. Falling Apart (Right Now)

Set 2

17. Company In My Back (electric arrangement)

18. The Late Greats

19. Annihilation

20. You Are My Face

21. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

22. Kamera

23. Either Way

24. Impossible Germany

25. new song-Losing Traction

26. Jesus, etc.

27. Hate It Here

28. Walken

29. Kingpin

30. Heavy Metal Drummer>

31. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore

32. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

33. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

Once again not to make this too much about myself, but this show got me thinking about how many Wilco fans I actually know in Kentucky. Quite a few, as it turns out. More than in a lot of places. It seemed like they were all in attendance at a 10^th anniversary celebration for beloved Lexington venue The Burl. And thanks to some typically turbulent mid-summer weather, it turned into an evening that won’t soon be forgotten.

This was, somewhat amazingly, just the fourth time Wilco had ever performed in Lexington and the first in nearly a quarter century (though Jeff did play solo here back in 2022). One of those aforementioned local friends pointed out to me that this show at the Burl came exactly 31 years to the day of the band’s first show in Lexington, opening for The Jayhawks at the Kentucky Theatre. If Jeff was aware of that pretty remarkable coincidence, though, he didn’t mention it.

Instead, he did what you knew he would probably do at some point — namely, tease Glenn about his Lexington roots. After the drummer put a little extra oomph into his drum roll at the end of Forget The Flowers, Jeff joked that Glenn was “showing off for his drum professor. … I’m serious. This man has a degree in percussion from the University Of Kentucky. Not just anybody can play these country songs. You have to have a highly educated person.” Jeff continued, goading Glenn to “show them the most impressive thing you learned.” Glenn obliged with a rim shot, to which Jeff replied: “Thanks for that, Kentucky.” Later, after Glenn’s stick twirl in Heavy Metal Drummer, Jeff pointed out, “He learned that here.” (Ostensibly Glenn — who graduated from college in 1994 — might even have attended that first Wilco show in Lexington, but I think he and/or Jeff would have mentioned that at some point if it was true.)

No matter how far back their Wilco fandom went, though, just about everyone in attendance seemed thrilled that the band was finally back in town. The only question was whether the weather would throw a proverbial wrench into the proceedings. Early on, it looked like Mother Nature would cooperate. Jeff expressed as much after six songs, saying that in spite of the muggy conditions, “I think it’s gonna be a good night. I think the weather’s gonna hold out. You all look good. Sweat makes everyone glisten.” You knew it was pretty steamy when instead of leading the usual clapping bit during Hummingbird, Jeff stripped off his brownish plaid button-down shirt (revealing a plain white pocket tee underneath), briefly whipped it around and eventually threw it offstage over Mike’s station.

Just a couple of songs later, though, those of us up front knew something might be up when we saw guitar tech Jeff Tweedy bring out a note during Via Chicago for actual Jeff Tweedy to read. After Via, sure enough there came an announcement over the PA system that the show would have to be paused and the venue cleared because of storms in the area with lightning. This came at about 9 p.m., and for the next hour or so, there was plenty of uncertainty about whether the show would resume.

In my years of going to Wilco shows, I can’t remember another situation like it. There have been shows cut short due to storms and shows that never got started, but I’m not sure we’ve ever had one paused halfway through. It made for a confusing situation for members of the sold-out audience, many of whom wanted to reclaim the spots they had before the delay, but who also were told they had to leave the stage area and seek shelter. What ended up happening was people either grudgingly retreated to one of the nearby buildings in the Burl complex or to their vehicles, but before too long, many folks began to creep back toward the stage awaiting word that the show would indeed go on.

Finally, a little after 10 p.m., organizers sent confirmation through social media that the show would resume. Thanks to the hard work of the Wilcrew — in retrospect, perhaps it was lucky that the scaled-down setting of the Burl’s porch stage prevented Wilco from having its full lighting rig, among other production concerns — the band started playing again by 10:17. It opened Set 2 with planned Set 1 closer California Stars (which Jeff somewhat awkwardly changed at least once to “Kentucky Stars”), and proceeded to do an abbreviated version of the usual second set. “Thanks for sticking around,” Jeff told the fraction of the sold-out crowd of 1,500 that stuck out the delay. “We’re gonna give you as much of a show as the law allows.”

Apparently there is an 11 p.m. curfew for outdoor shows at the venue, but Jeff and Co. ensured they would blow past that by dispensing with the usual encore routine and launching right into an intense Spiders (Kidsmoke) after the usual Set 2 closer of I’m The Man Who Loves You. Urging the relatively small but enthusiastic crowd to participate in the ba-ba-ba-bas and clapping at the end of Spiders, Jeff said, “We’re already 10 minutes over curfew, let’s go. C’mon Kentucky.” (Earlier he had also quipped, “Fuck the law,” though he quickly relented and admitted that “there are some laws you should obey.”) Ultimately, though, Jeff concluded, “I like rock ‘n’ roll. I think rock ‘n’ roll is pretty good for you.” And with that, Wilco sent its slightly damp audience home, happily, with the classic two-fer of I Got You (At The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind).

It was more show than we probably had a right to expect, given the conditions, though ultimately the delay did mean about nine or 10 fewer songs than a typical “Evening With…” performance. Definitely a weird night — and I didn’t even mention the guy who was apparently giving Jeff the finger during Kingpin, causing him to say in part, “I don’t know why you’re flipping me off, sir. I have no idea. That’s not what this song’s about. This song’s about love. … I don’t wanna wake up in the morning thinking about the people I hate. I just want to try and give more of my love away. That’s why we’re here,” — but I sense that the 122 minutes of music that Jeff and Co. managed to deliver will be long savored by the community that has developed around The Burl over the past decade. It wasn’t a perfect birthday party, to be sure, but no doubt will be remembered as a pretty legendary one.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (numerous songs were cut from the printed setlist, including Falling Apart (Right Now) and Christ For President in Set 1 and a total of seven songs in Set 2, including a new(?) electric version of Company In My Back as well as the new song Losing Traction):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. War On War

12. Via Chicago

Set 2

13. California Stars

14. Impossible Germany

15. Jesus, etc.

16. Walken

17. Kingpin

18. Heavy Metal Drummer

19. I’m The Man Who Loves You

20. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

21. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

22. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

When you, O Faithful Reader, hear that Wilco is playing a rare show in West Virginia, does the now-ubiquitous song Take Me Home, Country Roads immediately go through your head? For me, as I headed to Wheeling specifically, it was the clip-clop of a fake horse in this live version of Biily Joel’s fictitious The Ballad Of Billy The Kid (“From a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia/Rode a boy with a six-gun in his hand…”)

Of course we really should all have been thinking of something by West Virginia’s most notable musical product — Slab Fork native Bill Withers — but it turns out there was another artist and song we needed to consider. At least if this one guy in the front row at the Capitol Theatre who was distracting Jeff throughout the first set of tonight’s show had his way. I don’t know exactly what Daniel Johnston song (or songs) this person wanted to hear, if there was indeed a specific request, but you could see Jeff try to get him to chill out off mike a couple different times before he finally had to put him in his place.

“We’re not gonna play any of those songs,” Jeff said somewhat sternly to the man, who was apparently holding up a virtual sign or something on his phone right in front of Jeff. “I know Daniel Johnston grew up around here. He’s one of my favorite artists of all time. I was part of his (posthumous) induction into the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame, and I was very honored to be part of that. Thanks for reminding me.” Then Jeff continued, “We’ll think about (playing a Johnston song in the second set), but we’ll probably stick with the songs we’ve got planned. All right, back to our regularly scheduled program.”

It was a slightly awkward moment in a lively show that had a few of them. For yet another place that Wilco had never played before — joining Fort Wayne, Ind., Evansville, Ind., and Lubbock, Texas, on the list of places where the band made its debut this year — the relatively smallish crowd in Wheeling certainly wasn’t shy about interacting with Jeff. The show didn’t seem particularly well attended, given that only about the first four rows in the balcony were filled and there were definitely more than a few open seats on the orchestra level as well; the Capitol is apparently the largest theater in the state with a capacity of 2,400. (This was only the third headlining show ever by Wilco in the state, following a 2006 performance in Morgantown and a 2016 gig in Charleston, though the band has also performed several times on the famed Mountain Stage radio program, based in West Virginia.)

At one point in the second set when Jeff heard some unintelligible shouting from the audience, he asked half-jokingly, “What happened? I thought we were having a good time,” and added something to the effect of, “Well, look after grandpa, all right?” I guess maybe, on some level, Jeff understood this crowd better than most. Perhaps because Wheeling is only about an hour’s drive away from Pittsburgh, Pa. — a city Jeff has expressed an affinity for in the past — and also sits right at the border of two other states, it felt a little bit like home. “I’m from a place similar to this, except we didn’t have hills,” Jeff said after he and his bandmates played the new song Losing Traction. “Same latitude, or longitude…whatever it is. Anyway, good to see you all. You look familiar to me.”

Earlier in the show, in Set 1, Jeff said, “I don’t think we’ve ever been here before. That’s pretty rare for us after 100 years of touring.” When someone in the crowd shouted back, “Everybody sits!” Jeff replied he could “see with my own eyes that’s a bald-faced lie. I’m not gonna participate in those (sitting versus standing) shenanigans. We’ll figure it out by the end of the night.” A few songs later, during I’m Always In Love, Jeff teasingly complimented one specific audience member who unabashedly (and prematurely) sang out the “I’m always in love…” part at the end of the song. “A lot of people try to sing that little break,” Jeff observed afterward. “We’ve done that song a lot and it’s never been just one guy. Thank you, sir. Well done. He was just like, ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna do it.’”

Another visit to Banter Corner concerned Nels’ Impossible Germany solo, about which Jeff said he had recently been sent something by his kids that asserted that the solo was composed and played the same way every time. “That’s utter bullshit,” Jeff said. “I’ve never heard him play it the same way ever. Maybe somebody needs to have their hearing checked.” (Though I know some folks who regularly attend Wilco shows might secretly be sick of IG, that improvisational aspect of how Nels plays his solo has always been one of the song’s saving graces, IMHO, so I’m glad that Jeff pointed that out.)

As the show headed toward its inevitable conclusion, Jeff had his mind on the present when he changed the lyric in Kingpin to “livin’ in…Wheeling” and gave an especially heartfelt “How can I?” spiel after Pat and Nels’ guitar duel. “A lot of time we’re afraid to give our love away,” Jeff told the crowd. “We think we need to know what we’re doing. If you have love to give, if you have the capacity to love, you should absolutely give it away. I think it’s good for you. It’s better than trying to figure out who doesn’t deserve your love … so let’s stop thinking so hard and love harder.”

And in the encore, Jeff was definitely catering to the locals in attendance when he responded to the hearty applause given to him and his bandmates by invoking a popular tourist slogan to say thank you. “Is this ‘That Wheeling Feeling?’” Jeff asked. “Is that what you’re giving us? I’m into it. I’m digging the Wheeling Feeling.” By any tune, it was a positive way to close out the show — and, who knows, maybe it means the band will be back in these parts again sooner than later.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (Outtasite (Outta Mind) was on the printed setlist in the encore, but wasn’t played):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. Shouldn’t Be Ashamed

12. War On War

13. Via Chicago

14. Falling Apart (Right Now)

15. California Stars

Set 2

16. Box Full Of Letters

17. Annihilation

18. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

19. One Wing

20. Either Way

21. Whole Love

22. Impossible Germany

23. Jesus, etc.

24. new song-Losing Traction

25. Hate It Here

26. Walken

27. Kingpin

28. Heavy Metal Drummer>

29. I’m The Man Who Loves You

    ---

Encore

30. The Late Greats

31. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

    

Not to be too egotistical or anything, but when you do what I do with these little recaps and then you’re at a show and you hear the words “We don’t usually comment on what people write about us, but…” come out of Jeff’s mouth, well, a few thoughts immediately start going through your head. Like, am I about to get called out here? If so, what could I possibly have written that would’ve prompted this? And if it happens, what would be an appropriate reaction?

Fortunately, it would all be a moot point seconds later when Jeff revealed the true source of his agitation — namely, a now-infamous Reddit post about Wilco’s performance nine days earlier at Willie Nelson’s 4^th of July Picnic in Austin, Tex., and specifically the part that likened Glenn to Animal from The Muppets and asserted in part that he “just starts going crazy out of nowhere on the drums” during Via Chicago. Continued the Redditor, “Is that Wilco‘s whole shtick? That the drummer is just crazy and you never know what’s gonna come out?” If we didn’t get enough of an idea, Glenn himself briefly demonstrated it while simultaneously cracking up. “Don’t be surprised if that happens,” Jeff quipped. “We’re gonna draw straws at every show and one of us just goes nuts at some point. You’re never gonna see two shows (that are) alike. Anyway, shout out to that Reddit person for being, uh, tuned in.”

I don’t know if Jeff had previously addressed this at any of the band’s other shows since that Austin set, but maybe it had just been brought to his attention today because I think that’s when Team Tweedy shared the “review” on Wilco’s social media. In any case, this all took place on a day when Jeff and Co. once again battled the elements following the postponement — and eventual cancellation — of their show in Charleston, S.C., a few days earlier.

Tonight, a little further north along the Carolina coast, the band was fortunate to get a full show in when a storm with lightning descended on the Greenfield Lake Amphitheater just around the time when gates had been scheduled to open. For a variety of reasons, including the inclement weather, I was going to have a difficult time making it to the venue on time so the delayed opening was a lucky reprieve for me. But I felt badly for the Wilcrew, who basically had to set up the whole stage again as people were entering. Somehow, though, the start of the show was only delayed by about half an hour.

Naturally most of Jeff’s visits to Banter Corner early on related to the weather conditions, like when he complimented the damp audience by saying in part, “You all look good, like you just got out of the shower.” A bit later, he checked in by asking, “Everybody having a good time? Even if it rained again, I think it would still be a good time. We’d gladly play if we didn’t have a roof, but it’s nice that we have one.” (The band had a roof over its head, but the audience didn’t, for what it’s worth. Anyway, a persistent drizzle throughout the show ensured that everyone was a bit moist — though I’m pretty sure Jeff was the only band member to change shirts between sets, interestingly enough.)

A brief word on the venue, which is a relatively intimate neighborhood amphitheater/bandshell type of place set in a wooded area next to its namesake, Greenfield Lake. With a capacity of 1,400, I can see why this show sold out so quickly. It was almost certainly a better venue in which to see Wilco than the much-larger shed across town, where the band played just over a year earlier (even though both places are apparently operated by Live Nation...ugh.)

Once the show got going, Set 1 pretty much went by the book aside from Jeff’s Reddit “rant” after Via Chicago followed by California Stars, during which Jeff pandered to the crowd by changing the lyrics to “Carolina Stars.” By the time the second set rolled around (and the relative darkness set in — which caused a weird moment when it seemed like there was a power failure or something and there was just one bright light focused on Jeff, who pondered aloud whether he was about to be hit by a car), the mood seemed to shift to a slightly rowdier one that made for an intense conclusion to the show.

We got the new song Losing Traction swapped in for Whole Love, which had been on the printed setlist. Then Jeff gave one of the more impassioned Kingpin spiels I’d heard him give since that became a thing, telling the audience in part that “it’s hard to give your love away nowadays. Some of the people who need love the most are the people I’m angriest at. … I’m not talking about sexual love; I’m talking about decency. Kindness, let’s do it.” Afterward Jeff admitted that the spiel probably had been a little “preachy, but that’s OK.”

When Jeff and his bandmates came out for the encore, they applauded those who had stuck around. Jeff said he usually made a joke about likening good Monday audiences to at least a Tuesday night crowd, but of this Monday assemblage, he said, “You guy are full-on Saturday night. Maybe we should hose every audience down before a show.” It wasn’t quite enough to get, say, Monday played in celebration, but the band did audible to a frenetic Spiders (Kidsmoke) to close out the proceedings. And I, for one, could only imagine what that Redditor would have said about that…

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn’t get a look at a printed setlist for Set 1, but as mentioned in Set 2, Losing Traction replaced the planned Whole Love mid-set, while Spiders (Kidsmoke) replaced Outtasite (Outta Mind) in the encore):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. War On War

12. Via Chicago

13. California Stars

14. Falling Apart (Right Now)

Set 2

15. Box Full Of Letters

16. Annihilation

17. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

18. Kamera

19. Either Way

20. Impossible Germany

21. Jesus, etc.

22. new song-Losing Traction

23. Hate It Here

24. Walken

25. Kingpin

26. Heavy Metal Drummer

27. I’m The Man Who Loves You

    ---

Encore

28. The Late Greats

29. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)

30. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

    

Playing in front of a huge American flag that is usually reserved for Willie Nelson during the Outlaw Music Festival but which served as the backdrop for the entire show at Nelson’s annual 4^th of July Picnic, Wilco had a chance to make a statement that I personally would’ve been curious to witness. It was extremely doubtful, if only because the song hasn’t been in regular rotation for a while, but I wonder if it ever crossed Jeff’s mind to open with Ashes Of American Flags.

Would that have been a step too far, not only in the obvious sense but also as something that might be perceived as being disrespectful to the nonagenarian country music legend at one of his signature events? I guess it’s a moot point, because it didn’t happen — and probably would’ve been too spot-on to ever realistically happen — but one can imagine how cool that would have been.

Given all that, would it have been too much to ask for a set-closing cover of the Grateful Dead’s U.S. Blues, as one regular reader of these recaps suggested to me? I think that one would have been more within the realm of possibility since Jeff and Co. closed with it at all three Outlaw fest dates they did last August (with Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael sitting in) as well as most of their shows for the remainder of the month, which closed out their 2025 touring schedule. But that was not to be either, with the only consolation prize being Raphael making a cameo on California Stars.

Part of that was almost certainly due to the even further abbreviated set time for Wilco, which saw its share of the show cut to just 45 minutes from an hour the previous night in Irving, Tex. With this Outlaw tour stop also doubling as Willie’s annual 4^th of July Picnic, a couple other acts were added to fill out the lineup — Billy Strings and Rodney Crowell — so that meant every act’s schedule was further condensed. (Strings took over the de facto No. 2 slot on the bill, playing just before Nelson, and accordingly got a full hour.) Of course Jeff and Co. also chose to include three of their jammiest tunes — Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, Impossible Germany and Kingpin — which meant that there were even less songs played. Jesus, etc., and Walken were both on the printed setlist, for example, but were both cut, which also made this the second straight show without a single song from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Jeff, as you might expect, had almost zero time (or inclination) to visit Banter Corner, except for a couple quick thank yous and a Happy 4^th of July as he and his bandmates walked off stage. He did change the lyric in Kingpin, naturally, to “livin’ in…Austin” and gave his usual spiel at the end of that song about how you don’t need to know what to do to “give your fucking love away. Everybody needs love.” But otherwise, it was — to paraphrase a term from the standup comedy world — a tight 45.

Strings had already been lined up for this year’s Picnic, but even with the addition of the buzzy bluegrass wunderkind, the event apparently threatened to fall victim to the dreaded “blue dot fever.” Some of that might be attributed to the venue, which is an uncovered amphitheater that is part of the Circuit Of The Americas auto-racing complex on the outskirts of Austin and you can understand why people might not be so eager to sit out there all day in the sweltering Texas heat without much shade. Or maybe because, like its namesake, the Picnic is an event that is always there year-in and year-out, so folks don’t commit to attending until late in the game. Fortunately, the venue — which apparently can accommodate up to 14,000 people, with 5,240 permanent reserved seats — seemed to be reasonably full, if not exactly sold out.

As for Wilco’s participation in the festivities apart from its own performance, most of the band members actually set foot on stage for the first time when they joined the large group of fellow artists invited out by Crow during her set preceding Wilco’s for a new song that is apparently called Freedom Bus. They didn’t seem to do a whole lot except stand in the back and shake a few shakers, but it was still cool to see them join Crow and her band relatively early in the show.

By the time both Wilco and Strings had played and a fireworks display took place, it was well past midnight by the time Nelson closed out the Picnic with his usual I’ll Fly Away sendoff. Among the Wilcos, I only spotted Glenn and Mikael up there at the end (although a couple of the other guys could have been somewhere in the back). Apparently the Texas Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, James Talarico, was also up there, and Mikael later posted a photo of he and the boyish Talarico on social media.

At any rate, it was a long day — and night — of music and celebrations, but certainly enjoyable enough in spite of the sun and heat. I’m glad I made it out there, and made it to the end, but in retrospect I’m not sure I need to do it again anytime soon. For those who’ve made it to this point, though, one other “good” thing that came out of this show was a now-legendary review of Wilco’s performance that I will address in the next post. Cliffhanger!

Here was the complete setlist for Wilco, as played (both Jesus, etc., and Walken were listed on the printed setlist between Impossible Germany and Kingpin but neither were played):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. Hummingbird

3. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

4. Via Chicago

5. California Stars (with Mickey Raphael on harmonica)

6. Impossible Germany

7. Kingpin

   

Like they did the previous summer, Jeff and Co. signed on to perform at three dates of the traveling Outlaw Music Festival headlined by Willie Nelson and Family. While those 2025 shows featuring Wilco took place in the Northeast, this year’s engagements would all take place in Texas and, in fact, kick off the entire 12-date run, beginning with tonight’s opener in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

Wilco, of course, is no stranger to The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory, née Irving Music Factory, a pretty soulless 4,000-seat indoor theater operated by Live Nation that becomes an outdoor(ish) amphitheater when seven huge doors open up at the back to expose a grass lawn and double the capacity to 8,000. The band has headlined three indoor shows at the venue since 2017, and somehow I’ve attended all three. But for as stale as the atmosphere can be indoors, the opening of the doors helped to a certain extent, at least allowing some natural light and fresh air in (though also some of the scorching Texas heat).

With Bob Dylan not participating in Outlaw this year, Wilco was actually second to Nelson on the bill of this particular show and got a one-hour set time (as did Sheryl Crow, who preceded Jeff and Co.) Obviously an hour isn’t very much when Wilco has been playing nearly three-hour shows on its “Evening With…” tour, but to its credit, the band played a pretty interesting festival setlist right from the outset.

Opening with Christ For President certainly was a bit of a cheeky move with an audience that skewed older and probably contained more than few MAGA types. Another daring decision, perhaps, was to completely skip Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in a festival setting. How many bands would totally skip their most popular album when faced with a crowd of mostly casual or non-fans? And then there was the choice to play a new song — Losing Traction — during an abbreviated set. Obviously this is taking things in a vacuum, but I wonder what some of the folks who aren’t as familiar with Wilco made of the lyric “I was only depressed when I still gave a fuck” from Losing Traction.

Contrast all of that with Crow, for example, who played just about all of her biggest hits, though to her credit she also played a new song that addressed our current political climate. (Saying she mostly played the hits is not meant as a criticism, by the way, just an observation).

As you might imagine in a one-hour set, Jeff’s visits to Banter Corner were pretty limited. He saved most of his proselytizing for the end of Kingpin, as he has been doing recently. “How can I give my love to you when I don’t know what to do?” Jeff spoke-sang and then attempted to answer his own query. “That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a long time, and I’m gonna tell you the answer real quick,” he said. “You don’t have to know what the fuck you’re doing to give your love away. You just give it away. Give it away. … Be kind, it’s not hard.”

With that sentiment, and after an entertaining guitar duel by Pat and Nels which I must admit was quite enjoyable to hear through the venue’s powerful PA system, Wilco made way for the headlining act in Nelson, who was flanked by sons Lukas and Micah as well as his regular band, including harmonica player Mickey Raphael.

But it wouldn’t be the last time Jeff and Co. would be seen on stage for the evening. As they did last year at the Outlaw shows they did, they (well, most of them) came back to help with Willie’s usual finale medley of Will The Circle Be Unbroken and I’ll Fly Away. It’s a longstanding tradition for friends and family to join the 93-year-old legend at the end of a festival set for a big ensemble singalong.

Last year, though, I guess Wilco was maybe the only other band on the bill who could or would come back out or who weren’t already playing with Nelson — Dylan and Lucinda Williams were the other main acts on the Outlaw shows Wilco played last year — so it was a little jarring (in a good way) to see so many other artists out there at the end this time around, including Crow, Margo Price, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Lily Meola and members of their bands. But hey, that’s the fun of these things, isn’t it? As a certain cannabis-loving, bandanna-sporting nonagenarian troubadour once wrote many moons ago, “The life I love is making music with my friends.”

Here was the complete setlist for Wilco, as played (didn’t see a printed setlist, so can’t say if there were any changes/omissions):

1. Christ For President

2. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

3. Handshake Drugs

4. If I Ever Was A Child

5. Cruel Country

6. Forget The Flowers

7. Impossible Germany

8. new song-Losing Traction

9. California Stars

10. Walken

11. Kingpin

I don’t know how many folks at Cain’s Ballroom tonight also attended this year’s Solid Sound Festival — though I did see at least one person sporting a Solid Sound-related T-shirt in line before the show — but surely it couldn’t be a coincidence that Wilco’s first show after the festival, where the band performed a full set of songs from the Mermaid Avenue project with Billy Bragg for the first time, took place just a short walk from the Woody Guthrie Center.

Surely there would be an added emphasis on Mermaid material here of all places, where Guthrie’s legacy is so preserved and celebrated. Right? Right? Well, yes and no…

With Jeff and Co. returning to the two-set “Evening With…” format for a few more weeks of touring post-Solid Sound, they also largely returned to the setlist they had been playing for the several weeks of shows leading up to their festival. In fact, Set 1 was nearly identical to the one they played in nearby Oklahoma City less than two months earlier — in the same order, even — with a couple of minor differences. For example, there was one additional song in Set 1 in OKC (the opener, Wishful Thinking), while You And I wasn’t played in Tulsa and California Stars and Falling Apart (Right Now) were flip-flopped to close out the set.

Instead of You And I, we got a pretty rousing Christ For President near the end of the first set at Cain’s. Jeff briefly mentioned the Mermaid set at Solid Sound beforehand, but that would be the only nod to Guthrie during the show other than the subsequent California Stars, which is almost always played anyway during these “Evening With…” performances.

Fortunately, Set 2 (and the encore) featured a few more surprises. Perhaps the biggest was Sonny Feeling, which Jeff introduced as usual as “kind of a deep cut.” I guess the band must have enjoyed playing it at Solid Sound enough to keep it in the set for at least one more show. A bit later came two songs that aren’t nearly as rare, Whole Love and Hate It Here, but still don’t get played every night. And then in the encore — coincidentally, the same thing happened at the Oklahoma City show in May — Jeff seemed to take someone’s request for Candyfloss (saying “this is for you, wherever you are…”) and swapped that Summerteeth rarity in for The Late Greats. I’m pretty sure I saw the crew initially bring out guitars for The Late Greats, only to have to scramble slightly at Jeff’s audible. Subsequently I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind) sent a majority of folks in the sold-out crowd of 1,800 home from the old dance hall with the requisite hops in their steps.

This was, by my count, Wilco’s eighth show at Cain’s since their first appearance in 2005, in addition to a solo gig by Jeff and two other performances by different iterations of the Tweedy band. So clearly Jeff doesn’t “hate it here,” as he remarked before the song of the same name. But having been to the venue so many times, I’m not sure how he keeps the shows from blurring together. Tonight he referenced someone constantly yelling something “the last time we were here,” which would have been the second night of a two-night stand in December 2024 at the start of this “Evening With…” format. I had to go look up my own recap of that show and, indeed, there was a bit of an incident with some guy repeatedly yelling a song request and eventually being removed by security for a time. You gotta hand it to Jeff, or more accurately Jeff’s memory, if that’s what he was referring to.

Elsewhere on Banter Corner, Jeff once again joked about Glenn’s ever-lengthening drum roll at the end of Forget The Flowers, telling the audience, “You know, he adds a roll for every year we’ve been a band.” Right after that, he spotted a young fan who must have been holding a sign or something indicating it was his first show. “Well, fantastic,” Jeff quipped. “We’ll try hard.” Near the end of the first set, Jeff complimented someone wearing a T-shirt from the legendary St. Louis record store Vintage Vinyl. He said he once worked at “the lesser of the two” Vintage Vinyl locations in Granite City, IL, and when the T-shirt wearer said they thought Jeff had actually worked at Euclid Records, he confirmed that he had also worked there.

Perhaps Jeff’s longest interaction with the crowd, though, came during Kingpin. First he changed the lyric to “livin’ in…Norman” and pronounced it “close enough” — except that drew some derision, so he relented to the decidedly less rhythmic “livin’ in…Tulsa” — and also urged people to do the handclaps during the second verse. At the song’s denouement, the “How can I give my love to you/When I don’t know what to do?” line, Jeff continued to refine the message he has been trying to deliver at recent shows. “You don’t have to know everything,” he said in part. “If I’ve learned something from my 58 years on this planet, it’s that I don’t know shit. … But I do know that you’re supposed to give your love away. That’s why we’re here.”

That sentiment should be the takeaway from this latest outing at Cain’s by Jeff and Co. Sure, we might not have gotten to hear some of the songs we hoped or expected to hear — like more from Mermaid Avenue, much less either of the new tunes the band premiered at Solid Sound — but we all came together and had a mutual exchange of love, positive energy, spirituality…whatever you want to call it. And ultimately that should count for something, shouldn’t it?

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn’t get a look at a printed list for either set, so can’t say definitively if there were any changes/omissions — though, as mentioned, it seemed likely that Candyfloss replaced The Late Greats in the encore):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. War On War

12. Via Chicago

13. Falling Apart (Right Now)

14. Christ For President

15. California Stars

Set 2

16. Box Full Of Letters

17. Annihilation

18. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

19. Kamera

20. Sonny Feeling

21. Either Way

22. Impossible Germany

23. Jesus, etc.

24. Whole Love

25. Hate It Here

26. Walken

27. Kingpin

28. Heavy Metal Drummer>

29. I’m The Man Who Loves You

Encore:

30. Candyfloss

31. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)>

32. Outtasite (Outta Mind)

    

Complete setlist, as played:

1. One Tiny Flower

2. Caught Up In The Past

3. KC Rain (No Wonder)

4. Forever Never Ends

5. This Is How It Ends

6. Low Key

7. World Away

8. Mirror

9. Don’t Forget

10. Love Is The King

11. Out In The Dark

12. Cry Baby Cry

13. Flowering

14. New Orleans

15. Diamond Light, Pt. 1

16. No One’s Moving On

17. Feel Free

18. Lou Reed Was My Babysitter

19. Family Ghost

20. Friendship [Pops Staples] (with Ella Feingold on electric guitar)

21. Hot Stuff [Donna Summer] (with Amelia Meath and Hannah Cohen on vocals, Nels Cline and Ella Feingold on electric guitar and Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone on percussion)

22. Enough

23. Take Me Home, Country Roads [John Denver] (with Nels Cline on lap steel, Ella Feingold on electric guitar, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, John Stirratt and Pat Sansone on percussion and Sam and Louise Sullivan on backing vocals)

24. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere [Bob Dylan] (with ensemble, including John Stirratt, Casey Gomez Walker, Sam and Louise Sullivan, Hannah Cohen, Amelia Meath and Scott McCaughey on vocals, Ella Feingold on electric guitar, Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen et al., on percussion)

Number of Twilight Override songs played (out of 30): 13.

“Special” song(s): In the usual spot in the Tweedy band set when Jeff and Co. play the unique song/songs that they say they’ll only play once, just for that show’s audience, they uncorked a doozy that Jeff dedicated to Susie. “We try and pick something by someone from the area or the state, or sometimes we just pick a song and pretend that it has something to do with where we are,” Jeff announced. “This song is actually by a woman that’s, uh, from this area.” With a visibly pregnant Sima joined at stage left by Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso and Hannah Cohen in a sashaying, striking trio of female vocalists, you had an idea it would probably involve some sort of upbeat number, and that was quickly confirmed by the slinky electric guitar line provided by Nels Cline that led into Hot Stuff by Boston native Donna Summer. Meath took the lead vocal on the first verse, while Macie took the second and Nels came back with a fun solo. Afterward, Jeff teased Susie — who was sitting in the photo pit between the barricade and the stage, “(How about) a little hot stuff tonight, honey? Some pizza, maybe…”

After Enough, however, which typically marks the end of the Tweedy band set, the group tacked on a couple more “special” songs to close out the festival. First up, John Denver’s classic Take Me Home, Country Roads, which Jeff said was a song his manager (and proud West Virginia native) Crystal Myers had been trying to convince the band to play. In a happy coincidence — since I believe Crystal is also a soccer fan — the song also became the unofficial anthem for the United States men’s national soccer team and its fans during this summer’s World Cup run. As Jeff alluded to, the song actually has roots in western Massachusetts. One of its co-writers, Bill Danoff, was from Springfield and apparently drew inspiration from the small roads near his hometown, not West Virginia. “I’d like to thank everybody that helps put this together,” Jeff said of Solid Sound. “I think there’s one (person) who probably puts in more hours, and more work, and more concentration and maybe stress, more than anybody. Her name’s Crystal. Not to single her out, but she’s kind of the big overseer of this whole thing and she does an amazing job. We want to thank her by playing this song.” With Liam, Sammy and Jeff each taking the lead vocal on a verse and then supported by just about everybody else on stage on the choruses, it was a perfect choice for a Sunday singalong.

Though Jeff teased Myers by declaring Country Roads to be “another one of those one-off songs that we’re never gonna play again, Crystal,” I don’t believe he actually said the same about the final number of the day — Bob Dylan’s You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere. But then again, I don’t know if it would ever be as fun again without the assemblage of folks on stage that emerged for this last hurrah. You had verses sung by John Stirratt, Casey Gomez Walker of Case Oats and Sam and Louise Sullivan, with Scott McCaughey joining Sammy and eventually Spencer on backing vocals at stage right, and Meath and Cohen remaining at stage left. The other members of Wilco provided additional backing vocals and percussion, and all six took one final bow at center stage when the song was done. It all added up to a feel-good and fitting sendoff for Solid Sound IX.

Support report: No true support act, obviously, since this was a festival, but the British singer-songwriter Richard Dawson was the only other act to perform on Joe’s Field on the final day of this year’s festival. Dawson, who I guess prefers to be called just Rich (hence him being listed on the festival lineup as Rich(ard) Dawson, played his unique brand of folk music with Jeff visibly looking on — and occasionally singing along — from side stage. And this wasn’t just a cameo by Jeff, either. He stayed for Dawson’s entire set, clearly enjoying the Newcastle native’s eccentric songs (and/or his eye-catching T-shirt, which I was hoping would light up or something).

Venue vibes: Good old Joe’s Field, which seems to get a little smaller to me every time (or perhaps it’s just the gradual creeping in of the chair line). Not much else to say about it, I guess, other than that in addition to being where all the memorable Wilco/Tweedy Solid Sound performances have taken place over the years, it is also now the site of a (somewhat questionable?) world record for the most people yo-yoing at one time. That happened a day earlier, prior to The Breeders’ and Wilco’s sets on Day 2 of the festival, with Kim Deal and Jeff and many others on stage joining thousands of festival attendees in the field — most of whom were provided complimentary yo-yos — for the occasion. Some succeeded in “walking the dog,” “rocking the cradle” and such more than others. Deal, for one, had her struggles, which a regular reader of these recaps apparently poked a bit of fun at from the front row, not expecting that she would notice. Instead, his teasing drew an unexpectedly feisty response from the Breeders’ frontwoman — one of my personal Solid Sound highlights, for sure.

Bits of tid, including Banter Corner:

— Sammy’s struggles with his Korg keyboard were sort of a running joke/source of drama throughout at least the first half of the main set. When it went down just two songs in, causing his dad to exclaim, “Oh, shit!” Sammy informed him that it was actually the second Korg to fail already that day. They apparently went back to the first one for a while, until it went down again during Mirror. Afterward, Jeff declared half-jokingly, “We gotta get something for Sammy to play. There’s certainly enough fucking gear here to get something with keys on it.” Fortunately, they rounded up something by the time Out In The Dark rolled around a few songs later so that Sammy could contribute his, uh, key keyboard part on that one.

— Jeff related a funny little anecdote before Love Is The King about soundchecking the song earlier in the afternoon, apparently at the same time Joe’s Field opened for the day. “People were coming in as I sang the first line, and it was pretty amazing,” Jeff said pointing up demonstratively at the “Here I am…” opening, which drew a chuckle from the audience.

— As usual, there was a little oohing and aahing in the crowd before Flowering — the one song in the Tweedy band set on which Jeff uses his striking blue Kawai MoonSault crescent-shaped guitar. “What’re you looking at?” Jeff asked. “What, you’ve never seen a waxing gibbous before?” Someone within earshot, however, decided to try and correct Jeff by asserting that it was actually a waning gibbous. But Jeff sort of bristled at the attempted correction, shooting back, “No it’s not, (because) it’s dark.” Then he added, sarcastically: “Well, actually…Don’t ‘Well, actually’ me. I got a microphone.” #moonnerd

— Always a missed opportunity, IMHO, when you don’t play Let’s Go Rain (with the lyric “Or maybe it’s a fever that you haven’t caught yet/‘Cause you haven’t met Scott McCaughey”) with Scott McCaughey in attendance. Oh well. They did play it during the Tweedy and Friends set at Solid Sound VIII in 2024, along with five songs that would come out on Twilight Override more than a year later and one (the as-yet unreleased You’re Not Gonna Win) that hasn’t been released officially yet.

— Introducing Family Ghost in the encore, Jeff noted bluntly, “This is a song about how shitty America is. I wrote it a long time ago, though.” Whether he was just being a bit cheeky or not, I don’t remember him ever describing that song quite as explicitly before. Nor did I personally get that impression upon first hearing it live back in 2018, but clearly I wasn’t listening closely enough. (It officially came out on Warmer the following year).

— Despite Jeff’s busy schedule during the festival likely leading to little to no rehearsal time for the Tweedy sextet, which hadn’t played a show together in nearly two months, there weren’t really many noticeable flubs. One exception came at the start of Low Key when Jeff seemed to sense that something might go awry. “This is a little older one,” he said. “Be kind.” Almost immediately, he false started, possibly hitting the wrong pedal. “We haven’t played together for a few days, at least I haven’t,” Jeff admitted afterward.

A scant 24 hours after turning in a historic performance with Billy Bragg et al., of material from the Mermaid Avenue project, with both the in-person attendees of the Solid Sound Festival and the greater indie rock and Americana music scenes still buzzing, Jeff and Co. found themselves back on the Joe’s Field stage at Mass MoCA with the challenge of outdoing — or at least equaling — themselves.

I’m happy to report that they did it, or came pretty close anyway. While the lone instance of purely Wilco music at this year’s festival wasn’t an extended two-set “Evening With…” show that the band has been playing of late, it did feature a truly unique opening, some surprising setlist tweaks, a number of guest appearances and even some new songs.

Let’s start at the beginning. When Mikael Jorgensen and legendary jazz pianist Bob James — the former is making a documentary about the latter, and a couple of sessions featuring clips from that project and a Q&A were among the highlights of the festival’s programming this year — took the stage by themselves and sat down at Mikael’s keyboard station, you knew this wasn’t going to be just an ordinary Wilco set. James started to play his famed composition Angela, otherwise known as the theme from the late 1970s/early 1980s sitcom Taxi, and Mikael joined him as the two ran through a couple of minutes of the classic tune as a duet. Right as they finished, comedian John Hodgman adopted the role of TV announcer and promptly declared, “Solid Sound is filmed in front of a live festival audience in beautiful downtown North Adams, Massachusetts. Please stay tuned for your local news.” The effect was probably better for those listening at home via live stream, but it was nevertheless a pretty memorable way to get things going.

Finally at about 9:20 p.m., the rest of Mikael’s bandmates emerged and Wilco got going with another surprise. For the first time in more than 25 years, the opening song of a Wilco show was Summerteeth fan favorite Candyfloss. Of course I didn’t realize this at the time, but after some research, I’m as certain as I can be that the band hadn’t opened a show with Candyfloss since 6 May 2000 at Carleton College in Minnesota (which was, as I recall, a pretty popular bootleg that made the rounds back in the live-show trading days). It was, I think, just the fourth Candyfloss opener ever, and certainly provided a jolt of energy to the proceedings. Two songs later came Star Wars deep cut You Satellite, which some of us heard back in January at the Sky Blue Sky festival in Mexico but which before that had only been played a handful of times since Star Wars was performed its entirety in the year or so after its surprise release in 2015.

Not long after that, the guest appearances commenced as Chicago singer-songwriter Elizabeth Moen came out and added her distinct voice to Forget The Flowers. There seemed to be maybe a little bit of confusion between she and Jeff when it came time for the closing “You know I will,” and/or “I know you will” lines — or maybe that’s just how the duet is actually supposed to go. “Little-known fact, that song was written as a duet,” Jeff said afterward. “Finally got to do it as a duet.” Then he joked: “Yeah, it was written with me and (Plasmatics frontwoman) Wendy O. Williams in mind. That’s the first person that came to my mind.” Midway through the set, a duet that was actually recorded as a duet happened with Natalie Merchant stepping into Feist’s role on You And I — and of course, the traditional Solid Sound train rumbled by mid-song. Merchant would depart with a quick wave before the song was even over, but she would hardly be the last special guest of the night.

Before that, however, came perhaps the most noteworthy aspects of this set — namely, the debut of two new songs. The first, which Jeff introduced as a “work in progress” called Flawed Men, featured a kind of speak-sing vocal with cryptic lyrics about “how heavy memories can live in a song” and possibly someone Jeff knew once (or perhaps it’s just different aspects of himself?) that he still loves “because I know we’re both flawed men.” In either case, the lyrics were supported by an easygoing riff that featured Jeff, Nels and Pat all on electric guitars. “We’ll figure out an ending for it,” Jeff said as the song sort of came to a tentative conclusion. “That’s the in-progress part.” It’s the first time I can remember Wilco as a band playing a “work in progress” live since debuting One Wing at Lollapalooza way back in 2008 — memorably calling it “a WIP” at that show — though obviously Jeff shared many new songs on The Tweedy Show during the pandemic.

At any rate, the band doubled down on fresh material and played another WIP right after Flawed Men. Jeff didn’t announce a title for this other new song, but it was listed as Losing Traction on the printed setlist. This one also had a speak-sing element to it, with Nels providing twangy touches on lap steel, but featured seemingly more direct lyrics about the state of the world. “I avoid you, I don’t have a choice/The sky’s still gray, no matter what they say,” Jeff intoned. “But lately what’s true is losing traction/And I don’t think we should ever get used to living this way.” It also features the memorable couplet, “Bad luck saved me from worse luck/And I was only depressed when I still gave a fuck.” And it concludes with a mantra of sorts: “Get over it/get under it/get on with it.”

The second half of the set, meanwhile, featured several noteworthy moments, starting with Wilco (The Album) rarity Sonny Feeling, which Jeff dedicated to one enthusiastic onlooker who he dubbed a “collector of the Japanese B-sides, I see.” Then, hilariously, the band messed up the start and came to a halt. Jeff quipped, “That’s it. You guys don’t remember that one? It’s pretty rare, it’s pretty obscure.” Pat then chimed in, “That’s the false start version. Very collectible, very collectible.” Afterward, Jeff said, “We play that about three times a year. We’ve never played that first (version).” A few songs later on Impossible Germany, Nels had a weird moment just before the coda when all the guitar parts come back together when he had to hold out a hand to momentarily stop the rest of the band from proceeding because something happened that threw his guitar out of tune — a friend thought he might have gotten his whammy bar caught on a string — and he had to re-tune on the fly. “That’s never happened before,” Nels said to Jeff with a bit of an exasperated look on his face.

Frequently Jesus, etc. follows Impossible Germany on the setlist, in part to give Nels a bit of a breather, but tonight a thunderous rendition of Art Of Almost came out of nowhere and almost stole the show. Wilco has occasionally done an acoustic arrangement of AOA the past couple of years, during the “Evening With…” era of shows, but this was the full-on electric version and it was, well, electric. I can’t recall the last time I’d heard the regular arrangement, and it was very welcome. Afterward, the requisite Jesus, etc., did indeed come, but we got a treat when Macie Stewart came out to join the band on violin, which always adds a lovely dimension.

As the show barreled toward its invitable conclusion, Jeff and Co. still had a couple of surprises up their sleeve (though time constraints apparently forced some on-the-fly adjustments). According to the printed setlist, Kingpin — which featured the requisite lyric change to “livin’ in North Adams” — was to be followed by the expected trio of Heavy Metal Drummer, I’m The Man Who Loves You and Spiders (Kidsmoke). But while Jeff was philosophizing about giving his love away after the guitar duel in Kingpin, he also admitted, “We are absolutely running out of time, though. I’m only gonna ask this five more times: How can I give my love to you? How can I give my love to you? OK, I’m only gonna ask this three more times…” And ultimately, that proved to be the end of the main set, with the HMD>Man two-fer a victim of the aforementioned time crunch.

More adjustments came in the encore when some members of the crew initially hauled a clunky analog synthesizer unit on stage and started to set it up, only to have to then lug it back off stage while none other than former Wilco member LeRoy Bach quietly appeared in the back corner of the stage at Mikael’s keyboard station. “OK, everything’s chaotic right now,” Jeff said, as he introduced Bach (who had been at the festival to perform with the Chicago band Official Claire). “Check out the moon, it’ll calm you down a bit.” Then the seven-piece Wilco — with Mikael on shaker behind Glenn — launched into Handshake Drugs.

But instead of proceeding to the planned conclusion of I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind), the analog synth quickly returned to the stage accompanied by Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso and a different seven-piece Wilco lineup immediately went into Spiders (Kidsmoke) — which had been on the printed setlist as the final song of the main set — to close out the proceedings. It felt a bit rushed and there was no time for the usual crowd participation, but the synth added a cool element.

And after all that, the 2-hour, 7-minute set came to a somewhat sudden end. It begged the question of whether you can run out of time at your own festival — apparently you can, though you definitely get a little leeway — but Jeff and his bandmates and guests had already given more than we could have expected. And even as he was walking off stage at 11:27 p.m., Jeff said to the audience, in part, “We owe you big time,” so, really, how could we have had any hard feelings?

Here was Wilco’s complete setlist, as played (as mentioned, Heavy Metal Drummer and I’m The Man Who Loves You were cut from the planned end of the main set and I Got You (At The End Of The Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind) in the encore, while Spiders (Kidsmoke) was moved from the end of the main set to the encore):

1. Candyfloss

2. Annihilation

3. You Satellite

4. If I Ever Was A Child

5. Forget The Flowers (with Elizabeth Moen on co-vocals)

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. new song-Flawed Men

10. new song-Losing Traction

11. It’s Just That Simple

12. You And I (with Natalie Merchant on co-vocals)

13. Everyone Hides

14. Sonny Feeling

15. Either Way

16. Impossible Germany

17. Art Of Almost

18. Jesus, etc. (with Macie Stewart on violin)

19. Hate It Here

20. Walken

21. Kingpin

Encore:

22. Handshake Drugs (with LeRoy Bach on keyboard)

23. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (electric arrangement) (with Nick Sanborn on analog synthesizer)

By the time Nora Guthrie remained on stage to put a joyous bow on Wilco and Billy Bragg’s long-awaited first-ever joint performance of songs from the Mermaid Avenue project, the thousands gathered in Joe’s Field at Mass MoCA on the first day of this year’s Solid Sound Festival — not to mention the countless more listening at home via live stream — had already gotten just about everything they could have asked for.

Pleasant weather conditions (following a passing rain shower earlier in the day)? Check. A surprise appearance by Natalie Merchant to reprise her role on the original Mermaid Avenue albums? Check. Deep cuts from the deluxe Mermaid catalog? Check. Several mass singalongs, including a show-closing This Land Is Your Land with members of the Guthrie family? Check.

Flanked by Jeff on one side and Bragg on the other, the beaming 76-year-old daughter of Woody Guthrie — some of whose unrecorded lyrics were set to music by Wilco and Bragg more than a quarter century ago in the Mermaid Avenue project, in case anyone reading this didn’t know — quipped, “I waited 28 years to have Billy on one arm and Jeff on the other.” Then after the two leading men left her alone to have the final word, Guthrie added, “This has really been a moment I’ve been waiting for for a long, long time to see my boys all together here. Thank you for loving the album. Thank you for loving my dad. Let’s get to work, OK?”

And with those simple words, which came on the heels of rousing ensemble singalongs to California Stars and This Land Is Your Land, a show that was years in the making finally drew to a satisfying and touching close. It had started nearly two hours earlier with Airline To Heaven, the first song from Mermaid Avenue Volume II, and when Wilco and Bragg were joined by members of Jeff’s actual and musical families — Spencer on percussion and Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham on backing vocals and handclaps — you knew it was going to be one of those special nights.

After Airline, Bragg took the lead on a couple of his best-loved tunes from the original Mermaid Avenue album. Walt Whitman’s Niece got continued backing vocals from Sima and Macie, while Jeff turned into a harmonica soloist as he held the instrument close to the microphone as he blew into it instead of how we conventionally see him playing it with a rack while strumming a guitar. Then came one of the more underrated Mermaid tracks, in my opinion, with I Guess I Planted. Once again, Sima and Macie remained on stage for backing vocals while Bragg belted out the rousing chorus, “Union song/Union battled/All added up/Won us all what we got now.”

For me, one big question was just how deep into the Mermaid catalog would Wilco and Bragg go? After all, both of the artists involved in the project have regularly performed songs from it live over the years in their own sets. So there were a number of songs that you knew would almost certainly get played tonight. But just seven songs in, when Bragg sang the Mermaid outtake Give Me A Nail (which wasn’t formally released until 2012 when the “Complete Sessions” box set came out), there was some indication that there would be at least a few deeper dives. Another one came in the encore when Wilco and Bragg — with an assist from Sima and her brother Liam — finally tackled The Jolly Banker live. I could have sworn I had heard Jeff and Co. play that one live at some point, but apparently they hadn’t until now.

Of course you could nitpick some of the songs that were left out, including several that Wilco has played occasionally such as Feed Of Man, Blood Of The Lamb and Someday, Some Morning, Sometime, and others like Joe DiMaggio Done It Again that have still never been played live. But you knew they’d never be able to get to them all. And with just a couple days of rehearsal all together, it wasn’t a totally flawless show — which probably wouldn’t have been in the spirit of Woody anyway. There were a few misenunciated lyrics and other minor hiccups, and the two frontmen had to confer several times before starting songs to make sure all were on the same page. But with the help of some teleprompters and the musicianship of the band, few in the audience probably even noticed and even less cared.

Another question surrounding this performance was whether Merchant, who played a small but vital role on the Mermaid sessions, would make an appearance to complete the reunion. That question was answered pretty quickly when she suddenly emerged at stage right five songs in, dancing along to She Came Along To Me. Perhaps she wasn’t supposed to come out that early because she seemed to disappear almost as suddenly as she appeared. But eventually she re-emerged, first to add backing vocals on Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (along with Macie on violin), and then to take the lead vocal on Birds And Ships in a beautifully tender and touching version with just Bragg — who sat in a chair to accompany her on acoustic guitar — and Sima contributing harmonies.

From there, the main set came to a rousing conclusion with Merchant dancing along uninhibitedly to Jeff’s lead vocal on Hoodoo Voodoo and Guthrie taking the vital cowbell role. “None of this would be happening without Nora,” Jeff said, introducing her, before the two shared a big hug and kiss. She then embraced Bragg, while Jeff sang the closing line, “Brush my hair and kissle me some more,” the latter of which Guthrie was more than happy to do with a mischievous grin. This wasn’t the extended raved-up version of Hoodoo that Wilco fans have probably become accustomed to over the years, but it was still a non-stop smile fest.

And then came the song that many had come to hear, All You Fascists, which Jeff introduced simply by saying, “Sadly, this song is wildly appropriate once again.” He then asked if any of the Mekons were around, and that band’s two central figures — a cowboy hat-wearing Jon Langford (who came over and kissed first Jeff, then Bragg and for good measure Glenn, joking that “this has turned into a kiss fest”) and Sally Timms — both came out to aid Bragg with the vocals while Jeff played harmonica and the rest of Wilco provided the driving beat.

I think most everyone would’ve been more than satisfied if the set had wrapped up then, but of course there was an encore that started with Jeff making a heartfelt statement about the late Jay Bennett’s contributions to the Mermaid Avenue project. “I’d like to say we should remember Jay Bennett at this moment,” Jeff said of his former bandmate and collaborator, who passed away in 2009. “(He) was a huge part of all these songs. We miss him. We wish he was here. We hope you all continue to remember him and enjoy his music.” Continued Jeff: “These songs wouldn’t be here, a lot of them wouldn’t be here, without Jay. He was a big champion of this project at the time. He made it happen, and we miss him. I kind of feel like if he was still around, he’d be here, and I wish that could have happened.” Then Jeff, accompanied just by Mikael on keyboard, proceeded to sing the elegiac Another Man’s Done Gone. Wilco has played the song this way occasionally over the years — most of those performances coming in late 2004 and early 2005 — but hadn’t done so since a Winterlude residency show in Chicago in 2014 (12 December, to be exact). That song also features probably one of the most-loved lyrics in the entire Mermaid catalog — “But I feel like this scribbling might stay,” — which drew applause from many in the crowd.

After that came an even rarer number, The Unwelcome Guest, which I was afraid they wouldn’t have time to get to but am so glad they did (as I know was at least one regular reader of these recaps). Macie played the violin part, while Nels — as he did for much of the set — added really poignant work on lap steel. Unless I’m mistaken, it was the live debut of the closing track from the original Mermaid Avenue record and, yet again, it made you feel lucky to be witnessing this wondrous event in person, which saw the band ultimately perform 14 of the 15 songs on the original Mermaid Avenue album (with only Eisler On The Go left out).

From the huge backdrop featuring Woody’s handwritten lyrics and drawings that was commissioned specially for the show to the train that chugged by halfway through the set (as it is wont to do at Joe’s Field) to Jeff and Billy’s humorous exchange about the garish white double-neck electric guitar that Nels used for Secret Of The Sea and My Flying Saucer — Jeff, to the audience: “This is Woody’s guitar. You think that guitar doesn’t kill fascists?” Billy: “It’s heavy enough.” Jeff: “It makes them like it,” — you felt Guthrie’s spirit in the air all night long.

And if you didn’t feel him before, the physical manifestation of his legacy emerged for the final song of the evening — This Land Is Your Land — in the form of maybe a dozen of his relatives, including daughter Nora, granddaughter Sarah Lee Guthrie and a number of Woody’s other grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They joined the children of Wilco members, other musicians who had performed earlier in the day and God knows who else for a poignant singalong to Woody’s most famous composition, including several of the lesser-known verses. That song, of course, wasn’t a part of the Mermaid Avenue project, but on a night celebrating Guthrie, on which old friends finally came back together and the 250^th birthday of America loomed in just over a week, it felt like the only fitting way for the show to end.

Will there ever be another one like it? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure — just about everyone crammed into Joe’s Field on this special night felt fortunate to be there. “(This) might be my favorite thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Jeff declared at one point during the set.” Added Billy, perhaps speaking for us all: “Amen to that.”

Here was the complete setlist, as played and with lead vocalist and guests noted in parentheses (there were no changes/omissions from the printed setlist):

1. Airline To Heaven (Jeff Tweedy, with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart on backing vocals and Spencer Tweedy on percussion)

2. Walt Whitman’s Niece (Billy Bragg, with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart on backing vocals)

3. I Guess I Planted (BB, with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart on backing vocals)

4. One By One (JT)

5. She Came Along To Me (BB)

6. When The Roses Bloom Again (JT)

7. Hesitating Beauty (JT)

8. Give Me A Nail (BB, with Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart on backing vocals)

9. At My Window Sad And Lonely (JT)

10. Ingrid Bergman (BB)

11. Christ For President (JT, with Spencer Tweedy on percussion)

12. Stetson Kennedy (BB)

13. Secret Of The Sea (JT)

14. My Flying Saucer (BB)

15. Remember The Mountain Bed (JT)

16. Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (BB, with Natalie Merchant on backing vocals and Macie Stewart on violin)

17. Birds And Ships (Natalie Merchant, with Sima Cunningham on backing vocals)

18. Hoodoo Voodoo (JT, with Nora Guthrie on cowbell)

19. All You Fascists (BB, with Jon Langford and Sally Timms of The Mekons on backing vocals)

Encore

20. Another Man’s Done Gone (JT)

21. The Unwelcome Guest (BB, with Macie Stewart on violin)

22. The Jolly Banker (JT, with Liam Kazar and Sima Cunningham on co-vocals)

23. California Stars (JT, with ensemble on backing vocals)

24. This Land Is Your Land (ensemble, including JT, BB, Nora Guthrie, Natalie Merchant and Sarah Lee Guthrie)

    

At this point in my Wilco-going career, it’s not often when I see Jeff do something on stage that I’ve never seen before. But as they say, variety is the spice of life. Or would it be more apt to say that apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks? Which of these is an idiom and which is an adage? I’m sure someone among my dozens of readers will chime in and straighten me out. Wait, where was I again?

Oh, right…Jeff doing something I’ve never seen him do before. This happened during Wilco’s return to the lovely field where they hold concerts at the Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards complex in central New York, and I had a bird’s eye view of it because it happened right next to me. This happened after Jesus, etc., during which Jeff must have spotted the young woman to my left along the barricade attempting to take a selfie of her family singing along. He offered to snap a photo for her, which she eagerly accepted. Then it was a matter of tossing her phone to Jeff from about 10 feet away — no small feat, I must say — and him trying to negotiate it while a crowd of thousands watched.

“I don’t think I did anything,” Jeff admitted after successfully tossing the phone back to the beaming young woman — again, no small feat. “It’s possible there’s nothing on there.”

I never found out how that photo turned out, but no matter what, the family seemed to be thrilled with the memory. It was just one moment in a show that, if I had to pick just one word, I can only describe as wholesome. How else to characterize a gig that featured a small dog wearing ear-protecting headphones, or kids playing football off in the distance, seemingly oblivious to the performance taking place? Or, for that matter, another kid asking for a setlist during the show on behalf of his mom? Yet another yelled at Glenn to sign his Kotche-model drumsticks purchased at the merch tent, again during the show.

Jeff seemed especially smitten with the dog, which was apparently a 12-year-old named Nigel. (Because of course it was.) It didn’t take long for Jeff to spot the dog and inquire about it. After the fourth song of the show, Forget The Flowers, when I expected Jeff to tease Glenn about his drum roll as he had done the previous couple of shows, Jeff instead went straight to the dog’s owner. “Is that dog wearing ear muffs?” Jeff asked. “Good job taking care of his hearing.” Jeff continued, “Is he a fan (of Wilco)? … We don’t wanna waste tickets on any dogs that aren’t fans.” Later in the first set, after You And I, Jeff said, “I’m looking at you, Nigel. You made that song have a different meaning. I felt it.”

Another funny visit to Banter Corner came just before that, after It’s Just That Simple, when Jeff noticed some kids off in the distance playing with a football. “Can somebody get those kids playing football over there to pay more attention?” Jeff joked. “You just missed a beautiful performance by John. Whatever. Don’t come to me when the waltz craze hits. Actually, do come to me when the waltz craze hits because, uh, we’ve got some waltzes.”

One reason I had wanted to come to a show at Beak & Skiff, of course, was simply the fact that it purported to take place in an apple orchard. This was another place that Jeff and Co. were revisiting on this little run after performing here nearly four years earlier in the leadup to that festival they played on Martha’s Vineyard. But of course, the show itself took place not in a grove of apple trees, but rather just in a large field adjacent to the orchards (which I actually never really saw). A bit of a letdown for my imagination, to be sure, but I suppose more of a practical setup.

Even Jeff made light of it early on when he called a spade a spade. “We’ve been here before, we’ve been to this apple field before,” he said. “It’s called an apple field, right?” Of course at least one guy totally missed Jeff’s attempt at humor when he called out a song later, “Hey Jeff, it’s an orchard, not a field.” Jeff shot back, “I know. It was a little joke. I love being corrected.” Glenn, for one, cracked up behind him. Added Jeff: “It’s an orchard, not a field. It’s a killing field.” A few songs later, Jeff’s guitar tech — you know, that Jeff Tweedy — also got into the act when he brought out a guitar between songs and apparently pointed out that Jeff’s black baseball cap, which simply had the word “Helvetica” on it, wasn’t actually in that iconic font. “I think it’s a joke,” Jeff said, a bit annoyed. “I get it. Keep correcting me, everybody.”

Fortunately that slightly contentious start didn’t sour the mood too much as Wilco rolled through its usual set of material on this run. I guess I should probably talk about the music itself a little more, but honestly, that almost took a backseat to the band’s interaction with its audience tonight. There were some standouts, for sure, like the raved-up Kingpin, on which Jeff actually got downright philosophical when he got to the “How can I give my love to you/When I don’t know what to do?” part near the end. I won’t attempt to fully recount what he said, but in part he pondered out loud the sentiment behind that couplet in these turbulent times. “It’s a simple rhyme, a stupid lyric, but maybe it means something (more),” he said.

Perhaps a similar thing could be said, ultimately, about Nigel, who certainly helped turn Jeff’s early mood around. I mean, given such a lovely late spring evening with such an earnest crowd in such a pleasant setting (despite not really being very close to the apple trees), who could really stay grumpy for very long?

Here was the complete setlist, as played (didn’t get a look at a printed list for either set, so can’t say if there were any changes/omissions):

Set 1

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Cruel Country

4. Forget The Flowers

5. Evicted

6. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

7. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

8. Everyone Hides

9. Hummingbird

10. It’s Just That Simple

11. You And I

12. Shouldn’t Be Ashamed

13. Via Chicago>

14. California Stars

15. Falling Apart (Right Now)

Set 2

16. Box Full Of Letters

17. Annihilation

18. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

19. War On War

20. Either Way

21. Impossible Germany

22. Jesus, etc.

23. Theologians

24. Walken

25. Kingpin

26. Heavy Metal Drummer>

27. I’m The Man Who Loves You

28. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (electric arrangement)

Encore

29. The Late Greats

30. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)