Wilco at The Orpheum Last Night

Amazing show last night:

01 - More...
02 - Random Name Generator
03 - The Joke Explained
04 - You Satellite
05 - Taste the Ceiling
06 - Pickled Ginger
07 - Where do I Begin
08 - Cold Slope
09 - King of You
10 - Magnetized
11 - Handshake Drugs
12 - Camera
13 - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
14 - Art of Almost
15 - Via Chicago
16 - Hummingbird
17 - Box Full of Letters
18 - Heavy Metal Drummer
19 - I'm the Man Who Loves You
20 - Jesus, Etc.
21 - Born Alone
22 - Impossible Germany
23 - Airline to Heaven
24 - The Late Greats
Encore:
25 - Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Encore:
26 - Misunderstood
27 - It's Just That Simple
28 - War On War
29 - We've Been Had
30 - California Stars
31 - A Shot in the Arm

quote:

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Nels was really showing out last night.

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The dude is a shite ton of fun to watch, he's such a spazz but he's an incredible guitarist. Last night was great though they went pretty deep in their catalogue. That version of kamera was awesome..

Nice. They are playing a free show at Waterloo Records right now. The place is overflowing with people, from what I hear. I couldn't leave work to go.

quote:

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Once they got Star Wars out the way

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I enjoyed it for the most part but they were definitely losing the crowd towards the end. Got everyone right back with handshake drugs though. I swear I saw the drummer roll his eyes towards the end of star wars, like he just wanted to play the old shite and get the crowd back.

One more thing, how cool was Nels on pedal steel and that dude was playing the "Melodica" if that what it was.

did anyone take some pictures of the Orpheum. would really like to see the theatre, almost went last night just to get in there even though I don't listen to them.

Have seen Wilco at least a dozen or so times over the years. I thought they were better than ever last night. Orpheum was a great venue. Had lots of room on the floor despite being sold out.

I maybe in the minority, but I loved that they played Star Wars in its entirety first and then had the rest of the show to play the "hits" -- and they didn't miss much to my taste. Was a great set list. Nels on Impossible Germany is worth the price of admission alone. Also, nice for the home town boy to take a turn out front in the 2nd encore.

Wow. What a show.

quote:

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I swear I saw the drummer roll his eyes towards the end of star wars, like he just wanted to play the old shite and get the crowd back.

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I had looked up the recent setlists a week ago, and realized what they had been doing so I forcefed myself 5-6 helpings of Star Wars in the last few days so I wouldn't be bored with that portion of the show. And I absolutely loved it. And I like Star Wars now more because of it, but I felt like the crowd was completely deflated by that point. And the opening act didn't help. I know the kid is talented, and you could sense how excited he was to be a part of it, but 45 mins of open tuned finger picking was the most boring opening act I have ever witnessed. So between the opener, 30 mins between sets, and the first hour of material that the majority of the crowd didn't know, I thought the energy I felt when arriving had been completely buzz-killed. Maybe it was just me but that theatre really had that electric feeling when we arrived, and it was all but gone by the time they got to Handshake Drugs. That was my only complaint. The setlist was unreal, the Orpheum is a thing of beauty, and I got to hear most of the songs I really wanted to hear.

Notes:
-Nels Cline is a guitar virtuoso. His dexterity blows my mind
-Art of Almost has become my favorite Wilco song.
-The acoustic encore set really topped it off for me.
-I had no idea John Stirratt was from Nola or that he sings "It's Just That Simple" (he freaking killed it too)
-The soft spoken version of the Misunderstood outro was a highlight. Wasn't expecting that

Couldn't go because of work bullshite.

Glad it was a good show.

I felt like the crowd was completely deflated by that point.

I was at Stubbs in ATX last night (and will be again tonight), and that's exactly what it felt like to me as well.

I don't mind some of the Star Wars songs, and of course I expect them to play some new stuff live, but that format felt rough. My girlfriend, who hadn't seen Wilco outside of ACL and can't name five of their songs, was pretty bored the first part but got more into it as the older material came out.

I don't see why they couldn't just open with something strong and then mix old/new throughout the set better?

And the poster was weak compared to that New Orleans one posted in this thread - it was just a blue background with a white star (Texas!). Mech folks said they'll have a different poster tonight.