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Wilco Setlist
Kurt Vile Setlist
Tour Dates
08/21/16 Chicago, IL Jay Pritzker Pavilion
08/30/16 Salt Lake City, UT Red Butte Garden 08/31/16 Boise, ID Velma V. Morrison Center 09/02/16 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre 09/03/16 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre 09/04/16 Portland, OR Arlene Schnitzer 09/06/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 09/07/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 09/09/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 09/10/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 09/11/16 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 09/13/16 Los Angeles, CA The Theatre 09/14/16 Los Angeles, CA The Theatre 09/15/16 Los Angeles, CA The Theatre 09/17/16 Sound Summit Read More
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Alternative rock band Wilco just held a highly entertaining outdoor festival-esque show at the Historic Hall’s Island in Minneapolis on Saturday night, August 20th.
The show was setup by First Avenue, and like their annual Festival Palomino events, was highly organized. The outdoor stage suffered from the rain the night before, which caused the wet and muddy grounds. To combat some of the wet ground, they had fenced off some swamp areas and covered some area with wood chips to absorb the water and give ground traction. For equipment, the staff was quick on use plastic coverings whenever the rain started up again.
For children, elderly or the handicap, there was a small raised area for them to enjoy the show.
Porta Potty were plentiful and kept all the way in the back of show, and I never had to suffer waiting (unlike other outdoor festivals).
There was also plenty of food truck and beer choices, giving us really good food & drink options. Overall, everything was perfect - except for the on again, off again raining throughout the day.... which obviously no one can control.
Kurt Vile (formerly of The War on Drugs) and his band The Violators (guitarist / bassist Jesse Trbovich, guitarist Rob Laakso and drummer Kyle Spence) started the show. Vile, seeing the sun through the cloudy skies, after the second song, stated, “I told you guys the rain was going to let up, I was right!” However, it was almost supernatural that right after Vile’s generous hour-long set, the rain did start back up again.
The thing with Vile is that he has this very laidback guitar-playing style, making it look super easy and effortless on stage. The truth is, I watched Vile and the Violators on stage around 4pm that day, working to get their sound just right during the soundcheck - so clearly they work incredibly hard just on rehearsing and practicing.
They worked out their set to fit exactly within the hour timeframe, started with ‘Dust Bunnies’, followed by ‘I’m an Outlaw’ (from his latest album b'lieve I'm goin down..., available on Matador Records). The latter song actually had Vile plucking on the banjo. If you didn’t know, the banjo was the first instrument that was a present to Vile when he was 14 years old. Vile previously commented that the banjo led him to guitars and eventually a career in music.
Hearing the first few chords in ‘Wakin on a Pretty Day’ immediately made me think of Pavement, the song, according to Vile on stage, was “about waking up and smelling the coffee.”
‘Goldtone’, which I misheard as “gold sun”, was about being “stoned”, although the song confessed, “but I never as they say, touched the stuff.”
Vile ended his effortless set with ‘Freak Train’, which sounded harder and louder than his previous songs on the set. In fact, bassist Jesse Trbovich even brought out the saxophone to close out the chaotic song’s ending.
Wilco (Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone) has quite the fanbase in Minneapolis, the turnout was incredible for this Chicago band. Even singer / guitarist Jeff Tweedy had to comment about the great turnout, “Minneapolis, we were just here. We love it here, and we are going to come back every 13 months, whether you want us or not. This feels like a hometown gig!” Tweedy was referring to their headlining appearance at the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis in July 2015, exactly 13 months ago.
Wilco’s current ninth studio album is the oddly-named Star Wars album... the record has nothing to do with the George Lucas creation. The record was given away for free on their website, but fans still pre-ordered the CD (and eventual vinyl version).
Based on hearing fans sing along to new songs like ‘More...’, ‘Random Name Generator’ and ‘The Joke Explained’, it seemed the giveaway was a good call on their part.
The band also previewed a song called ‘Locator’, which will be on their upcoming 10th studio album Schmilco, available in September 2016. With all their fans loving the new song, you can bet that they’ll come back to town to tour in support of the new record.
After their quick three-song for the encore (‘Red-Eyed and Blue’, ‘I Got You (At the End of the Century)’, and ‘Outtasite (Outta Mind)’), the band barely beating out the noise curfew. However, that wasn’t the end of the show!
For the second encore, Wilco stripped out the electric guitars, per the noise ordinance, and played another six songs on acoustic guitars. Among the songs were a Billy Bragg & Wilco song called ‘California Stars’.
With the whole event really fun and memorable, we’ll look forward to another one of these event next year... but let’s hope it doesn’t rain.
Wilco’s Star Wars is out now.
The show was setup by First Avenue, and like their annual Festival Palomino events, was highly organized. The outdoor stage suffered from the rain the night before, which caused the wet and muddy grounds. To combat some of the wet ground, they had fenced off some swamp areas and covered some area with wood chips to absorb the water and give ground traction. For equipment, the staff was quick on use plastic coverings whenever the rain started up again.
For children, elderly or the handicap, there was a small raised area for them to enjoy the show.
Porta Potty were plentiful and kept all the way in the back of show, and I never had to suffer waiting (unlike other outdoor festivals).
There was also plenty of food truck and beer choices, giving us really good food & drink options. Overall, everything was perfect - except for the on again, off again raining throughout the day.... which obviously no one can control.
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Kurt Vile + the Violators
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Kurt Vile |
They worked out their set to fit exactly within the hour timeframe, started with ‘Dust Bunnies’, followed by ‘I’m an Outlaw’ (from his latest album b'lieve I'm goin down..., available on Matador Records). The latter song actually had Vile plucking on the banjo. If you didn’t know, the banjo was the first instrument that was a present to Vile when he was 14 years old. Vile previously commented that the banjo led him to guitars and eventually a career in music.
Hearing the first few chords in ‘Wakin on a Pretty Day’ immediately made me think of Pavement, the song, according to Vile on stage, was “about waking up and smelling the coffee.”
‘Goldtone’, which I misheard as “gold sun”, was about being “stoned”, although the song confessed, “but I never as they say, touched the stuff.”
Vile ended his effortless set with ‘Freak Train’, which sounded harder and louder than his previous songs on the set. In fact, bassist Jesse Trbovich even brought out the saxophone to close out the chaotic song’s ending.
Wilco (Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone) has quite the fanbase in Minneapolis, the turnout was incredible for this Chicago band. Even singer / guitarist Jeff Tweedy had to comment about the great turnout, “Minneapolis, we were just here. We love it here, and we are going to come back every 13 months, whether you want us or not. This feels like a hometown gig!” Tweedy was referring to their headlining appearance at the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis in July 2015, exactly 13 months ago.
Wilco’s current ninth studio album is the oddly-named Star Wars album... the record has nothing to do with the George Lucas creation. The record was given away for free on their website, but fans still pre-ordered the CD (and eventual vinyl version).
Based on hearing fans sing along to new songs like ‘More...’, ‘Random Name Generator’ and ‘The Joke Explained’, it seemed the giveaway was a good call on their part.
The band also previewed a song called ‘Locator’, which will be on their upcoming 10th studio album Schmilco, available in September 2016. With all their fans loving the new song, you can bet that they’ll come back to town to tour in support of the new record.
After their quick three-song for the encore (‘Red-Eyed and Blue’, ‘I Got You (At the End of the Century)’, and ‘Outtasite (Outta Mind)’), the band barely beating out the noise curfew. However, that wasn’t the end of the show!
For the second encore, Wilco stripped out the electric guitars, per the noise ordinance, and played another six songs on acoustic guitars. Among the songs were a Billy Bragg & Wilco song called ‘California Stars’.
With the whole event really fun and memorable, we’ll look forward to another one of these event next year... but let’s hope it doesn’t rain.
Wilco’s Star Wars is out now.
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Wilco at Historic Hall's Island, Minneapolis (20 August 2016) |
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