Lessons on Playing Live from Wilco

I think a lot of bands could take some tips from Wilco on how to play live. Whatever you think of their music past or present, consider the following:

1) They played their new album in its entirety the day after it came out to open a concert, told the audience they were doing so, and then followed it up with a run of fan favourites. Everybody wins. ‎
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2) They know their entire back catalogue and play it. Yes, there are songs that show up in nearly every concert, but they also throw in real obscurities on a regular basis... deep album tracks from twenty years ago... songs that were part of acrimonious splits with past members... a bside that everyone knows is terrible (including the band, but they tell the audience in advance and everyone has a laugh and the one person who loves that song feels like the luckiest person in the world).

3) They have amazing musicianship. That means not only can they play every song in their back catalogue, but they can play it well.

4) They keep things fresh. Some examples from the last few years include: acoustic sets, acoustic encores, a set of covers picked in advance by the audience, multi-night residencies with no song repeats... oh yeah, and their own festival where they invite all of their friends to play.

5) Collaborations with opening acts. Most bands clearly care nothing about the band's they tour with. Not so with Wilco.

6) Encourage a taping culture. Wilco have always supported fan taping and trading and now sell many of their own soundboard recordings for about $10. This fosters a culture of fans getting passionate about all of the above points. ‎

Apply these principles to most artists whose live shows are disappointing and you'd likely see the complaints go away. ‎

 

Well said. I've seen them thrice. Two of those three were among the best shows i've ever seen.

 

Yup. They are top tier for sure. Polished, well organized. Tweedy got it down.

 

So true! My favorite band still creating original new music.

 

One of my favorite live bands for the reasons you state. They always deliver and are never boring. I've seen them 12 times now and look forward to the next one whenever it may occur.

Tweedy's pretty damn funny sometimes too!

 

Could have named this thread "Lessons On Playing Live From Pearl Jam"

 

...or Gov't Mule.


Oh, look! My first post.

 

7) little chit chat as Jeff says - when it is, it's spontaneous humor - not a rehearsed line

8) they genuinely have fun

9) the 5 song double encores

 

Yep. Right on for each point.

See also: Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket.

 

I've never seen Wilco, but I'm not surprised. As much as I like their music I will have to find a concert of theirs to attend.

 

I want them to play their cover of Pavement's "Cut Your Hair" when I see them in Ann Arbor next month. So Tweedy, if you're reading this, that is my request.

 

Which are these? Do you just mean the YHF stuff for the former?

They've never played anything like 'My Darling' in recent years, or have they?

 

Played it last year, and a couple times in 2008.

http://wilcoworld.net/#!/tour_date_type/26-sept-2014-berklee-performance-center-boston-ma/

 

Exactly. When they set out to play the entire catalogue they didn't skip My Darling. Jay's version of Kamera is often played, too.

 

pardon my latter-day ignorance, what is Jay's version of Kamera? Pretty amazing they played My Darling, which Tweedy contributed something like three words towards?

 

Like I wrote in the all-purpose Wilco thread recently, I am a recent and complete convert -- somehow I missed what Tweedy and company had going on, but I have been obsessed with rectifying that oversight in recent weeks. The live album and Roadcase releases have been on almost endless loops here. Turns out that they played Seattle about a week after I became besotted and I didn't even know until the next day. Bummer, but I will nake up that oversight, too, the next time they are in town.

I have to say that I love the early stuff, and YHF is an unqualified masterpiece, but its really the current lineup that reaches a musical pinnacle that few other current bands have reached.

I've taken to thinking of Jeff Tweedy as sort of a modern-day, American, roots-rock-inspired version of Robert Fripp, and Wilco is his King Crimson. Weird analogy, but it makes sense to me.

 

There's an alternate version on the YHF bonus ep. It's an earlier mix that, I believe, is attributed to Jay's approach during the YHF process.

 

Yep, the album version is "Kamera" and the alternate version is "Camera", and the alternate is more recently included in the AMF compilation.

Btw, that link points out one more cool thing -- click on a song on their site, and they've imported/maintained a pretty good list of performance dates for that song. (Once upon a time, there was something called Wilcobase.)

 

Isn't there a third version, which is more lush, orchestrated / more typical of Jay Bennett, whereas the 'Camera' version from More Like The Moon/AMF is more of a rock thing? Think it was on the YHF 'demos' boot than someone from their own camp clearly leaked themselves, way back when.

 

Yes, there is... and it is good.

 

Or Phish. We could keep working backwards in time, but the O.P. was correct. These were all excellent traits about Wilco.

 

Absolutely agree... either as great a band as I've ever seen, or maybe the greatest. There are as fave a band as I have & at this point, might very well be my fave American band ever even...looking very forward to the upcoming gigs in Cleveland & Ithaca this next month.

 

Forgot to add

11) their ticket prices are very reasonable

12) they play cool venues and lesser played cities

 

I always try to see them when they are around, and solo Tweedy and other band side projects. Money well spent most often.