Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Wilco’s first show

“We’ve been practicing in Belleville all week. This is our first show ever.”
- Jeff Tweedy at Cicero’s, St. Louis on 11/17/94

Last night at Wilco’s concert at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland in Kansas City, Missouri, front man Jeff Tweedy told the audience that it was the 25th anniversary of the band’s first ever show. 

This proceeded their performance of “Box Full of Letters,” which, when it was first played at their first show at Cicero’s Basement Bar in St. Louis, wasn’t released until over four months later on Wilco’s debut album, A.M.

For their premiere gig, Wilco went under the name Black Shampoo, taken from the title of a blaxploitation flick from 1976. In Tweedy’s 2018 memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), he wrote that the use of the odd moniker, inspired by drummer Ken Coomer’s collection of cult films, “seemed like a funny, self-effacing way to begin our musical second chapter.”

Wilco’s line-up on this day, two and a half decades ago, was Tweedy on lead vocal, rhythm, acoustic and lead guitars, Jay Bennett on acoustic and lead guitars; John Stirratt on bass, Max Johnston on Banjo and fiddle, and Coomer on drums.

A raw feedback-filled recording of the show can be found on these here interwebs with very little Googling, so Wilco fans can easily check out what their favorite band sounded like in the beginning. Incidentally, “In the Beginning” is the name of a CDR bootleg I have of the show. You can hear the boot on YouTube:

Listening to the recording of the gig now, which cuts into the first song “I Must Be High,” is an interesting experience as you can hear Tweedy shaking off the uneasiness of the Uncle Tupelo breakup (Tweedy’s former band, which also consisted of Stirratt and Coomer, played their last show at the club Mississippi Nights on May 1st, 1994) and plunging forward with his new project.

Let’s take a look at the setlist, enhanced by some choice between song banter courtesy of the audibly nervous Tweedy.

“I Must Be High” (“The first song on our record, which won’t be out for a long time, but it’s the first song we ever played, and the first time we ever played is on the record.”)

“Too Far Apart” (Referring to the secret nature of their first show: “So, um, how’d you guys find out? It’s all Beatle Bob’s fault.”)

“Box Full of Letters”

“Should’ve Been in Love”

(“We’re gonna do a song in a minute that we used to do in another band…Max has got an experimental banjo solo in it.”)

“New Madrid” (Uncle Tupelo)

(“This is a song that – it might be kinda ill-suited for Cicero’s Basement, but it’s on our record so…”)

“That’s Not the Issue”

(“I have to sing this kinda quiet, so shut up.”)

“Pick Up the Change”

“The Long Cut” (Uncle Tupelo)

“Walk Where He Walked” (Golden Smog)

“Shouldn’t Be Ashamed”“If That’s Alright” (Uncle Tupelo)

“Give Back the Key to My Heart” (Doug Sahm)

“Wait Up” (Uncle Tupelo cover)

“No Sense in Lovin’” (Uncle Tupelo)

“Lost Love” (Golden Smog) (“Practiced that a million times, man.”)

“Passenger Side” (“Maybe we’ll try that one again later or something.”)

“Casino Queen” (“Thanks a lot for letting us play under a stupid fake name.”)

Encore:

“Reincarnation” (Roger Miller)

(“I really would like to thank you for up to this point not hearing anyone yell ‘Whiskey Bottle,’ I appreciate that – did you hear it? Oh, f***. Nothing against the song, mind you.”)

“We’ve Been Had” (Uncle Tupelo)

(“This is a pretty stupid song, so…a stupider song.”)

“Hesitation Rocks” (Originally known to fans as Let’s Hear It for Rock and Roll”)

Second encore:

(“You know, most of these songs we’ve been playing are from our record that’s gonna come out in March. And then, like the one we just played isn’t on anything. And this one’s not on anything. Although we tried to play it like a dozen times.”)

“Outtasite (Outta Mind)”

“Listen to Her Heart” (Tom Petty) 

Having just formed earlier that year, Wilco had a limited amount of material so 11 out of the 22 songs they performed were covers like the Petty show-closer, leftover Uncle Tupelo tracks, and a Golden Smog song that wouldn’t released for four years (“Lost Love” appears on Golden Smog’s second album Weird Tales, which came out on October 13, 1998).

As for Wilco’s originals, they played 8 of the 13 tracks that would be released on A.M., a song that was an outtake from that album’s sessions (“Hesitation Rocks”), and a song (“Outtasite (Outta Mind))” that would later be on the band’s second album, Being There, that wouldn't officially drop until October 29, 1996.

Although neither features any tracks from this historic event, two Wilco releases were released on the show’s 20th anniversary in 2014. Their first ever “best of” comp, a 2-disc, 38-track collection entitled: What’s Your 20? The Best of Wilco (Essential Tracks 1994-2014), and a 77-track box set, Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014.

Daniel Cook Johnson’s Wilcopedia: A Comprehensive Guide to the Music of America’s Best Band is available for order here.

More later...