We are now in the midst of the 20th Anniversary season for Wilco’s breakthrough masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and there’s a lot of activity to cover. I mean, a lot.
Although many fans consider YHF, as we’ll abbreviate it from here on, to be a 2001 album, as it began streaming online on September 18, 2001 (the album’s original Reprise Records release date was 9/11/01), the “retail release” of the album was April 23, 2002. So to celebrate this milestone, Jeff Tweedy and company are currently performing concerts at Union Palace in New York, in which they present the entire album in order, then offer up an encore of fan favorites (which could mean any of their songs).
There was a bit of a mini-controversy on the first night (April 15) of Wilco’s run at Union Palace, as they only performed three songs as an encore to the 11-song cycle of YHF, and many fans were disappointed with the set’s overall length of an hour and 15 minutes. I have to say I probably would’ve been a little miffed too had I spent the money on tickets and travel to the event, as this is a band that’s played many rich, lengthy sets in their lifetime, but such an occasion in which one of the greatest records ever is presented in its entirety is a very special gift-horse that shouldn’t be looked in the mouth.
Especially when considering the care Wilco has gone to recreate YHF as it was originally introduced to the world, stripping away elements that have gathered on the songs as they’ve evolved on stage over the last two decades. For the first three nights at Union Palace (April 15-17), Wilco’s sets, aided by the Aizuri (String) Quartet, and American jazz trombonist / vocalist Natalie Cressman, comprised of the YHF tracks as follows:
“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” / “Kamera” / “Radiom Cure” / “War on War” / “Jesus, Etc.” / “Ashes of American Flags” / “Heavy Metal Drummer” / “I’m the Man Who Loves You” / “Pot Kettle Black” / “Poor Places” / “Reservations”
Then the encore of the aforementioned first show of the tour on Friday, April 15, contained Bill Fay’s “Be Not So Fearful,” and two songs that were played in honor of Jay Bennett (1963-2009), “Pieholden Sweet,” and “Magazine Called Sunset.” Preceding these tunes, Tweedy spoke about his former musical partner saying, “We’d like to dedicate these next few songs to Jay Bennett, who helped make this record. We all wish he was here to celebrate with us, you know, these songs go out to him wherever he is.”
The next night (April 16), Wilco reprised those three tunes in the encore, but added “Cars Can’t Escape,” “Hummingbird,” “Red-Eyed and Blue,” “I Got You (At the End of the Century),” and “Outtasite (Outta Mind),” so maybe Tweedy took the fans’ complaints to heart? The third show of the five night Union Palace residency on April 17 also featured a similar eight song encore, but “Red-Eyed and Blue” was replaced by the YHF-era B-side “The Good Part.”
Last night, Wilco appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to play “Poor Places” with the Aizuri Quartet. Watch the stirringly stunning performance:
After Wilco finishes their next two shows tonight, and tomorrow night, at Union Palace, they’re on to Auditorium Theatre in Chicago for three concerts on April 22, 23, and 24. The event on the 23rd (the actual anniversary of the release) will be livestreamed by nugs.net.
Today, it was announced that the highly anticipated Deluxe Edition of YHF will be available come this September. Actually, make that seven different Deluxe Re-issues, which would take up too much space to detail here so I’ll direct you to wilcoworld.net for info on the various configurations that include multi-vinyl, and CD packages with loads of demos, outtakes, drafts, live recordings, and a primo radio appearance.
That radio event – Wilco live on Sound Opinions 9/18/01 – is available to listen to now as it’s been re-broadcast as Show 854 (Revisiting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot With Wilco, April 8, 2022). It’s great that it’s accessible again as the episode was unavailable, and hard to find online for years – something I found as I was researching my book, Wilcopedia, in the 2010s, and would be seeking out quotes from the YHF era. Wilco’s performance and interview with hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, who wrote the first book on the band, Wilco: Learning How to Die (2004), is notable for having taken place a week after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in NYC.
Lastly, and most humorously, Wilco collaborated with an Old Town Foxtrot store (1562 N. Wells St., Chicago) for a pop-up event held today featuring a collection of Wilco-themed snacks and drinks. The limited-edition items include Wilc-O’s Cereal, a partnership with Off Limits; Broken Heart Custom Gummies; and Jesus Don’t Cry Pilsner with Great Central Brewing.
Stay tuned to this space for more YHF 20th Anniversary coverage plus a post about the concurrent activity around events this week celebrating Jay Bennett, as there is a documentary, Gorman Bechard’s JAY BENNETT, WHERE ARE YOU?, and two Record Store Day releases of Bennett material set for April 23. Click back here in the next day or so to read more about it.
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