Wilco setlists: Indianapolis 11/12, Louisville 11/13, & St. Louis 11/14

Wilco’s Ode to Joy fall tour keeps on rolling with stops in Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri over the last three nights. While fans may still complain about the repetition in the setlists, a surprise was provided in the form of the Bottle Rockets’ (who opened the show) Brian Henneman, along with their drummer Mark Ortmann, who joined in on the encore’s performances of “California Stars” and “Casino Queen.” 

The later song was especially notable as Henneman had played on the studio version that was released on Wilco’s 1995 debut, A.M. Henneman was the lead guitarist on the album, but didn't continue as an official member because he was launching the Bottle Rockets during the same period. Read more about “Casino Queen” here.

Anyway, here’s how the last three shows went down:

The Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN 11/12/19

“Bright Leaves” / “Before Us” / “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” / “War on War” / “If I Ever Was a Child” / “Handshake Drugs” / “Side With the Seeds” / “One and a Half Stars” / “Hummingbird” / “White Wooden Cross” / “Via Chicago” / “Bull Black Nova” / “Laminated Cat” / “Random Name Generator” / “Reservations” / “Impossible Germany” / “Jesus, Etc.” / “We Were Lucky” / “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” / “Forget the Flowers” / “Box Full of Letters” / “Everyone Hides” / “Theologians” / “I’m the Man Who Loves You” / “Hold Me Anyway”/ “Misunderstood”

Encore: “California Stars” / “The Late Greats”

The Louisville Palace, Louisville, KY 11/13/19

“Bright Leaves” / “Before Us” / “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” / “Kamera” / “Handshake Drugs” / “At Least That’s What You Said” / “One and a Half Stars” / “Hummingbird”/ “White Wooden Cross” / “Via Chicago” / “Bull Black Nova” / “Random Name Generator” / “Reservations” / “Impossible Germany” / “Jesus, Etc.” / “We Were Lucky” / “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” / “Box Full of Letters” / “Everyone Hides” / “Theologians” / “I’m the Man Who Loves You” / “Hold Me Anyway”/ “The Late Greats”

Encore: “California Stars” / “Red Eyed and Blue” / “I Got You (At the End of the Century” / “Outtasite (Outta Mind)”

Fabulous Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 11/14/19

“Bright Leaves” / “Before Us” / “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” / “War on War” / “Handshake Drugs” / “Side With the Seeds” / “One and a Half Stars” / “Hummingbird” / “White Wooden Cross” / “Via Chicago” / “How to Fight Loneliness” / “Bull Black Nova” / “Laminated Cat” / “Random Name Generator” / “Reservations” / “Impossible Germany” / “Jesus Etc.”/ “We Were Lucky” / “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” / “Box Full of Letters” / “Everyone Hides” / “I’m Always in Love”/ “Heavy Metal Drummer” / “I’m the Man Who Loves You” / “Hold Me Anyway” / “Misunderstood”

Encore: “California Stars” / “Casino Queen”

The official show poster at the top of this post was created by Justin Helton / Status Serigraph.

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

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Wednesday Wilco Song Spotlight: “Casino Queen”

This week, the Song Spotlight shines on a song from Wilco’s 1995 debut A.M., which is definitely one of their rowdier tunes:

“Casino Queen” (Jeff Tweedy)

Jeff Tweedy: vocals, acoustic guitar

John Stirratt: bass, vocals

Max Johnston: fiddle, vocals

Ken Coomer: drums, vocals

Brian Henneman: guitars, vocals

Daniel Corrigan: vocals

“My dad asked me to write a song about it,” Tweedy told Josh Terry of the Chicago Tribune in 2016. “It’s a real riverboat casino. I took my dad to go to the casino one time, and he said, This could be something you could write a song about. He basically forced me to do it.”

From its dirty licks to its drunken chorus, this track has a distinct Rolling Stones vibe, and could’ve easily fit on one of the band’s classic run of albums from the late ’60s to the early 70s. It’s not hard to imagine Mick Jagger spitting out such lines as “My wife that I just met is looking like a wreck,” and “I’ve been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green.” 

Adding to the song’s boozy, barroom aura, the sounds of bottles clinking together can be heard throughout the second half of the track, notably at the end, as the screams and woos die down. Guest guitarist Brian Henneman, who was brokenhearted at the time, reportedly drunkenly clinked two beer bottles together on the track. “That’s totally contrived,” Tweedy said of Henneman’s contribution to the song to Steve Hyden in 2017. “But those bottles definitely were emptied by him.” 

“Casino Queen,” which was one of Wilco’s first batch of demos, was played at their first official gig, at Cicero’s in St. Louis, Missouri, in late 1994. There, Jay Bennett, who doesn’t appear on A.M., put his stamp on the lead guitar lines originally played by Henneman, who by now was back with his band The Bottle Rockets. Since then, the rowdy song has long been a live staple that Wilco have performed—usually during encores—well over three hundred times.

Robert (Bob) Tweedy passed away on August 4, 2017. At the first show that Jeff played after his father’s death, at the Velorama Festival in Denver, Colorado, on August 11, Wilco performed ‘Casino Queen’ as a tribute. Jeff introduced it by saying, ‘This was the first song that my dad liked that I wrote ... and I think it might be the last song that he liked that I wrote.’

A rousing live version of “Casino Queen,” recorded at the Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado, on May 5, 1995, appears on the CD single for “Box Full of Letters,” and was later re-released on Alpha Mike Foxtrot.

This is an edited excerpt of Wilcopedia by Daniel Cook Johnson, published by Jawbone Press (www.jawbonepress.com). Order your copy here.

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