“Asheville, finally!” Jeff Tweedy remarked early into Wilco’s show at the odd venue, Salvage Station, last night. Tweedy was referring to this event being originally scheduled for Tuesday, August 17, but Tropical Storm Fred had other ideas.
Despite a hard rain shower in the afternoon, the skies were largely clear by the time the doors opened at 5pm, and thankfully rain-free for the rest of the evening. A repurposed junkyard, Salvage Station, with its gravel-based grounds, was definitely the least fancy, most grotty locale where I’ve ever seen Wilco perform. Don’t get me wrong, it was a cool place to see a show, and had a nice assortment of food trucks and booze booths around a circular walkway.
At 6pm, Wilco’s first opening act, NNAMDÏ (formerly known as Nnamdi Ogbonnaya), took the stage with his backing band, and preceded to win over the audience with his melodic blend of hip-hop, reggae, and jazz.
NNAMDÏ hails from Chicago, but while being in Wilco’s orbit was a factor in his addition to this tour, I bet it was more because he’s a masterful multi-instrumentalist with a bounty of solid songs. I must explore this artist further.
Next up, Sleater-Kinney, a band I’ve highly enjoy through their albums and a few live shows through the years. Fronted by guitarists/vocalists Carrie Brownstein, and Corin Tucker, the group tore through a full set of punk thrashers mostly from their latest album, Path of Wellness (which I have to pick up). To say that Sleater-Kinney was well received would be an understatement as I witnessed a crowd full of frantically dancing, and pogoing gig-goers.
Now onto the meat of the matter: Wilco’s headlining set, which began at 8:30pm. Like all the previous concerts on the “It’s Time” tour, they opened with “A Shot in the Arm” from their classic third album, Summerteeth. Despite its origin in the late ‘90s, the song is timelier than ever for obvious reasons. It was a great, rich tune to kick off their set, and was followed by a just as lush rendition of a newer song, “Random Name Generator” from 2015’s Star Wars.
Wilco’s most recent record, Ode to Joy, was touched upon throughout the show with the understated yet touchingly tuneful tracks “One and a Half Stars,” “Love is Everywhere,” and “Everyone Hides.” As I’ve noted here before, Wilco’s landmark 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, is getting as much, or some nights more of a spotlight than 2019’s Ode, which may be a case of giving the people what they want.
A regular highlight of Wilco’s performances, the Sky Blue Sky epic staple “Impossible Germany,” was given a blazing workout by lead guitarist Nels Cline, who is delightful to watch shredding up a storm that entranced the collective crowd. If anything was worth the four-hour drive to Asheville, it was this.
It was also a lot fun to watch Pat Sansone do his switching up instruments thing and pull off some sweet solos on his Fender Telecaster. As Wilco fans well know, Glenn Kotche is an extremely entertaining drummer no matter what song, but especially and obviously on “Heavy Metal Drummer.”
I was closer to the band, right up to the stage, than at any show before, and it made a difference in really appreciating John Stirratt's fluid AF basswork. It's easy to overlook keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen since he's behind the others and stoically goes about his embellishing business, but what he contributes is paramount.
Making its tour debut as it hasn’t been played since early 2020 (pre-pandemic), was A Ghost is Born’s “Hummingbird.” I’ve noticed that they’ve performed this song at every North Carolina show of theirs since the 2000s (it even appeared at a Tweedy solo shows in the state).
I have a theory about this. Since the mid aughts when the song entered their sets, a young girl named Lilac Rain joined them on stage to sing the song’s chorus and a few times even danced with Tweedy. She made this cameo appearance more than a handful of times at their NC gigs, so much that Tweedy told Lilac that “You own the song.”
As Rain grew into an adult, these appearances faded, but my belief is that Tweedy wants to keep the mini-tradition alive, and maybe summon the spirit or actual presence of Lilac yet again. When she came of age, the young woman may have left the Wilco connection behind, but I hope not as it would be great to see her join the band onstage to sing “Hummingbird” again.
Otherwise it was very satisfying to experience such favorites of mine as the Whole Love songs “Art of Almost,” and “Dawned On Me” do their stunning stuff; as well as the crisply beautiful “If I Ever Was a Child” from Schmilco, and the pop powerhouse “Theologians” live once more.
One song that no Wilco show of the last 20 years would be without is the YHF song “I’m the Man Who Loves You.” The up tempo ballad, which is dedicated to Tweedy's wife, Susie, is most performed song in their entire catalog (well over a thousand airings). Some fans complain that it’s been over-played, but I have long enjoyed its sharp piercing guitar lines, and playful lyrics.
It’s nice to see that Tweedy and Company break out at least one song from A.M., their 1995 debut, “Box Full of Letters” at these current concerts, but it begs the question: where is any material from their 1996 breakthrough, Being There? Another tour debut, A Ghost is Born’s “The Late Greats,” was broken out during the encore, which was capped off by the crowd-pleasing sing-a-long “California Stars.”
The consistently funny Tweedy constantly fiddling with his fogged-up glasses may not be his most successful between song banter, but it was still amusingly in character as was his noting that the former junkyard made him feel like he’s in “Fat Albert’s band.” He also made a point of telling the audience that they should just pretend that the band left the stage before coming back the encore so that they could save time.
I don’t know if this was up there with the best Wilco shows I’ve seen, but it was damn good. It reminded me of why I love this band, and also why I wrote my book about their music, Wilcopedia (in case you’re not sure what this blog is about). They definitely are worth a long drive, one that I’m sure I’ll be making again in, with hope, the near future.
The Setlist:
“A Shot in the Arm” / “Random Name Generator” / “At Least That’s What You Said” / “One and a Half Stars” / “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” / “Art of Almost” / “If I Ever Was a Child” / “Impossible Germany” / “Love Is Everywhere (Beware)” / “Box Full of Letters” / “Hummingbird” / “Everyone Hides” / “Dawned On Me” / “Jesus, Etc.” / “Theologians” / “I’m the Man Who Loves You” / “Heavy Metal Drummer” / “I’m Always in Love”
Encore: “The Late Greats” / “California Stars”
The awesome official show poster at the top of this post was created by Matt Pfahlert/SilentP.
More later...
