Wilco & Low in Duluth: A cold sweat
Posted on September 5th, 2007 – 9:55 AMBy Chris Riemenschneider
I’ve seen Wilcoat leasta dozen times now going back to their coming-out gig at SXSW in 1995, and this was one of my favorites (click here if you haven’t seenmy review here).The setting/circumstances had a lot to do with it. You haven’t seen Wilco until you’ve seen them on a lake (THE lake!) in tassel caps with a mist blowing over the stage and a rustic city skyline behind them. But the setlist was also an interesting one, basically a split between the Wilco of today and, in the first encore, the Wilco of yesterday. “Too Far Apart” (off “A.M.”) was a fun little nugget dropped in the middle, too.
Please let us know what you thought of the show. Weather aside (how many of you from the Cities got caught off guard by the chill?), what did you think of Bayfront Festival Park? And those of you planning to make the Oct. 11 date at Northrop Auditorium, what kind of show are you hoping for?
Wilco’s set list: Either Way / You Are My Face / I Am Trying to Break Your Heart / Handshake Drugs / Pot Kettle Black / War on War / Side With the Seeds / Shot in the Arm / Impossible Germany / Hummingbird / Jesus Etc. / Too Far Apart / Walken / I’m the Man Who Loves You
Encore 1: California Stars (w/ Al & Mimi of Low) / Hesitating Beauty / Red-Eyed & Blue / I Got You (At the End of the Century) / I’m Always in Love / Outta Mind (Outta Site) Encore 2: Misunderstood / Heavy Metal Drummer / Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Low made a fine hometown showing. The wind blowing in to their microphones and the swaying light rigs overhead made their songs seem extra chilly.
Low’s set list: One More Reason to Forget (w/ Nels Cline on lap-guitar) /Point of Disgust/ Cue the Strings / In Silence / Dragonfly / Starfire / Murderer / Silver Rider / When I Go Deaf
16 Responses to "Wilco & Low in Duluth: A cold sweat"
Amazing show… I was up in front center right below tweedy. Took a lot of pics and some video. I’ll post a link later…
I also thought it was one of the best Wilco shows I have seen. They looked like they were having a lot of fun, really into the music, and just plain rocked out. Kind of felt like Tweedy was mocking the audience a bit with the spiders extended clap along, but I guess I was not offended. Going to the northrup show, and am curious if the show will be different because of the difference in venues.
What a great show! I trecked up from MPLS and my poor over-exposed chicken legs were totally caught off guard by the weather! Wilco did not disappoint~ this was my first Wilco show, and needless to say Tweedy can sing like no other. He truly is a genious and obviously was having a good time on stage. I was really happy that they busted out some tunes from the Mermaid Aves, There are so many songs that are so good, you really have to take into consideration that they only have a few hours to play them!
The festival grounds are awesome, this was by far the best show i have seen all summer and the park is moving up to the #2 spot on my list~ right after Red Rocks in Colorado! You can’t go wrong when Fitger’s is supplying the brew either! There wasn’t to much of a crowd and that made the whole expirience better. Did anybody else enjoy when the ship passed through the bay and bellowed its horn to the satisfaction of the crowd! Amazing! That just added to the whole expireince, even the weather made this trip that much more memorable! No Depression after that show:)
Tweedy! Tweedy! Tweedy! Tweedy! Tweedy! Tweedy! Tweedy!
Fall in Minnesota usually brings some amazing shows. Last night Wilco set an impossible bar for any other act to met. The opening act by Low in their fog enveloped city on the lake was amazing in itself. Wilco made the experience complete with a warm sound the flushed the chill right out of me (the blanket and delicious beer helped). Watching ships slowly sail behind the stage during their encore truly made the misty harbor show a dream come true (including the horn blast in response to the completion of another amazing song). Thinking back to this show should get me through the first few miserable weeks of school.
This show conjured the intimate, raucous vibe of the late-90s First Ave. shows better than any I’ve attended since Wilco foxtrotted from big bars to theaters. The band was clearly all about having fun last night, and the energetic resurrection of the old gems mentioned in Chris’ review was the icing. News of the upcoming Minneapolis show being scheduled at that ghastly echo chamber over at the U was like a gut punch…but hopefully the fresh memories of Duluth and Wilco’s mini-version of “Under a Blood Red Sky” will help ease any eventual disappointment on October 11.
This was my first time in Duluth and first Wilco show. I’ve been waiting to see (at least Tweedy) since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released in 2001.
What stood out:
The setting – Not even Gordon Lightfoot himself could have set the scene any better.
The beer – Starfire was a smooth and soothing brew.
The band – Tweedy pulling his knit cap over his eyes for a few solos and lead guitarist Nels Cline’s visible pock-marks.
The instruments – I couldn’t believe how often they changed guitars. I think 30 times would be a decent estimate. I loved seeing Tweedy’s gorgeous 62/63 pine top SG up close and personal.
The setlist – A YHT-heavy early set. Many deep cuts (well, they’re all tecnically deep cuts) strewn throughout.
I got the distinct impression Tweedy once studied Sociology during the show. He attempted to have the crowd to clap in unison after the band stopped playing. It didn’t work, and it looked like he won a bet because of it.
Best show I’ve ever seen? Close.
What I expected? Much more. Thanks Vilco, cheerz Duluth.
Classic stage banter: “Did you come here to party?” We could all probably learn some things from Jeff Tweedy who can learn these things from Justin Timberlake. Great wisdom passing from one J.T. to another and then on to us, the loyal audience. Great show last night, by the way.
That was my first time seeing Wilco and it will probably be hard to top. Here’s to hoping the financial struggles at Bayfront disappear and we can be treated to more awesome shows there next summer.
Great show, easily the best I have seen in a while. The fog and the cool weather were unexpected but provided a unique back drop to what is a great site for a concert. I was suprised that there were only maybe a couple thousand people, but it made for a more intimate experience. As for Wilco I thought they played a great set of songs and they really seemed to build momentum througout the show. Really enjoyed the encore especially the songs off of Being There, which I didn’t expect to hear. It will be interesting to compare it to the upcoming Northrop show, but this will definetly be a concert not soon forgotten.
I’ve seen them many times. Saw them in Denver at the Fillmore Sunday. Won’t be getting tickets for the Northrup. Can’t imagine sitting down the whole show after see this electric performance. They just rocked!
man i’ve seen Wilco 5 times now and this by far tops any of the other performances. the thick fog surrounding the park seemed to provide a blanket around the stage and surrounding city.. think it may have helped improve the acoustics too?!? tweedy was spot on with his usual witty stage banter and Nils was full of electricity as he ripped his way through his solos, it seemed like he added to some of the standard riffs even.. the Brewhouse starfire ale was fresh and went down easy. great time, 2nd year in a row they’ve been to D-Town. Lets make it 3!! anyone have any audio or pics?
having wilco play duluth twice in 14 months is unbelievable to me. such a gift for this former 1st ave. goer now ‘up north’ resident. both shows were outstanding, but the atmosphere tues. night was so surreal. songs I really wanted to hear last summer but they didn’t play were on this set list (california stars, always in love & pot kettle black). I had ruled out going to the show at the U in Oct. because it’s a week night, but now I’m considering it because they should not be missed.
There was something special in the air - and a don’t mean the mist that was swirling around the stage. Actually, the mist, wind, swinging stage lights, and the fog shrouded city, all made for an apocalyptic atmosphere that infected band and crowd. Awesome show. I’m still feeling the glow two days later. Always bring warm clothes when you go to the North Shore. A change in wind direction can drop the temperature 30 degrees in a few minutes.
Wow. What an atmosphere and what a show. Yeah, when we left the Twin Cities it was hot and we were all in shorts and T-shirts (and one in a mini skirt) and when we got to Duluth, well, you know how cold it was - and add wind and rain and it could have been very miserable. We had two car loads of friends go up and after scrounging through back seats and trunks, we managed to find old sweatshirts, a winter hat an extra pair of jeans (for our mini-skirted friend!) a Marine overcoat (friend just back from Iraq) and all was good. We arrived right as Low was starting and managed to hear some great stuff from them - a couple of my faves off Great Destroyer were only enhanced by the surroundings. Once Wilco started, the chill vanished and the blood warmed quickly. I’ve seen them live about 7 or 8 times (in 7 or 8 different venues - has anyone else noticed that these guys love to play different places in MN?) and as good as all of those other shows were, this one will be etched in my memory for a long time for many reasons. First, the atmosphere just couldn’t be beat - sure it was cold at first, but once the crowd gathered tightly around the stage and the music started I really was quite comfortable. I would just look around from time to time and drink it in - fog all around making it so all you could see of the city behind us was a smattering of blurry lights; the spot lights catching the wind blowing the mist all around the stage (looked like a special effect from Hollywood - only it was real); ships passing behind the stage and sounding a gutteral fog horn as it passed under the lift bridge. With that surreal backdrop, Tweedy and the boys whip out a set list that couldn’t be more to my liking if I wrote it up myself - rock ‘n roll bliss. And as Chris wrote in his review, the jams were incredible - I was sweating from jumping along to the groove, I felt over dressed in my shorts at that point. Other quick observations - I loved Tweedy’s funny banter - he really looks like he’s having fun, and I dug his hat (you don’t see singers wearing winter hats at many shows and it just looked cool on him). Having the members of Low join them for California Stars was a nice touch, too. I’ve been going to concerts for 26 years and everything just seemed to come together for this one which makes it tough to decide if I want to go to the Northrup show, especially this soon after Duluth - I want to keep this one in the memory bank for a while and the U of M show might taint that. Ah, who am I kidding, I’m sure I’ll be there ’cause that’s the great thing about live shows - you never know what you’re going to get and the Northup show might be even better…but I doubt it!
Ryan, sorry you couldn’t make it to Duluth, you truly are a loser. Corporal Miller, thanks for the winter hat and Laura, we need to be sure to rub it in Ryan’s face that he missed one of the best rock shows Minnesota has ever seen every time we see him at work (and thanks for driving, you were great company).
Rock on.
Fred T.
This was, by FAR, one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Like many others, I was absolutely freezing, but I forgot all about that once Wilco started playing. The musicianship of everyone in the band is just incredible. Nels gets a lot of attention (and rightfully so!), but John, Glenn, Pat…they’re all such great musicians! The setting really couldn’t have been prettier, with the fog hanging on the top of the lift bridge and the ships passing behind the stage.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the Northrop show, but I certainly got an amazing show to tie me over till I can see them again!
Combien il coûte, pour to développer drapeau South ton blog?
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