Penny Lane

This is worth posting, since I know some of you like Wilco. CaptainMarvel and I caught them in Atlanta last night for their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tour (even though they've yet to release the cd). The concert was really good; they only played about four or five songs from the new album, and the rest were goodies from Mermaid Avenue I, A.M., Being There, and Summerteeth .
We were about three rows back into the audience (there were no seats in the front), so we had a good view of the band, too. If any of you are near an area in which they will be playing, I highly recommend trying to go see them. It was well worth the drive for me and CM.

stevevt

Thanks for the info.

They're playing here in 5 days. I'm gonna try to make it.

I'm actually more into the opening act (Elf Power) than them, but I do have most of Wilco's albums.

stevevt

I just checked and saw that the Handsome Family opened for them in Atlanta. They just put out a new album, I guess.

Did you see their set? How were they? I saw them live in Wisconsin a couple years ago, and liked them a lot.

Penny Lane

You might want to see if you can go ahead and get tickets. The theatre in Atlanta was packed, and the show was sold out.

Yeah, we saw the Handsome Family. I was completely charmed with Rennie, and her husband had a really good voice. Their sound reminded me of the Scud Mountain Boys, whom I like. CM sent me an e-mail about them, and they sound intriguing. If I can afford it, I'll buy one of their cds sometime.

stevevt

Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm going to be around, and probably won't until a few days before the show.

I really like the Scud Mountain Boys. Did you follow Joe Pernice through the rest of his bands (Pernice Brothers, Big Tobacco, Chappaquidick Skyline)? All worth checking out.

As for the Handsome Family, my favorite of theirs is "Through the Trees." "In the Air" is good too. They're really hitting their stride with that drum machine.

Penny Lane

No, I haven't followed Joe Pernice, other than Scud Mountain Boys, but I think my fiance has. I know he has a Chappaquidick Skyline cd.

They were really funny with their drum machine. They kept talking about needing a new drummer and stuff. Cute.

mike1978

Wilco apparently played a secret show here in Chicago a few weeks ago, but I missed it. I'll definitely be seeing them on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tour - Wilco was great the last 2 times I saw them.

Alyoshka

I think they are coming to Dallas. I'm glad they are playing Mermaid I stuff: that is my favorite of the two. Pretty soon I'm going to see Old 97s too. Bliss....

Penny Lane

Last night was the first time I've seen them perform. I think they're the best live performance I've ever seen. Many bands don't do too well live, but Wilco was impressive..

Alyoshka, they played "California Stars," "One by One," and "Hesitating Beauty"(my favorite) from Mermaid Avenue I . I think those are the only ones they played from it, but I could be wrong.

Three Day Delay

Unfortunately, St. Louis is the closest they are coming to me. Bummer. "California Stars" is my favorite song of theirs.

Hoever, Allison Krauss will be here in two weeks (on my birthday no less)

jdpatri

I was pissed I couldn't go here in the ATL because I had something else I had to do.

I'll just live vicariously through you and play Mermaid Avenue and Being There some more.

Penny Lane

I've been complaining that Wilco never tours in the south, but I noticed when I was looking at their web page earlier that they've been at Five Points South Music Hall in Birmingham twice! That was back in '95 and '96, though. I wasn't familiar with them at that point.

stevevt

OK, so I am actually gonna get to see the Wilco show here on Sunday. Bought my ticket this morning.

Unfortunately #1, the show was listed in the paper as $15/$18 day of show. Way too expensive.

Unfortunately #2, the actually price of the show was $18 in advance/$20 day of show.

WTH?

Can anybody confirm that the prices for this tour are this crazy? Checking ticketmaster.com, I see that the shows they're selling tix for range from $17 to $25ish.

RandyC

California Stars is now on of my ALL TIME favorite songs.

Penny Lane

I can see why. It's definitely a great melody with catchy lyrics.

badger1997

I think it's just concert tickets in general lately that have been going crazy. At the local concert venue Wilco usually plays, First Avenue, tickets used to go for about $10 to $15 or so. I remember paying $12 to see White Zombie years ago and paying similar amounts to see Wilco and Soul Asylum there. The last time Wilco came through though it was $20 in advance and like $22 at the door. I thought it was crazy and then I noticed most of the shows there are charging that much now. Must just be inflation or greed or something i guess. I remember when $25 was a lot to pay for a concert and now most big concerts are at least $40 or so, so I guess the smaller concert venues saw an opportunity to raise prices or something. It's disappointing because I wanted to go see Ben Folds later this week and was surprised to find tickets are $20 a piece. In the old days would have been much cheaper.

stevevt

Thanks for the confirmation.

In any given year, I go to...

• Around 6 concerts in Montreal. My guess on the average ticket price: $7 American. Of course, these are pretty small venues, and typically not Big Acts.
• Anywhere between 6 and 10 concerts in Boston. My guess on the average ticket price: $8. Again -- small venues, and typically not Big Acts.
• Around 4 concerts in NYC. At smaller venues, the average price is $10; at medium/bigger venues, the average price is $20.
• Around 10 concerts in Vermont. The venues are small to medium, and the average ticket price is $15.

I'm sure there are worse places to see shows, price-wise, but in my frame of reference, Burlington is the undisputed rip-off champion of the world. Keep in mind that although the prices in NYC seem higher, the shows I go to are typically medium-buzzworthy acts.

sundog

They played a free-show at Grant Park in Chicago with the North Mississippi All Stars around the 4th of July (it might have been the 4th, I can't remember). I was out of town and couldn't make it. Fortunately, WXRT aired the show and my co-worker taped it and put it on CD. It sounded great. Every time they've been here, I've usually been thwarted by circumstance.

Funny thing, I went to a screening of a documentary on Cynthia Plastercaster early in the year and it had a part where she was trying to get Jeff Tweedy to become "immortalized." He was pretty sheepish. They were in the now defunct Lounge-Ax and Cynthia then began asking his wife, the owner of Lounge-Ax (Sue Miller, I think) for permission. It was never answered whether or not he went through with it.

Penny Lane

What is becoming "immortalized"?

CaptainMarvel

Ewwwwwww....
http://www.hia.net/bcd/TFAvelocity.htm

mike1978

Steve - I think prices like that are fairly typical for Wilco shows. The Chicago show I saw a few months ago was (I think) $20 before service charges. I saw them about 2 years ago while I was still at the University of Illinois, and I think that may have been $15. I'm used to paying about $8 for 90% of the shows I attend.

Matt

I saw them in late 1997 here in Oklahoma City, and I think tickets the day of the show were around $13. I'd gladly pay $20 or more to see them again, as I think they're one of the most talented bands in the country these days.

Too bad that two of the original members are no longer in the band--Bennett and Croomer. Don't know how the new guys are, but hopefully they'll be close to as good as the old guys were.

By the way, you can listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in it's entirety on Wilco's website, www.wilcoweb.com . It's streaming Quicktime, decent quality.

I've got a connection of mine who sent me a copy of the album on CD last week, and I have already listened to it at least five or six times. It's fantastic, and it's a shame that Reprise rejected it. Hopefully, Jeff and the gang will find a label that will give them the freedom and the room to grow and experiment that they deserve. . .

Looks like YHF won't be seeing the light of day until early 2002 at the earliest, and it's been done for months. . .

Penny Lane

CM- thanks, sweetie. I hope Jeff Tweedy didn't do that. I know I wouldn't want him to if I were his wife!

I think we paid about $20 apiece for the Atlanta show. I didn't think that was bad at all. As big a Wilco fan as I am, I probably would've paid much more than that.

Also, I don't see what's wrong with the new album, either. Given, it's much different from their other stuff, but everything they've done has been pretty far removed from their older music. Most people just don't appreciate the good music anymore. Stupid Reprise (it was them, right?)

Matt

Yeah, it was Reprise. Was. Not any more. Wilco was shopping the album around a few months ago, reportedly to over thirty interested labels, but a recent update on their website said that they had narrowed that list down substantially.

The album is an instant classic. I immediately liked it more than Summer Teeth (which I still haven't been able to get into all that much, several years after it's release), but it's closer to the Summer Teeth vein than their other two albums (or the Mermaid Avenue albums, for that matter). There are still a few nods to the late 60's Beach Boys and Rolling Stones sounds, just like with Summer Teeth, but it's got that uniquely Wilco sound.

For the record, Being There is still my favorite Wilco album, but YHF is moving up there with each new listen.

Yankee. . . Hotel. . . Foxtrot.

Penny Lane

I'm in agreement with you about the new one. I can't figure out, for the life of me, what Reprise found wrong with it. I'm completely in love with (especially) "I'm the man who loves you" and "I am trying to break your heart"(Bible black pre-dawn, though? ). They played both of those at the concert, plus about 2 or three more from YHF.
I love Summerteeth, but it's hard to pick a favorite. I've really liked everything I've ever heard of theirs.