Wilco, Chicago, Day 5

Setlist:
Sunken Treasure
One By One
Shoulda Been Ashamed
You Are My Face
Side With The Seeds
Pot Kettle Black
War On War
Pieholden Suite #@*
Muzzle of Bees#
It's Just That Simple
Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway(again)
I Thought I Held You
What Light @
When You Wake Up Feeling Old #
Summerteeth#
Jesus ETC #
Walkin@
Hummingbird #

-------

Via Chicago
Blood Of a Lamb#@
Can't Stand It@
Box Full of Letters
Heavy Metal Drummer
Hate it Here@#
Thanks I Get @
Just a Kid
Red Eyed and Blue #
I Got You
Casino Queen
I'm a Wheel
Less Than You Think# (w/drone)

e: I'm the Man Who Loves You
Dreamer In My Dreams


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It's amazing this's come to an end, this bizarre, bizarrely redeeming trip to Chicago. The band seems to have sensed the craziness, finally, playing a show that amounted to a greatest-hits of the past few days (Stiratt sings again! Box Full of Letters Electric! The Thanks I Get With Horns!) and a couple of rarities that were slam dunks (I still can't believe they played "Just a Kid.")

The sense of fun was palpable on stage and thankfully made its way to the balcony for the second set; before that, it was a lot of sitting and wondering why people'd made the trip. Stirrat nailed one of the best bass-bin jumps I've ever seen during "I Got You", and he and Jeff hugged after "It's just that Simple," which was very very sweet.

"Less Than You Think" was...difficult. I'm thinking the song is actually about Tweedy's resentment at being called genius for his experimentalism ("there's so much less/to this than you think") and that the end drone coda is almost a dare: "call this great. we have no clue what the fuck we're doing." Once that came into my mind, I almost wanted to jump the stage and slap the man: it's fine to be humble, but another thing altogether to be dismissive.

Of course, the drone was beautiful. Even if he has no idea what he's doing. So there is that.

Sliding scale: 8.5