Wilco at Fox Theatre, October 18, 2021

Another Planet Entertainment presents Wilco
Faye Webster opens
Fox Theatre
1807 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94612-2109 USA
7:30 PM, Monday, October 18, 2021

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:30 PM] {lights down, opening performers out}

1. [7:30 PM] Better Distractions
2. [7:34 PM] Kind Of
3. [7:38 PM] Right Side of My Neck
4. [7:41 PM] I Know I'm Funny haha »
5. [7:44 PM] Jonny
6. [7:50 PM] In a Good Way
7. [7:54 PM] Cheers
8. [7:59 PM] Kingston
   [8:02 PM] {set ends; all off after a moment}

• Charles ?: drums, harmony vox;
• Jordan Reynolds: keyboards, harmony vox;
• Bryan Howard: bass;
• Matt “Pistol” Stoessel: guitar, pedal steel guitar;
• Faye Webster: guitar, vox.

[8:30 PM] {lights down; band out without introduction or announcements}

1. [8:31 PM] Bright Leaves
2. [8:35 PM] A Shot in the Arm
   {JT swaps (?from acoustic guitar?) to a Gibson SG; PS swaps from keyboards to guitar}
   {Randy puts away the notepad and gives up trying to keep track of this crap for the rest of the night}
3. [8:40 PM] Random Name Generator
4. [8:44 PM] At Least That's What You Said
5. [8:50 PM] One and a Half Stars
6. [8:54 PM] I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
7. [8:59 PM] Kamera
8. [9:02 PM] Via Chicago
9. [9:07 PM] Laminated Cat
10. [9:15 PM] She's a Jar
11. [9:20 PM] Impossible Germany
12. [9:29 PM] Misunderstood
13. [9:36 PM] Forget the Flowers
14. [9:40 PM] Love Is Everywhere (Beware)
15. [9:43 PM] Hummingbird
16. [9:47 PM] Box Full of Letters
17. [9:51 PM] Everyone Hides
18. [9:55 PM] Born Alone
19. [9:59 PM] Jesus, Etc.
20. [10:03 PM] Heavy Metal Drummer
21. [10:08 PM] I'm the Man Who Loves You
22. [10:12 PM] California Stars
23. [10:17 PM] Poor Places
24. [10:22 PM] Reservations
    [10:26 PM] {set ends}
     
    Encore
25. [10:27 PM] Monday
26. [10:32 PM] I'm a Wheel
    [10:34 PM] {that's a wrap!}

Wilco

• Nels Cline: guitars;
• Mikael Jorgensen: keyboards;
• Glenn Kotche: drums, percussion;
• Pat Sansone: guitar, keyboards, percussion, harmony vox;
• John Stirratt: bass, harmony vox;
• Jeff Tweedy: acoustic guitar, guitar, vox.

Monday workday works out OK: got plenty done, yay! Rustle up dinner a little earlier than usual: chicken fajitas, yum! Get dressed, then roll on down to Rockridge BART, wait a few minutes, and then we're on the train downtown. Construction projects have turned 19th Street station into a crazy maze of passages, but we make it out without getting lost (good thing, eh?). Telegraph is strangely deserted: ain't nothing happening around here right now. Probably more exciting on Friday night than Monday! We walk around the side of the Fox and take our place at the head of the vax check: no more room in the early bird queue on the post-check side. No matter. We wait! Five or ten minutes later the doors open and we're allowed to join the queue. Entrance is a breeze, though Ting's tiny waist pack is deemed extra suspicious, and the searcher spend way more time looking into it's teensy pockets than she does looking at my giant clear bag of clothes and gear. Works for me! We pass through the lobby and speed walk for the drink rail, ending up with a spot just a little off center to the right. Good enough!

It takes a really long time for most of the crowd to show up tonight: when the lights go down for the opening band at 7:30 PM, I'd guess the place is only half full at best. Happily, the folks around us aren't too talkative, and even though I'm not all that interested in Faye Webster, I appreciate being able to hear her performance without distraction. “Wispy shoegaze 20-something pop” is my one line assessment. “Not my cuppa Joe” is the second. They wrap things up just after 8 PM and then it's set break, yay! Time to chit-chat or make a beer run?

I'm antsy and ready to go by quarter past 8, but Wilco sticks to another schedule than mine, so it's another quarter hour until lights go down. By this time the house is properly filled up. Not packed tight, and certainly less full than Billy Strings a few weeks ago, but a darn good turnout for a Monday night.

The band hits it off with a bang and a shot, and the crowd is delirious: it's a blessing to be dancing to such joyful noise in the company of like-minded spirits. At first I'm surprised that the crowd is so well-behaved: most are intently focused on the music, and no one tries to crash our rail spot at any time all night. Must be a Monday night crowd thing: these are the hard core fans instead of the yahoos looking for a Friday/Saturday night party. Makes me wish more bands tried playing off nights!

Riding BART on the way home a friend is gushing about the show: shorter than last night, but several rarities in the setlist, and not too many repeats. Sounds like a good analysis to me!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!