Set List: Rollin Back (Tease), Way He Sings, Gideon, Mahgeeta, Dancefloors, Master Plan, Golden, Circuital, Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 1, Anytime, Tonight I Want To Celebrate With You, Carried Away, I’m Amazed, Early Morning, Dondante, Smokin’ From Shootin’, Run Thru, Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 2, Lay Low

Encore: Bermuda Highway, Wordless Chorus, Off The Record, Steam Engine, One Big Holiday

It’s hard to believe nearly two years had passed since I’d last seen My Morning Jacket. Same city, different venue, no roof on this place, just the wide open sky and picturesque Chicago skyline providing the backdrop to what would be one of the best nights of the summer thus far. Local boys Califone got things started. I always forget how much I love these guys. I walked in as they were playing “Funeral Singers,” met up with my friends and ran into nearly everyone I know in Milwaukee and settled in and waited for My Morning Jacket to take the stage.

This band is one of my favorites. I recounted on the drive home all the times I’ve seen the band. All great, great shows, some really stand out, but overall I’m hard pressed to find a band I love seeing as much live as these guys. The National are up there. So, it’s no surprise that I enjoyed last night’s show immensely. The combination of the cool Lake breeze, near perfect weather, amazing sound, good friends was the perfect concoction. You could tell the band was excited to deliver in Chicago too. By my watch the band played a little beyond two and half hours, moving through their catalog, and delivering huge jam one after another.

Nothing will ever top the first time I saw MMJ in a club with about 500 people in 2004, when they blew all of my expectations out of the water. However, of the six shows I’ve seen, this is a close second. Best setlist of all of them, and Jim’s voice was absolutely perfect. Show lasted 2 hr and 20+ minutes, and it was jam packed. Very little banter, a very short encore break and many of the songs blended together with little or no time in between. There was some tinkering, songs became parts of other songs like the four songs that ended the main encore, they basically flowed through each other with “Run Thru” and the very surprising leap into “Lay Low” right out of “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 2.” It was a nice curve-ball to be thrown. It kept me guessing.

The evening was filled with highlights. We got the new song, “Circuital” that they’ve been playing out on this run of dates. I’m a big fan of “Golden,” which was great to hear the “Steam Engine” encore was pretty perfect as well. It’s always the marathon jams that bring it all home for My Morning Jacket and their fans though. Songs like “Off The Record,” “One Big Holiday,” and “Mahgeeta” were triumphant.

Thanks to My Morning Jacket for a wonderful night. Looking forward to the new record in 2011.

Discuss: What did you think of the show? Drop a comment and let us know your thoughts on the show.

Buy: My Morning Jacket

[photo: Erik]

Words: Tyler Fassnacht | Photos: Ed Oliver

Wilco have always had an affinity towards Madison, as they seem to come back almost every other year. So I wasn’t surprised when they announced their show back in Madison. I remember it was warm, and it sold out the day after tickets went on sale and then I kind of forgot about it. All these months later, when the date was finally coming up, my excitement came back to me, in anticipation of seeing one of my favorite bands of all time.

After having some difficulty parking, because all the ramps were four dollars cash only and it was just my luck that I happened to have only three, I made it to the Overture Center, with mere minutes to spare before the sold out show started. Openers Califone came out, to a disappointingly small amount of people in their seats. The band played mostly songs from their excellent album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, and their percussive, noisy, experimental folk music benefited gorgeously from the great acoustics in the Overture Center. Unfortunately, they only played for approximately twenty minutes, so just as I felt a lot of people were really getting into the band, they stopped. I think they were a little surprised at the shortness of their set too, because they all looked prepared for another tune when they looked to the side of the stage where I assume someone was cutting them off.

Within fifteen minutes the seats around me filled up at an increasing rate, until I couldn’t see a single empty one. Then the lights went down and the members of Wilco walked on, with a full house all jumping to their feet to applaud. The band went right into “Wilco (the song)”, which included weird spotlights and introductions for each member of the band. They kept playing song after song for the a good twenty minutes before really acknowledging the audience and making banter, which is something that Jeff Tweedy is a pro at. When he finally did talk to the crowd, it was about how they just played at the Olympics and how they won a medal for curling (this all came with a comical miming of curling with their guitars).

Over the course of the evening, the band blew through around twenty eight songs, with seven off of their latest release. Besides that, the setlist was fairly evenly distributed amongst their older album, so I don’t think anyone could have left the concert displeased. For me, some of the standouts were an epic version of “At Least That’s What You Said,” a classic “A Shot in the Arm” and the one two punch of rocking stompers “Casino Queen” and “Hoodoo Voodoo”. Another highlight in itself, was Nels Cline’s guitar playing.

I think hiring Nels Cline was one of the best decisions Jeff Tweedy ever made (as did someone else, who actually yelled out to Nels every other song). He has an amazing capability to go full out, noise crazy on some songs, ripping out speeding solos and then melodically and tastefully accenting Jeff’s acoustic guitar on others. He changed guitars every song and often pulled up a chair to whip out some mean slide guitar. Also, although looking like the oldest member of the band, he had the most energy in the band, hands down. He spazzed out, jerking his unusually long arms around his guitar, which he often accompanied with jumps into the air, while everyone else simply rocked back and forth, but even though Jeff Tweedy may not have been the most mobile performer, he definitely made up for it with charisma.

Towards the latter part of the evening, Jeff became more and more chatty with the crowd. At one point he even questioned Madison’s love for Wilco by complaining that our mayor wasn’t at their show, like Duluth’s was the night before. I think the audience/performer connection came to it’s highest point when Jeff Tweedy had the crowd sing the first two verses of “Jesus Etc.” without him, only after he went through certain lyrics that people often get confused by (first “you can combine” and theeeen “you
can come by”).

By the end of their encore, after a solid two hours of music, Wilco left the stage, to a roar of the audience, only slightly louder than when Wilco came out. The great thing about this band is that they rarely play the same show twice and they always make sure that something is special about each performance. This was my fourth time seeing them and the band kept my attention and excitement the whole way through. I left satisfied, feeling like I just attended some awesome party at an old friends house who hosts one every year. Here’s to hoping that Wilco comes back next year.

Set List: Wilco (the song) / Bull Black Nova / You Are My Face / I am Trying to Break Your Heart / One Wing / A Shot in the Arm / At Least That’s What You Said / Sonny Feeling / Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway Again / Deeper Down / Impossible Germany / When the Roses Bloom Again / Country Disappeared / Hand Shake Drugs / You Never Know / Jesus Etc. / Hate it Here / Theologians / I’m the Man Who Loves You / Hummingbird

Encore: Broken Arrow (Neil Young) / Via Chicago / California Stars (with members of Califone) / Walkin / Heavy Metal Drummer / Kingpin / Casino Queen / Hoodoo Voodoo

Discuss: What did you think of the show? Drop a comment with your thoughts/review of last night. Anyone catch the show via internet connection and the live webcast?

Buy: Wilco

Califone will open for Wilco at Overture Hall in Madison on Saturday, February 20th. The show is already sold out, but this announcement should certainly be a pleasant addition to ticket holders, ourselves included.

Myspace: Califone
MP3: Califone – “Funeral Singers”

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