Wilco & My Morning Jacket: Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, PA - June 23, 2005

A beautiful summer evening on the historic Philadelphia waterfront, with two great bands - Wilco and My Morning Jacket and a bunch of music loving friends. It doesn't get much better.

It was my first time seeing Wilco at an outdoor venue. Compared to the previous times I've seen Wilco at clubs like the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, the huge crowd and wonderful weather seemed to feed Wilco's energy.

As a lovely mellow sun set directly behind the stage, Wilco opened with a surprising acoustic version of Woodie Guthrie's "Airline to Heaven" and just kept cranking. Everyone in the band was their usual tight self playing off one another's riffs and harmonies.


Jeff Tweedy - Rant Mode: ON

Nels Cline's frenetic guitar playing on "Handshake Drugs," "At Least That's What You Said," and "I'm the Man Who Loves You" were simply phenomenal.

The big surprise of the night was a sublime and semi-rare "Sunken Treasure" with a very different arrangement from the album. When Tweedy sang the lyrics, "I was maimed by rock & roll. I got my name from rock n roll", it seemed to touch everyone and be acknowledged by a loving crowd roar. Superb version. (Setlist below.)

Here's what BigFox2 posted -- somewhat hyperbolically -- on Via Chicago:

"I've seen McCartney from 5 feet away, Dylan from 20 feet, Sonic Youth from 5 feet, The Who twice, the list goes on and on, but without a doubt, last night's performance by Wilco was the greatest rock show I have ever been a part of. And while they played so many songs that I never thought I'd see them play live (like Sunken Treasure, Airline to Heaven, Monday, and Outtasite) and they were all so, so good, it was the synergy between the crowd and the band that made last night the tops for me...the crowd was so into it - every song.

Last night, they were on in every way imaginable...they were funny, they were angry, they were soft, they were loud, but most of all, they were rockin', and it wasn't just them, the whole place was rockin' because of such a great crowd and such a great show! Thank you Wilco!"

Jeff Tweedy was pretty funny when he realized that he could hear the bass thumps from Rock Lobster -- a dance club -- on the next pier over from Penn's Landing Festival Pier on the Delaware River.

Tweedy comments: "It sounds like a shoe in a dryer!".

Later, just before "Kingpin", Tweedy cracks about the next door dance club's sounding drifting over to their stage:

"This is what we're gonna do and you all are gonna help me out... we're gonna fuck up their dance party. They're probably all high on designer drugs and all of that crap.. they won't notice."

Jeff was in a really good mood throughout the night, but did go into rant mode about:

"runaway brides and terry schiavo distracting us from real issues. So when I say 'how can I', I want you all to scream. The loudest, most profane scream you can scream. And I want you all to give the ugliest face you can... the face you make in the throes of your deepest orgasm. I'm gonna turn away because I don't want to see all of yours. And I don't want you all seeing mine."

Wilco then blasted "Kingpin" out of the park.


Pat Sansone Windmills!

Other random notes included over 30 plus "Nothing"'s on "Misunderstood". Not vocal cord blowout "Nothing"'s. More just shouted. Nice mike twirl during "Hummingbird". And the asshole near us who requested "Kidsmoke" between every song. Please.

As the band left the stage, Jeff said: "Thank you Philadelphia - you really know how to treat a band".

My Morning Jacket opened for Wilco and really got things started. I guess the big surprise was that lead guitarist Jim James got a haircut. Last year when we saw My Morning Jacket at the 9:30 Club, James' hair was below his shoulders. This time, above the shoulders.

So when Jim would crank and whip his head, rather than the ensuing hair windstorm obscuring everything, we could actually see his face and hands!

MMJ played a great set, in particular, "Golden" was a fantastic jam.

As the sun sank behind the stage, the entire band seemed to appreciate the big crowd for the opening act as they waved and walked off.

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Wilco setlist posted by hondo0524 on Via Chicago:

Airline to Heaven
Shot in the Arm
Handshake Drugs
Company in my Back
War on War
Hell is Chrome
I am Trying to Break Your Heart
Camera
Heavy Metal Drummer
Hummingbird
At Least That's What You Said
Muzzle of Bees
Sunken Treasure
Theologians
I'm Always in Love
I'm the Man Who Loves You
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
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Misunderstood - with 35+ "Nothing's!!!
Jesus etc.
Kingpin
Late Greats
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Just a Kid
I'm a Wheel
Monday
Outtasite Outtamind
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More concert details at WilcoBase: EVENT - Wilco @ Penn's Landing - Philadelphia, PA - 2005-06-23, the bit torrent is now up and running!, Ben Kramer's concert photo album and Maudie's (gogo) concert photos.
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More on Wilco concerts, recent sightings and My Morning Jacket. And more photos from Glide Magazine.

Great seeing you e2f, Sarah, Randy, Paul, Anna, and everyone else!

Bob Dylan & Willie Nelson: Bowie, Maryland - June 14, 2005

Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson performed in concert last night at Bowie, Maryland on their summer tour of minor league baseball stadiums.

Talk about a hot night. A heat advisory was posted and the temperatures were still in the nineties as the sun began to set. And the hot and sweaty night was off to a sweltering start with the openers Green Card. Greed Card was sort of a cross between traditional folk, Irish celtic rock, and twang. A nice way to start the evening.

Next up came Willie Nelson performing before a Texas state flag and playing with a seven-piece band along with two of his sons. Willie played his classics like "Crazy" and "Georgia on My Mind". The rowdy crowd cheered for "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "Beer for My Horses."

Bob Dylan played about a 2 hour setlist. Opening with "Drifter's Escape" from the 1967 John Wesley Harding, Bob meandered through his back pages touching on the 70's, 80's, 90's & 00's.

"Highway 61 Revisited", "This Wheel's on Fire", and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" made a great 3 song package and highlighted his outstanding band.

From a Washington Post review by Joe Heim on Dylan's outfit: "Wearing a rakish black cowboy hat and a black suit with red piping that made him look like a 19th-century Mexican cavalry officer."

Dylan did not play guitar last night and only performed on keyboards and harmonica. After the show, our buddy Randy mentioned that Bob is suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome which might explain the lack of guitar.

"Masters of War" was particularly bitter and just as relevant today as it was on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Nearly 40 years later, the lyrics still sadly ring true:

"Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks"

The concert closed with "Like a Rolling Stone" as a wonderful summer night cooled off.

More on Bob Dylan and his musical influence on other artists.

Pod People

OK, so everybody has an iPod and loves music.

The Wasington Post examines Apple's iPod phenomenon in an article by Linton Weeks.

Weeks writes that "Music is a luxurious necessity" and quotes Mark Tramo, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School who believes that music is a universal language, who says: "There has never been a human culture existing or extinct that has not had music."

"Certain melodies inspire, arouse, invigorate. Others provoke, insult, infuriate. As we've learned from watching decades of movies and TV shows, effective music can move us to tears and to cheers. It pumps up the color and texture of reality; the mundane morphs into art. We subconsciously listen for resolution in music, the way we naturally yearn for color-wheel answers in paintings and solutions to well-written mysteries."

So there you have it. An expert's opinion of why we love music. I'm sure you needed to know.

Steve Earle Podcast - October 29, 1999

Over on Some Depression, a podcast of a great accoustic Steve Earle show from October 29, 1999 in Chiari, Itay.

More on Steve Earle.

Resplendent's Am I Free?/I Am Free: Influenced by After The Goldrush

The new CD by Resplendent titled Am I Free?/I Am Free has some of Neil Young's After The Goldrush as an influence. Michael Lenzi's previous band -- Fire Show -- has been replaced by Resplendent. From a Pitchfork Review by Joe Tangari:

"In his disarmingly honest liners, Lenzi lists six albums that he feels most influenced the proceedings: Neil Young's After the Goldrush, Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food, Swervedriver's Mezcal Head and two Springsteen records, Nebraska and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Honestly, it's not hard to hear how all of these things bubble under the surface of this music, even if none of the songs sound explicitly like any of them -- there's Young in the acoustic guitars, Nebraska in the bleakness, Biggie in the beats, Swervedriver in the shimmering washes of guitar-- though the way it's all mixed together defies easy categorization."

More on bands Neil Young has influenced.