There are times at a Wilco show when I would love to see what Jeff and Co. see. As someone who strives to provide a decently accurate look back at a performance, it would be invaluable to get a different perspective than just my own. It’s one thing to get a sense of an audience by being in it, but it’s another thing to actually be able to see the different ways in which it is reacting — or not — in a given moment. Plus, people watching can be just so darned fun.
Take, for example, the penultimate show of this European tour, which took place in the striking Esedra (essentially, courtyard garden) of the Palazzo Te — a 16th century palace that is one of Mantova’s main attractions. With the festival-type stage complete with two large video screens(!) set up in front of the colonnade at the far end of the Esedra and framing some of its columns, it gave the space a unique look that apparently rendered the band’s large “Wilco” backdrop unnecessary for this show (which was part of the Mantova Summer Festival series). Laid out in front of the stage were approximately 30 rows of chairs broken up into several sections and then a lawn area behind the seats, making for an audience of around 2,000 maybe.
Unfortunately, those seats would be used for a majority of the two-hour show since apparently an announcement was made — in Italian only — before Wilco came on that people weren’t allowed to stand, at least in the seating area. Or so I was told, anyway. Add to that the frustration felt by some Italian fans that the show had been initially promoted as an “Evening With…” format only to be changed shortly beforehand, and there were already some disgruntled audience members before Jeff and Co. even got started.
However, by the time the band came back for the encore, it seemed that everything had shifted when there was a sudden surge of people toward the barricade separating the stage from the audience. What had been a somewhat passive, seated crowd for much of the night abruptly became one of the better audiences of the tour — at least as far as I could see. That’s why I would have loved to have been able to get the band’s perspective, just to see if my sense of things was really true. “Oh hey,” a somewhat surprised Jeff said upon returning to the stage and seeing the standing audience pressed up against the rail. “Did they not let you do this before?”
Not that the stage rush changed the band’s plan for the encore at all, at least according to the printed setlist, but it seemed to me like the entire mood of the show changed. Amid the still-warm northern Italian summer night, Jeff sang California Stars (he didn’t change the lyric to “Mantova Stars,” however) and then took off his jean jacket to reveal a plain white pocket T-shirt underneath — combined with his natural-colored carpenter jeans, it’s what I call his “house painter” look — and he and his bandmates proceeded to send the crowd home on a rocking note with Spiders (Kidsmoke) and I Got You (At The End Of The Century).
During the encore, Jeff’s perspective also provided one of his most memorable visits to Banter Corner when he talked about being able to see the venue bathrooms from where he stood and how they had red lights that lit up when occupied. “So I’ve been able to tell all night long which songs (people went to the bathroom for),” Jeff shared about what he called an interesting sociological experiment. “I think the most we had was six at one time.” (I don’t believe Jeff ever specified what song that was, but correct me if I’m wrong.)
In other noteworthy chat, Jeff seemed about as preoccupied with the insects at Palazzo Te as he was with the interest of the audience. “See all the bugs I’m attracting?” he asked before Annihilation. “It’s all right. Some of them are singing (along with) every song. One of them is sitting on my mike stand saying, ‘You’re fucking killing it, man.’” Later, near the end of the main set, Jeff mentioned another bug that flew by that “was the size of a hawk.” I didn’t notice that creepy-crawlies were that much of an issue myself, but perhaps some crowd members were as preoccupied by them as the band, judging by the number of confiscated bottles of bug spray that were left at the entrance.
Another thing that Jeff and Co. overcame was the technical issue that had derailed Art Of Almost the previous night in Rome. I thought perhaps they might just skip it for the remainder of this European run, but apparently whatever issue caused them to abandon the song at the start of the Rome show got fixed overnight. And those of us in Mantova were the beneficiaries, even if we had to grudgingly sit through one of the most dynamic songs in Wilco’s current repertoire.
But ultimately, neither buzzing bugs nor technical troubles nor audience apathy could keep Jeff and his bandmates from doing their thing. Jeff even successfully negotiated the linguistic limitations — for the most part. He apologized early on — “Sorry that I don’t speak more of your language, but we’re really happy to be here. Thanks for having us,” — but still managed to sneak in a “Buonasera” after the “…when we said hello” line in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. And a bit later, when he heard what I think was possibly some people shouting “bravo” or something like that, he quipped, “Is that something positive? Just making sure. Back at ya!”
As I suggested at the beginning, it was yet another instance when it would have been kind of fascinating to observe how Jeff’s Midwestern earnestness and sense of humor played — or didn’t — to the Italians looking back at him. To me, anyway, that would have been molto fantastico!
Here was the complete setlist, as played (there were no changes from the printed setlist):
Art Of Almost
Handshake Drugs
If I Ever Was A Child
Via Chicago
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>
Kamera
Evicted
Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull
I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)
Annihilation
Hummingbird
It’s Just That Simple
Everyone Hides
Theologians
Impossible Germany
Jesus, etc.
Walken
Heavy Metal Drummer>
I’m The Man Who Loves You
Encore
California Stars
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
I(ta)lia.
Fair to say I think that you far exceed your goal of providing “a decently accurate look back at a performance.” On reading your reviews, I feel like I have been an eyewitness to the proceedings. Kudos. Also, saved me the cost of a poster! 🤣