Wilco — 25 August 2026, Antwerp, Belgium (OLT Rivierenhof [Night 1 of 2])

Well, I suppose Jeff won’t have too much trouble remembering his 59^th — um sorry, I mean, 39^th — birthday. From the sad news about Dolly Parton’s death breaking just before Wilco was about to start its set to the crowd singing “Happy Birthday” to him the second he stepped on stage to a medical situation in the audience causing an uncomfortably extended pause near the conclusion of the show, Jeff’s special day ended up being a pretty eventful one.

Let’s start from the end — I just mean in general. The show was coming to a frenetic climax in the encore during Spiders (Kidsmoke) when midway through, just as Jeff was singing the first “it’s good to be alone,” he pointed out at an area in the crowd where someone had apparently passed out and people were trying to get some help. Almost immediately, the song came to a halt and Jeff tried to help summon security and venue staff.

Unfortunately this type of situation has seemingly happened more often everywhere in recent years, but I’ve never seen one go on quite as long. Usually someone from security gets out to the person quite quickly and things pick up again in relatively short order, but this one just seemed to take an agonizing amount of time — like almost 10 minutes, maybe? I couldn’t really see any of it from my vantage point, so I hesitate to speculate too much but I guess they were trying to get a wheelchair or something out there to take the person out.

Anyway, because it took so long, Jeff definitely wound up filling some dead air. One audience member yelled out, “Introduce the band!” Jeff seemed to be surprised, briefly considered it and then scoffed as Glenn looked at him with a mock sad face. “It’s my birthday,” Jeff replied with a smirk. “They’re not that needy.” Then Jeff shared that he had gotten a cake which, if I’m not mistaken, he said was shaped like either a hot dog or a hamburger. He also said he had received the gift of a Cameo video from none other than Right Said Fred, who informed him, of course, “Jeff, you’re too sexy for your shirt.” After that, someone else in the crowd bellowed something about playing some music. Jeff handled that dummy pretty well, essentially saying that we should be looking after our neighbors and that’s what they were trying to do in this case. Finally, the situation was resolved with Jeff making extra sure he got a thumbs up from security/venue personnel that it was OK to proceed. Without any significant verbal communication between them, Jeff and Co. somehow picked right back up where they had left off and finished the rest of the song, ba-ba-ba-ba-bas and all.

I thought that would almost certainly be the end of the night given the time, but guitar tech Jeff Tweedy brought out another guitar and handed it to actual Jeff Tweedy ( #twotweedys ). The latter explained that he and his bandmates had been given permission to go past the 11 p.m. curfew a bit, so they played one more song — I Got You (At The End Of The Century) — to close out the show.

One of Jeff’s numerous visits to Banter Corner tonight did involve his namesake guitar tech, who he singled out after Everyone Hides. “You know his name is Jeff Tweedy, too?” actual Jeff told the crowd, clarifying that they had different middle names (and unfortunately I didn’t catch guitar tech Jeff Tweedy’s). “He’s been my guitar tech for a little while. It’s unacceptable that he doesn’t have the same birthday, though, so we’re changing your birthday (to today). So happy birthday!” It was one of several references to his birthday that frontman Jeff Tweedy made over the course of the show, including saying it was “the best birthday ever…just kidding, not really, but it’s my 39^th so it’s not that big of a deal.” After the capacity crowd of 1,200 at the OLT Rivierenhof, where Wilco played a two-night stand just over a year ago, sang “Happy Birthday” to Jeff right when the band came out, he seemed genuinely touched and quipped, “Happy my birthday to all who celebrate.”

At the start of the encore, Jeff thanked the audience for singing to him at the start of the show, calling it “very sweet.” Early on he also tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to nip in the bud some awkward audience interactions such as when a guy loudly yelled out “Jeff Tweedy is my babysitter!” “My birthday wish is for us to stop (doing that),” Jeff said. “Just kidding. Maybe don’t do it as much, OK?” (In case anyone was wondering, since Wilco played its first shows in 1994, this was just the eighth time Jeff has performed on his birthday. Most of those — five, to be exact — have come since the pandemic, including last year in Seattle.)

More significantly, Jeff remarked that he had been “having a good birthday until Dolly died. That sucks.” The sad news arrived during Hovvdy’s opening set, so even if Jeff and Co. had wanted to play something in tribute, there wasn’t much time to learn anything. “We’re not gonna play any Dolly songs. We wish we could, but we’re not that talented.” That didn’t stop a guy in the audience from suggesting it anyway, and I don’t know if Jeff heard him or not, but ultimately Jeff simply apologized for having “just brought things down.”

He needn’t have been too concerned, however, since the 2-hour, 2-minute set (including the lengthy pause) made up for what it arguably lacked in uniqueness with a pretty loose, energetic vibe overall. Jeff certainly contributed to the looseness with a couple of lyric flubs, including the Diet Coca-Cola line in Ashes Of American Flags. We also got the “big riff” ending to Theologians with Jeff flashing a smile and seeming to wordlessly ask his bandmates “Should I, or shouldn’t I?” before finally giving in. And as Jeff noted after a crowd-pleasing Walken (even though Wilco played it on both nights here last year), “We don’t dabble in boogie much overseas. Boogie dabbling is…uh, not legal over here.” Given the sad news about Parton, however, I’m glad Jeff and Co. decided to make an exception, if only as a birthday treat. After all, if we subscribe to the mantra of WWDD? — What Would Dolly Do? — I’m guessing that boogie dabbling would be something she would have strongly endorsed.

Here was the complete setlist, as played (Outtasite (Outta Mind) was on the printed setlist as the final song of the encore, but wasn’t played):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. If I Ever Was A Child

3. Via Chicago

4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>

5. California Stars

6. Evicted

7. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

8. I’m Always In Love (acoustic arrangement)

9. Everyone Hides

10. Annihilation

11. Hummingbird

12. It’s Just That Simple

13. Theologians

14. Impossible Germany

15. Jesus, etc.

16. Walken

17. Heavy Metal Drummer>

18. I’m The Man Who Loves You

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Encore

19. Ashes Of American Flags>

20. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

21. I Got You (At The End Of The Century)