Wilco at the DPAC

As Jim would say: "It was epic"

What an amazing evening!  First we met up with some friends for dinner at Piedmont (I got the steak I have been craving), then a quick walk to DPAC.  While it was a little chilly, it was a perfect after dinner stroll across downtown Durham.  And since it was dusk we could see all the people milling around outside and inside of the theatre.  This really pumped me up to see an awesome show!


Now, I've seen Wilco once before at Memorial Hall about 4 years ago and then a solo acoustic Jeff Tweedy show that same summer at the North Carolina Museum of Art, but this show was definitely the best of the 3.  While I'm not a big fan of their newest album, I am huge fan of all the ones preceding it, and they did not let me down.  The show started a little after 8, and they played until sometime after 11... around 3 hours of straight awesomeness (all except the girl 2 seats away from Nathan having a reversal of fortunes. We didn't notice until the attendants came to clean it up).   Below is a setlist I grabbed from another website.  As you can see, they played something off almost all their albums.


Wilco (the song)
Bull Black Nova
You Are My Face
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
At Least That's What You Said 
Deeper Down 
Handshake Drugs 
Side with the Seeds 
One Wing 
She's A Jar 
I'll Fight 
Impossible Germany 
Summerteeth 
California Stars 
Poor Places 
Spiders 
Forget the Flowers 
When The Roses Bloom Again 
War on War 
When You Wake Up Feeling Old 
Laminated Cat 
Passenger Side 
Airline to Heaven 
A shot in the arm 
Hate it Here 
Heavy Metal Drummer 
You Never Know 
Jesus Etc 
Walken 
I'm the Man Who Loves You 
Thank You Friends (from Big Star)

Encore:
Via Chicago
Hoodoo Voodoo
I'm A Wheel

I especially loved the production.  They had these cool single bulb long lights that lit up with the rhythm of the songs.  During the middle of the performance the went from rocking out on their more intense instruments to playing almost acoustic in a living room like setting.  They did this by having floor lamps and bringing the piano guys and drummer to the front of the stage with stripped down instruments (a miniature drum set almost looking like a child should be playing it compared with the giant one for the rest of the show, a bass, and small keyboard).

To end the night we went to Whisky where it was extremely crowded at first, but we scored a table and spent the rest of the evening in good conversation.  We even tried a new beer from Highland brewing company:  Black Mtn Bitter. The website describes it as an organic pale ale, but it was dark and extremely tasty.  It turned my mood from - 'eh, I wouldn't mind going home to bed' to 'hey, let's stay and drink this!'.  The table and seats didn't hurt to turn my mood around.