Wilco @ Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ [6/22/07]

Tonight was the second of three times I'm seeing Wilco this month. The first was in Cincinnati, and the third is at Hammerstein on Monday.

Thanks to my friend Natalie, we had great seats tonight (4th row center). Made me glad I didn't sleep out or spend $200 for a Warsaw ticket. However, as good as our seats were, that didn't mean that I could avoid my life-long "tall guy curse". You know what I mean - the curse that ensures that no matter what show you're at, and no matter where you are, some ridiculously tall dude will park himself right in front of you. And, to make things worse, tonight's dude showed up with his girlfriend 6 songs into Wilco's set. Luckily he was pretty skinny, though, so I could see to either side of him pretty well.



As for the show itself, it was pretty great (again). The setlist was a little weaker than Cincinnati (no "Via Chicago", "Pot Kettle Black" or "Poor Places"), although we did get "Kamera" and "I'm Always In Love". And even better, when Jeff's mic inexplicably went out for 10 minutes, the rest of the band left the stage, Jeff grabbed an acoustic guitar and played us a great rendition of "Acuff Rose". Can't remember the last time I've seen that one live. Awesome.

The crowd was pretty good overall. I'm still a little shocked by the Wilco crowd these days. Not that it makes me cool or anything, but I remember seeing these guys in the mid-late 90's and basically recognizing everyone (well, not everyone) in the crowd from the various other alt-country shows in town (Son Volt, Jayhawks, Old 97's, Whiskeytown, etc.). The crowd starting trending more "hipster" with the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and over the last two or three years is adding a whole new element - the "suburban party people". Nope, it's not just Ohio. Now the crowd is a strange mix of the three, with me typically standing with arms crossed and nodding head, while some dude in the row in front of me drunkenly dances around miming the lyrics to every song. (I.e., pretending to smoke a joint during "Handshake Drugs", pretending to mow the lawn during "Hate It Here", tracing a tear down his cheek during "Jesus, Etc.") I don't want to be snobby about it, but seriously, that dude was a freaking moron.

The non-tall-dude-head-in-the-way pics:






The rest of the pics are at Flickr.

Edited to add: By request in the comments, the setlist can be found at the Via Chicago forum.