An Evening With Wilco

Venue:

Edmonton Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

Date: 30/08/2025

Also Calgary Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (29/08/2025)

I bought tickets and booked flights for these concerts in April. I have travelled to the US on many occasions to see Wilco live, but I am currently boycotting that fine country for obvious reasons and these were 2 of only 3 Canada dates this year (the other being Vancouver), they were also the last 2 nights of an extensive tour that has taken them to many different parts of the world. The shows were also billed as “An Evening with Wilco” which meant there was no support act and they played 2 sets. As Jeff Tweedy explained middle of first set “We will come back for a 2nd set and we will play different songs!”. So a fair bit of travel and expense but I worth it I thought for 4 Wilco sets.

Something happened between April and late August, a friend of mine who had been battling cancer for a while received the appalling news that there was nothing more they could do to save him. Desperately sad, he’s only 50 with 2 teenage girls. He has tried to pack quite a few things in since, health permitting, and one of his bucket list hopes was to travel to Edmonton where I was to be his driver and he would also attend his first (and final) Wilco concert.

Before this was the first night in Calgary, Show lasted just about 3 hours including a 15-20 minute interval, they played songs from nearly every album they have released, opening appropriately with Story to Tell from the sprawling Cruel Country album, we also soon got the epic One Sunday Morning, plus enjoyable mainly acoustic arrangements of Spiders and I’m always in Love. John Stirrat also got to do his one and only lead vocal in the whole history of the band (It’s Just That Simple), Bird Without a Tail/Base of My Skull has become an extraordinary guitar duel between Pat Sansome and Nels Kline then a little later California Stars closed the first set. The Sky Blue Sky album featured heavily in the 2nd set with 5 songs played including a funky, masterful Side With the Seeds and regular showstopper Impossible Germany. Sunken Treasure from Being There was my favourite though with more scintillating playing from Nels Cline (can he ever do anything else?), but the whole band were superb, as they always are

Next day I picked up my rental car and drove the 300km to Edmonton and picked up my friend (and his wife) at the airport. It was extremely shocking and distressing to see his emaciated form sitting in a wheelchair, I hadn’t seen him for 2 months before this, I knew things were bad, but this was heartbreaking. He was dosed up on opioids for the pain and not completely with it, but we went ahead with the city tour with considerable help from his wife, me driving all over a city I didn’t know at all. I wondered if the concert might be too much for him and this sadly proved to be the case. The seat next to me was empty for the night

Still I tried to enjoy the show as best I could, but I had other things on my mind. One interesting thing was the venue was completely identical to the one they played the previous night 300km away. They were both built in 1955 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alberta, what Calgary gets, Edmonton must get too, I suppose. Similar kinds of venues to the Royal Festival Hall, somewhat ugly from the outside, but great sound, excellent sightlines and generous seating. Jeff admitted to being confused thinking they had been probably driven back to Calgary and a new audience brought in(!)

Another excellent show, probably a better audience in Edmonton compared to the rather subdued Calgarians. This time we got an acoustic Art of Almost, Company in My Back, You Are My Face, they closed with a cover of the Dead’s U.S. Blues possibly as a subtle political gesture, said “see you next year” and finished their touring for 2025.

One of my favourite things in the world is seeing Wilco live. I may see them again next year or the year after, I don’t think I will ever see my friend again.

The audience:

Better in Edmonton but missing one person …

It made me think..

It’s just music

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