Wilco Goes Acoustic For ‘Notorious’ San Francisco Show

Last night Wilco played the tiny Independent in San Francisco for an Outside Lands night show billed as “The Notorious Wilco Brothers.” While few details were revealed of what was in store before the gig, Jeff Tweedy & Co. treated the 500 lucky fans in attendance to their second-ever acoustic show and the debut of a The Byrds cover.

Wilco first performed a full, all-acoustic show earlier this year at their own Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. Since Solid Sound Wilco has released a new album, Star Wars, and played nine of the LP’s 11 tracks in San Francisco. With Star Wars containing plenty of studio wizardry and effects, the acoustic performances of the LP’s songs gave fans a chance to hear them stripped down to their core.

Along with the many songs from Star Wars, Wilco filled the rest of the set with beloved originals from throughout their career with one notable exception. The second song of the evening was a debut cover of The Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born To Follow.” As mentioned earlier the show was billed as “The Notorious Wilco Brothers” and the ad for the gig was a re-creation of the cover art for The Byrds’ 1968 album The Notorious Byrd Brothers. “Wasn’t Born To Follow” is featured on The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The evening came to a close with a four-song encore that included a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End.” Tweedy referenced the GOP presidential debate which took place on Thursday night by joking, “It might be a bit obvious, but sometimes obvious is the right choice…That’s why I support Trump in 2016.”

Wilco performs at Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park later today. Watch video of last night’s “New Madrid” thanks to JRapp:

Set: Less Than You Think > Wasn’t Born To Follow [The Byrds], More…, Random Name Generator, The Joke Explained, War On War, Bull Black Nova, Remember The Mountain Bed, Hesitating Beauty, Kamera, Taste The Ceiling, Pickled Ginger, Where Do I Begin, It’s Just That Simple, New Madrid, Cold Slope > King Of You, Magnetized, Whole Love, Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard, Forget The Flowers, Hummingbird, Theologians, I’m Always In Love, Dawned On Me, A Shot in the Arm

Encore: Misunderstood, We’ve Been Had, California Stars, True Love Will Find You In The End [Daniel Johnston]

[Hat Tip – Bbop on Via Chicago]