Wilco Withstands Medical Emergency & Welcomes Bill Frisell In Seattle

Chicago rockers Wilco continued a stripped-down, somewhat unplugged Schmilco World Tour on Friday and Saturday nights at the Moore Theatre for a rare multi-night run in Seattle. Saturday’s Seattle finale saw the band withstand a medical emergency that happened in front of them and welcome special guest guitarist Bill Frisell for a portion of the encore.

On Friday Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline took the stage without their mates at firs to present the live debut of Schmilco track “Normal American Kids.” Saturday’s show started in the same exact fashion. On Saturday, following two more Schmilco tunes, Wilco busted out “Radio Cure” off 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for the first time since December 6, 2014. Up next was “Company In My Back” and during the song a medical emergency happened in front of Cline. According to fan reports a man went down in front of Nels, leading fans to try to get the band’s attention. Wilco finished the song, but then stopped the show in its tracks at the conclusion of “Company In My Back” in order to have medics perform CPR on the man. The band took a ten minute break while the medical situation was dealt with.

When Wilco returned to the stage, fan reports indicate Tweedy told the crowd the man was okay and that he and the band had never dealt with a situation like that in the past. Another big surprise came shortly after the show resumed, when Wilco dusted off Summerteeth’s “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway” for the first time in over a year. Just one song later the band treated fans to the first-ever stripped-down “Bull Black Nova,” a tune that hadn’t been played in any form since February 10. A trifecta of bust outs concluded with “Shouldn’t Be Ashamed,” which had been shelved since last summer’s Gathering Of The Vibes music festival.

Tweedy & Co. ended Saturday’s main set by pulling songs from different eras of their career. The band returned for a “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” encore, but that was just the first of two encores. The second encore saw Wilco bring out old friend the legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to add to both “California Stars” and “True Love Will Find You In The End.” The latter is a Daniel Johnston cover that had been missing in action for nearly a year. Wilco then said farewell sans guests with “Just That Simple” and “Shot In The Arm.” Next up for the band is a show in Portland, Oregon on Sunday night.

Watch fan-shot footage of “California Stars” featuring Bill Frisell captured by Kevin Zelko:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0FYW_7Fhnw

Setlist

Set: Normal American Kids$, If I Were A Child, Cry All Day, Radio Cure, Company In My Back

Post-Incident: Misunderstood, Someone To Lose, Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway, Bull Black Nova, Shouldn’t Be Ashamed, Reservations, Impossible Germany, Nope, Forget The Flowers, She’s A Jar, Dawned On Me, Ashes Of American Flags, Locator > Laminated Cat, We Aren’t The World, Hummingbird, Late Greats

Encore: Spiders

Encore2: True Love^, California Stars^, Just That Simple, Shot In The Arm

• $ Jeff & Nels only
• ^ With Bill Frisell