Wilco & Yo La Tengo Team Up For Collaborative Encore At Forest Hills Stadium

Wilco was joined on the bill for their Saturday night concert at Forest Hills Stadium by Yo La Tengo. The two legendary bands ended the night in the Big Apple by performing two songs together.

Hoboken, New Jersey-birthed trio Yo La Tengo began the concert with an 11-song set. Each member of the band — Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew — had multiple turns in the lead vocal spotlight. YLT’s career-spanning performance included a “Tom Courtenay” heavy on improv.

Wilco treated NYC fans to a two-hour set. Frontman Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates plucked songs from nine of their 13 albums to form the setlist in Forest Hills.

Yo La Tengo emerged when the encore began. The three-piece launched into their instrumental “I Heard You Looking” and soon thereafter the members of Wilco filed on stage. All nine musicians delivered a masterclass in jamming over a droning, steady beat.

Ira Kaplan and Wilco’s Nels Cline traded licks as “I Heard You Looking” reached its climax. John Stirratt of Wilco swapped in for McNew on bass in time for a transition into “Spiders (Kidsmoke).” The song from Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born album was the perfect companion to “I Heard You Looking,” with its motorik beat.

“This is like getting to see the Monkees and Herman’s Hermits on the same stage,” Tweedy quipped after plenty of fretboard fireworks. Fans then sang the melody of the “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” riff over Hubley and Glenn Kotche's beat before the two bands brought the song, 20-minute encore and show to its conclusion.

Watch Wilco and Yo La Tengo’s joint encore in Forest Hills via fan-captured video below: