Song bucket list refined as gigs add up

When Wilco took its encore break Tuesday night at Oakland’s Fox Theater, I resigned myself to the fact that a few of the songs on my mental Wilco song bucket list I wanted to hear weren’t getting played.

But faster than you can sing “Wilco will love you, baby,” I was proven wrong.

In an eight-song encore, the Chicago alternative rock band ran through a number of its ’90s cuts, including “Monday” and “Casino Queen” from my list.

The former is one of their most-played songs and simply managed to elude me at my first three Wilco gigs. The latter is the second track on the group’s first LP, 1995′s “AM,” which largely dropped out of setlists by the mid-2000s.

In a set that included a number of rarities and classics, I walked away more excited to scratch two songs off of my list than having seen a fourth rendition of “California Stars.”

It’s no knock on “California Stars,” although it wasn’t quite the same seeing that song indoors in late January as opposed to under the canopy of a cool, clear, Golden State summer sky.

That’s what happens after seeing a band multiple times. The more times a person sees a particular artist, the more the songs that individual wants to hear changes.

First-time Wilco showgoers are probably more pumped to see what passes for the band’s hits: “A Shot in the Arm,” “Jesus, Etc.” or “Spiders (Kidsmoke).”

But after a person has seen an artist a few times, they become interested in the setlist rarities. Fans who’ve seen Wilco a few times have probably bagged “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” but have they gotten an obscure gem such as “The Thanks I Get?” Doubtful.

No doubt it’s a treat and a great bit of fortune to have seen the same group multiple times. Not seeing the songs a person wanted at a band’s show is definitely worthy of a #FirstWorldProblems tag on Twitter. It’s a nice problem to have.

What one hopes to see at a show varies from person to person depending upon what they have seen before and how many times they have seen it. One commenter on Wilco’s Facebook page noted she was pleased with the inclusion of “Hate it Here” in Tuesday’s set, but, much like my quest to finally see “Monday,” it’s not exactly a rarity in Wilco sets.

It’s also not that a person hopes to avoid songs that initially piqued his or her interest. The band didn’t play, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” at the Fox on Tuesday, probably my favorite in the band’s catalog.

After four Wilco shows, I was in no way disappointed to see “Kingpin” turbo charged with a three-ax attack for a second time or watch guitarist Nels Cline rip a hot, white hole in “Impossible Germany” for a third straight show.

Fans either always liked the songs or discovered new songs.

I’ve seen four Wilco shows supporting different, then-new records. Tuesday’s gig was the first time I saw “Art of Almost,” released on last year’s “The Whole Love.” It’s destined to become a Wilco setlist staple. That’s a song I didn’t know I would one day want to see when I caught the band for the first time in Berkeley in 2005.

In 2005, at that first show, I did see “Trying to Break Your Heart.” It was thrilling and I’ve had the good fortune of catching it twice more.

It was excluded from Tuesday’s set and I barely noticed its absence, however.

Coming off of the high of finally seeing “Monday” and “Casino Queen” and having the opportunity to draw a line through their names on my mental Wilco song bucket list, I wasn’t complaining.

To read more of Nick DeCicco’s blogs, visit http://dailyrepublic.typepad.com/forthoseabouttorock.

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Posted by Nick DeCicco on Feb 3 2012.

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