When the Wilco show was announced I had high hopes – a great band in a new arena designed for hockey and music events. The last time I saw the first rock show in a similar hockey venue was RUSH at the Van Andel Arena. That was a killer experience.
And Wilco – I’ve been to dozens of shows in Chicago and San Antonio and Austin. They never disappoint.
We hit the Cedar Park Center once before the day of the concert as Stacey and I got to see the Texas Stars play their big brothers, the Dallas Stars last week. There isn’t a bad seat in the house for hockey, save for maybe the higher-up rows that have very narrow leg room (seriously bad).
Legroom was atrocious in the higher rows - something to keep in mind for hockey games. Credit: @DellServerGeek on Twitter.
As we arrived late for hockey a friend held onto our hockey tickets because the will call line had about 150 people in it. Odd, I thought. Usually those lines move quick. Must be growing pains.
But we saw the same thing when we arrived for the Wilco show – huge lines.
Little did we know we’d end up in them.
We had five tickets to the show, and three of them displayed a big X upon scan by the security guy. We were told they re-arranged the seating and we needed to head into a special line for “upgrades”.
“Upgrades? Hot spit.”
At first we were optimistic.
Then, as we sat in line longer and longer, pessimism set in – someone is trying to sugar coat a turd. Turns out we were right.
Liam Finn was the opener, and I can tell you the sound through the tiny PA speakers in the lobby was crap. I read his act was great. But we never got to see him – we stood in line for about 25 minutes.
Once we had our chance at the box office, the ticket lady took our five tickets and said “let me check them, I’ll be right back.” She took ten minutes, the line grew longer, people behind grew more upset – and then she finally came back. “Here you go she says. You’re all together.”
“That’s great news.
Wait. There’s no upgrade?”
We had the same seats. The ticket lady did a nice job explaining that Ticketmaster was to blame – something about extra barcodes. I don’t believe any of it – especially since they took no responsibility and blamed some other company. Our experience isn’t starting out too rosy.
As we enter we notice something a bit weird – there are Cedar Park cops everywhere. Not just a few and some other security. It appears the cops are the CPC security and they certainly outnumbered the people walking on the concourse. Very strange, we felt a bit like we were in jail.
Off to get a beer and find our seats.
“We’ll have Ziegenbock, three larges please.”
“We can only give you American beers in the large size, sir.”
Yeah, I know. Ziegenbock is a Budweiser product made here in the good ole USA and even uses the tagline is “Only Texans Get It.” But please don’t tell the people at the Cedar Park Center. We want them to think it’s upscale and made in Germany or something.
To make matters worse, the guy taking my money was trying to be funny by saying “that will be 2,100 pennies”. Here’s $21. Keep the change, jack.
My friends were calling me “that guy” because I wore my Wilco shirt to the Wilco concert, and fun and joking around was starting to invade our craptastic experience.
Image by: Pooneh Ghana via Flickr. Jeff Tweedy at Cedar Park Center
Then we find our seats – not good. We were stage right and close, but the speakers all faced forward so sound was off for us. Once we moved to a more open area, we began to enjoy the jam band love and wonderful lyrics that make up a Wilco show. But I will say I thought the mix left a bit to be desired. I know the boys are heavy on guitar, but I felt the rhythm section could have been louder. Could have been our location – others said the sound was good.
I have to say, though, I think most Austin Wilco fans stayed home. The CPC was maybe half full and Tweedy twice scrutinized a flavorless audience and during the “Jesus, etc” sing-a-long, the audience only made it a few lines in.
Jeff even said they’d prefer to play two nights in Austin rather than one. At the show a couple years back in San Antonio, he asked the audience “how many of you are from Austin?” About 80% screamed and Tweedy said “huh, that’s some valuable information there.”
Overall I had fun. My company and the music made the difference. The setlist was great, too:
Wilco (The Song)
Shot in the Arm
Bull Black Nova
You Are My Face
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
At Least That’s What You Said
One by One
I’ll Fight
Impossible Germany
Deeper Down
Handshake Drugs
I Can’t Stand It
Jesus, Etc.
I Hate it Here
Theologians
I’m the Man Who Loves You
Via Chicago
You Never Know
California Stars” (with Liam Finn)
Late Greats
Heavy Metal Drummer
Walken
King Pin
Monday
Outtasite
Hoodoo Voodoo
Despite the good music, I hope some people take note:
Wilco - stick to Stubbs. You’ll sell more tickets over several days and outdoors is always better for your great music and devoted audience.
Cedar Park Center – you have a long way to go, baby. I don’t think I’ll ever come back for music. And for hockey I’ll be sure to get my tickets in advance. You should maybe check out what other people think, too (here and over here, too.)