One sang a song about a Red Wing bar. The other gave a shout-out to Red Wing's most famous product.
Those were just two examples of how Trampled by Turtles and Wilco seemed right at home performing together Saturday night at Treasure Island Casino Amphitheater near Red Wing — never mind that the concert site was a farther drive for Twin Cities fans who've seen both bands play in town too many times to count.
The twofer billing and its chosen location were about the only unfamiliar aspects of Saturday's concert. Both of the Midwest bands stuck to relatively standard sets for their last of three Upper Midwest shows together.
Coming off the pandemic, that musical familiarity felt more than fine. And so did the venue — the only permanent amphitheater in Minnesota big enough to host this combo of cultishly loved Americana sextets.
The 8,500 attendees soaked up the perfect summer's-end weather and didn't seem worried about masking up, despite the lack of a COVID vaccine/test requirement (which had been implemented two nights earlier in Des Moines).
Closing duties on Saturday fell to the home boys in Trampled, leaving Wilco in the now-rare position of opening the gig. Fans still filing into the venue found themselves singing along rather fittingly to the first song's refrain, "Maybe all you need is a shot in the arm."
Even with a relatively abbreviated 80-minute set time, the Chicago vets — who've actually played more Twin Cities gigs over the past four years than Trampled has (counting their three-show 2019 run) — still managed to put on a quintessential Wilco show.
They fit in at least one song off 11 of their 13 albums. Those included some of their jammiest, guitar-driven showpieces such as "Impossible Germany," "The Art of Almost" and "At Least That's What You Said." They only offered two tracks from their most recent record, though, "Ode to Joy" — a title that didn't exactly prove prophetic, frontman Jeff Tweedy glibly noted.
