Review: Wilco nerds out but still rocks out in deep-diving, three-night St. Paul run

There was so much rock ‘n’ roll nerdery on display at the Palace Theatre this past weekend. And yet it turned into one of the coolest live music events of the year.

A band too old to care if it’s cool anymore — but not too old to still push itself, in ways younger bands should try more of — Wilco performed 95 songs over the course of three nights in St. Paul. Not one song was repeated; not even “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “California Stars,” which were used as encore fodder on Friday and Sunday nights, respectively, but not heard again all weekend.

Even if you don’t like Wilco — if you make Dad Rock jokes about them, compare them to musical wallpaper or turn the radio dial the umpteenth time the Current plays them — you have to admit this was a mighty impressive feat. Unprecedented, really.

Metallica offered a no-repeat weekend in August, but it only lasted two nights with a breather night off in between. The Grateful Dead played no-repeaters back the day, but those amounted to about 33 songs total what with all the baked-in soloing. Wilco played 31-33 songs per night Friday-Sunday in St. Paul.

Chicago’s experimental twang-rock sextet relied on just about every song off its best-loved albums, as well as deep cuts from lesser-known LPs and a lot of tunes with quirky titles that suggest they were always meant to be B-sides: “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard,” “A Magazine Called Sunset,” “Laminated Cat.”

Each night was split up into two sets with an intermission. Each night, both the band and the acoustics in the room sounded precise. All weekend, the ringleader of this musical circus, singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy — 57 and proudly sober for 20 years now — was in strong voice and showed encyclopedic familiarity with the lyrics. His most noticeable gaff, in fact, was putting his guitar capo on the wrong fret for Sunday’s opening song, “Via Chicago” (ironically one of their most-played tunes).

For those who do like Wilco, witnessing the group stretch out like this was unquestionably fun, quirky and clever; although if you didn’t make it to all three shows you invariably missed hearing a few of the band’s core tunes.

“You’re going to hear all these songs you don’t ever hear because of these people,” singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy advised newcomers on Sunday night, after asking the three-night attendees to raise their hands.

These are the people who really really really like Wilco. At least one of them typed up and shared a spreadsheet sorting through all this weekend’s songs. For these folks, this Palace run will go down as unforgettable.

Here’s a night-by-night rundown of the final spread following Sunday’s finale.

Best songs each night: An indicator of how mellow and lush the band sounded on opening night, the elegant playfulness of “You Are My Face” stood out Friday. Saturday’s weirder and wilder spirit was driven home by a Kraut-rocky twofer from the “Star Wars” album, “Cold Slope / King of You.” On Sunday, a more usual favorite, “Impossible Germany,” sounded extra thrilling as lead guitarist Nels Cline went off script and made his showpiece solo even longer and showier than usual.

Best makeovers: The band members challenged themselves further this weekend by remaking several songs to sound very different from how they are on record. Friday’s best example was “Someone Else’s Song,” altered from a folky acoustic tune into a raggedly electric slow-burner. Conversely, two of their jammiest and most electro-cutesy album tracks, “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” and “Art of Almost,” were stripped down to hushed acoustic affairs Saturday. On Sunday, the group turned the oldie “Kingpin” into an Allman Brotherly guitar groover as a rip-roaring pre-encore finale.

Biggest surprises: So many options here. The second song played on Night 1, the blue rocker “Should’ve Been in Love,” had purportedly not been played since 2016. Friday’s show also featured two little-played 2000s-era B-sides, “Panthers” and “Venus Stopped the Train.” On Saturday, the Woody Guthrie-lyricized “Remember the Mountain Bed” and the whimsical outtake “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard” were unexpected highlights. Sunday’s rarities included “A Magazine Called Sunset” and the show’s madcap finale, “Kicking Television.”

Most-culled album: A tie between the 1996 sophomore effort “Being There” and 2004′s triumphantly transitional “A Ghost Is Born,” since 11 songs from each were pulled. That’s every tune on the latter record. Ten of the 11 tracks from 2002′s breakthrough LP “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” were also played.

Most overlooked LP: “Evicted” and “Levee” were the only two songs played off last year’s album “Cousins,” and “Secret of the Sea” was the only one off 2000′s “Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II.”

Newest tune: “Annihilation,” from an EP issued this summer, proved to be an energetic crowd-pleaser as the opening song in Sunday’s second set.

Best localized tidbit: After “Passenger Side,” Tweedy claimed that the first time he played it live was at Minneapolis’ 400 Bar (probably around 1994). “I’ve felt like [the Twin Cities] has been a home away from home for us for so long,” Tweedy said in an atypically sincere moment. “This is one of the only places we could do a show like this where we just play any [expletive] we want.”

Best of the three concerts: It really depended on what you were looking for. Fans of Wilco’s quieter, lusher and more neo-twangy songs would’ve gotten the most out of Friday’s set. The deep-diver fans who dug the rarities and unique spins on standard tunes likely would’ve ranked Saturday highest. Let’s call closing night the best, though. At the end of the day/weekend, Wilco is still a rock band, no matter how esoteric, eccentric or experimental it gets. Sunday just plain rocked the most.