Road Trip to Providence, RI to see Wilco 4/4/2010

(picture is from last summer in Lowell, Ma)
What a sweet city Providence is!  I cannot believe in all the years we have lived here, Dave and I have not ventured the mere hour down the road to check out this funky town.  But we were both charmed by this city with it's cool architecture, pretty streets, and interesting restaurants--we promised to return to explore more!

After the inevitable bout of getting crazy lost and after a kind and generous citizen of Providence offered to escort us to our destination (I kid you not!), we found Seven Stars Bakery, a place I have been dying to visit for years!  And it lived up to my dreams with many gorgeous bread loaves and sweet treats.  (I would love to work there and learn to bake these perfect loaves!) We loaded up a big bag to bring home of Vermont Cheddar bread, Sourdough, Toasted walnut and raisin bread, and a Country loaf.  Then, of course, we got amazing sticky buns and cinnamon buns to fortify us for the day ahead of touristing around. 

Coincidently just down the block we spied a funky restaurant that Dave had chowhounded called Julien's and we quickly vowed to eat there for dinner as it looked really cool.
The rest of day was spent walking around the pretty streets around Brown University and people watching while lounging on a shaded bench on the Brown's college green which very much reminded us of UW's Bascom Hill.  It was a lovely spring scene with families picnicing and kids playing frisbee. 

Before we headed to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel for Wilco, we early birded it to Julien's on Broadway.  With amazing Belgian beers (Triple Karmeliet for me and ...? for Dave) to sip we sat in the sun outside and pondered the yummy blackboard specials offered (that took a server 20 minutes to inscribe).  Lulu's is a another restaurant that I would kill to have in Cambridge or Boston: it features a funky, creative and uncliche menu with many interesting vegetarian and non-veg dishes to make your mouth water.
Dave went with the homemade black bean burger loaded with all kinds of goodies (sauted summer squash, cheese, onions) including a divine homemade ketchup with an interesting hint of allspice.  I got the seared tofu encrusted with pinenuts in a honey glaze that came with awesome soba noodles with black sesames and sesame oil, and sauted brocoli rabe and oyster mushrooms.  So delicious!  I'm not kidding, it was fantastically flavorful!  My mouth is watering just remembering this beautiful and yummy dish.

Wilco.  My very favorite band.  I was trying to remember how many concerts we have been to now:
Boston Harbor Lights (Bank of America Pavilion), Tanglewood (Lenox, Ma), North Hampton, Lowell, Ma, Lupo's (Providence, RI), Orpheum (Boston, Ma) and next will be this summer at MASS MoCA.  Woohoo!

I cannot believe we were so far back in line waiting outside to get into the Lupo's and yet we got so incredibly close to the stage: 3rd row standing (much closer than if you sat)!  It was amazing!  And many short people like me banded together and would not let any tall people stand in front of us so incredibly I had a perfect line of vision to the stage.  So lucky!  The concert started a little oddly in our opinion like Tweedy was suffering from one of his terrible migraines and he left the stage for a minute--I thought to puke or something (like he has admitted doing in the past when he has migraines) and he looked exhausted, but who wouldn't be after all that touring?  Anyway, as the concert progressed, Wilco and the audience got more and more revved up and the band sounded great!  It is so fabulous being that close to the stage because you can see the magic that Nels works on his guitars and see Tweedy leading this great band. It was really cool how they half way through the concert transformed the stage to make it more intimate and homey with the funky old lamps and went acoustic playing their more folksy and country songs, the songs that Dave loves the best.  They played Dave's and my fav. Forget the Flowers (including banjo part!), a song we play over and over in the car never tiring of it.
Wilco is incredibly kind to their fans--they play their hearts out for over three hours, they give away dinners to cool restaurants, and they seem to have a lot of fun on stage.  We had a fabulous time even though our feet were killing us and we were dying of thirst and had to drive back to Boston and had to work the next day.  All worth it.   "This band brings all their equipment on the bus."

Setlist: (this is for me really.)
Wilco (The Song), Bull Black, Nova, You Are My Face, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart > One Wing, Radio Cure, Sonny Feeling, Summerteeth > Misunderstood, She's a Jar, Handshake Drugs, Impossible Germany, California Stars, Poor Places > Spiders (Kidsmoke)*, What's the World Got in Store*, War on War*, Forget the Flowers*, Heavy Metal Drummer*, Laminated Cat*, Passenger Side*, Airline to Heaven, A Shot in the Arm, Jesus, Etc., You Never Know, I'm Always in Love, Hate It Here, Theologians, Too Far Apart, Walken, I'm the Man Who Loves You, Red-Eyed and Blue, I Got You (At the End of the Century), Thank You Friends^
Encore: Dreamer in My Dreams, Casino Queen, Outtasite (Outta Mind) 
Notes: * Acoustic, ^ Big Star cover