On the oddly wet L.A. evening of September 13th, the Broadway area carried a buzz. It was particularly calm, even during the day's rush hour. But what was keeping the crowd controlled and collected around the historic United Artists Theater (now the Ace Hotel), on Broadway and 9th, was the start of a special three-night run from a band by the name of Wilco.
Before their recent release of their critically acclaimed album, Schmilco, Jeff Tweedy and company announced a large West Coast tour which featured an extensive five-night run at San Francisco's Fillmore Theater and the three nights in L.A. As one would imagine, however, people weren't all on time to the show. But there was no possible way there would be an empty seat that night as all three shows had been sold out for months.
The United Artists Theater was opened in 1927 by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford to showcase their films and anything related to their production companies. The theater has a history of ownership since then, eventually leading to the boutique hotel company Ace to acquire the theater and the rest of the building above it, which opened in 2014. The beautiful theater was built ornately with Spanish Gothic style architecture inside. With only 1,600 seats, including a mezzanine, it was evident that Wilco was interested in keeping these shows as intimate as possible since they can definitely fill up bigger rooms. These were exactly that.
Each show began with Schmilco's opener "Normal American Kids" with only Jeff Tweedy and guitar virtuoso Nels Cline, then as the song would nearly come to an end, the rest of the band would walk on stage to prepare for the second song on the record "If I Ever Was A Child." This led to large applauses each time.
Each set list explored their various styles and phases over their 20+ year career. Live rarities such as "Pick Up The Change" and "Shouldn't Be Ashamed" from their debut album AM made the cut on their varied setlists. This gave great reason for hardcore Wilco fans to attend each show, almost the same way Deadheads followed the Grateful Dead for 30+ years to hear their favorite rarities.
The theater's sound setup is one of the best in the city because of its depth and high ceilings; it must have been easy for Wilco's sound crew to set up with the perfect setting. The stage lighting and stage design also made it easy to create an extravagant show since it was literally made of three layers of paper mache, high school drama club-esque trees surrounding the band. Lighting varied by each song but would completely set the mood for each delicate part of the show.
Tweedy's notoriously snarky, tongue-in-cheek banter was evident during the third night's story about how Cline's double-necked guitar was a "special order that nobody wanted so Nels got a good deal for it". Each set varied, and would often favor a separate era of the band's history just as the second night ended with several songs off of their 1996 double album Being There. Not only would I recommend seeing Wilco whenever they stop in town, I would keep an eye on the yearly lineup at the Ace Hotel as it's one of my personal favorite places to see a show in the city. It's an experience that would spark an appreciation for the Broadway district and its elaborate music venues that were overlooked for decades.
