Photos by Ari Cummings

Wilco returned to Queens, NY’s Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday night, headlining a fitting Father’s Day-Eve bill given the “Dad Rock” tag they have been branded with for almost two decades. While most of Wilco’s recent shows have been two-set “evening with” engagements, on this night the group offered an extended set and two encores, with longtime friends Yo La Tengo opening the night. 

The members of Yo La Tengo and Wilco are frequent collaborators. Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates regularly join Yo La Tengo during their annual Hanukah runs in New York and they have shared several bills over the years, including a big show at the nearby KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, NY, in 2009. For their hour-long support spot, Yo La Tengo offered some of their most recognizable tunes, beginning with the Grateful Dead-referencing “Big Day Coming” and weaving in “Stockholm Syndrome,” “Our Way to Fall,” “Autumn Sweater” and several other classics. Singer/guitarist Ira Kaplan made sure to reference how much he appreciated being near the Mets’ CitiField home turf; the group famously took its name from a story from the baseball club’s inaugural season, when Richie Ashburn started saying “yo la tengo” to avoid colliding with the Spanish-speaking Elio Chacón. 

Wilco have been largely sticking to a stock set of songs on their current tour, which includes career-spanning signatures like “I’m Always in Love,” “Jesus, Etc.,” “Impossible Germany” and “War on War,” as well as earlier material like “Box Full of Letters” and “It’s Just That Simple.” Saturday’s show featured all of those tunes and most of their standbys, though things were trimmed to fit the double-bill’s run of show and the venue’s early curfew. Tweedy also made reference to the Knicks’ recent victory, joking that certain “celebrity row” regulars were in the front section of his show.

At the start of Wilco’s first encore, a second drum set was rolled onto the stage and, at the beginning of the group’s second encore, the three members of Yo La Tengo–Kapaln, Georgia Hubley and James McNew–emerged and started playing “I Heard You Looking,” an artful, shoegazey instrumental from their 1993 album Painful. Soon after, all of Wilco joined them on stage to help out with the tune and the number then gradually segued into an extended version of Wilco’s A Ghost is Born Krautrock classic “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” that featured both bands. The members of Yo La Tengo have performed with Wilco on “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” in the past, though last night marked the first time Wilco had performed “I Heard You Looking” during one of their shows.

Wilco will kick off their Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA this Friday. During their first show at the multi-day event, the group will reunite with Billy Bragg to perform music from their landmark Mermaid Avenue albums.