StrataVarious checks in:
Holy Shit! There I was backstage with my #1 band, Wilco. Does it get any better than this?
Frontman Jeff Tweedy may be the focus and main instigator of this unusual Chicago combo, but the six musicians on stage behave as a single unit, another sterling example of the old “sum greater than the parts” phenomenon. You could tell these guys have played together — more importantly, listened to each other — for quite some time. Even the so-called “new guy,” secret weapon guitarist Nels Cline, has been with Wilco for five years. Each one serves the whole, no one hogs the spotlight. They couldn’t get any tighter if they tried, even when they don’t look like they’re trying. From a whisper of subtle magic to a barrage of three-guitar noise to blow the roof off the joint, the dynamics were remarkable.
Just one of the alternative wrinkles heard last night: The band's set list was determined by fan vote on its website. They even pulled out some obscure song even if just one person voted for it. “I don’t think that’s any way to build a following,” Tweedy admitted to me. Maybe a cult following, though, eh?
And so, the night opened on a quiet note, with Sunken Treasure. The vocals were practically a whisper, the accompaniment minimal. Cline played these beautiful slide guitar licks, his guitar hooked up to some contraption that seemed to record a loop of what he played and spit it out backwards. Interesting.
All hell broke loose shortly thereafter. There followed an eclectic blend of material from Wilco’s varied career, very little of it in a country vein. The closest probably came in the encore for California Stars. You might also count a pair of tracks from Mermaid Avenue — the album of unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco — but given the wild arrangements, especially in Hoodoo Voodoo, it was a stretch. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart evolved into a frenzy of noise reminiscent of the big build-up in the Beatles’ A Day in the Life. You Are My Face featured the odd lyrics — “I remember my mother’s sister’s husband’s brother working in the goldmine full-time” — with Crosby Stills Nash and Young-style vocals. Well, three part, not four, but close enough.
You literally didn’t know what you were going to get next. The show did drag a bit in places, but the lulls didn’t last. There was always a surprise right around the corner. And that’s the real magic of a band like Wilco.
Thank you BackstagePassDirect for letting me do "the impossible".
Impossible? Not quite, but glad it kicked your ass.
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