I was touching the stage until just before Wilco came on – obligatory way-too-drunk jerkface had to come up and shove me out of the way. The drunk wanted to be talkative at that point and seemed in awe of regular things. “Is that a piana!?” “Yes. That’s a piano.” He pointed at the sky, freaking out. “Did you see that?!” “Yeah. That’s the moon.” The moon wasn’t doing anything special. What, drunk AND tripping on shrooms? I thanked God that he walked off right before the band started and only came back a couple times to take sips of a mixed drink he’d left on stage. He was wearing sunglasses.
It’s always somebody.
As Jeff Tweedy walked out onstage, I actually felt ashamed. I felt like I should have averted my eyes or something, because a man that I strongly feel is the closest thing to a modernday prophet was standing just a few feet from me. No Jay, obviously. No Ken. Only Jeff and John remain from my beloved “Being There”/”Summerteeth” lineup.
I never got comfortable with the “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” lineup – partially because I hate when bands throw these new members at you and expect you to love them like the original guys. Wilco have destructed and rebuilt yet again… but the new guys in the band are dynamic personalities and musicians who breathe life into songs that were previously Jeff carrying the band.
Hummingbird was the opening song – Jeff pretended to be a “frontman” and had fun doing it. No guitar, just a guy jogging in place with a mic. New guitarist Nels Cline asserted himself quickly – his fiery and explosive guitar playing never approaches anything remotely normal or boring. The guy’s GOING OFF but he’s doing it for the song, not himself. He seems like he can’t control it. The beauty is disgusting, and yet the people on stage are all smiling and having fun.
Wilco instantly launched into “Handshake Drugs” – far funkier than any previous take on the song… not funky in an embarassing, can’t-picture-wilco-doing-it way, but in a rather obvious “this song needed to be this way all along” kind of way. John Stiratt’s bass line has always dictated that it should be more like the current arrangement. Brilliant.
The emotional aspect of the show began to swell through “Muzzle of Bees” and “Hell is Chrome”. The new lineup is ten times more powerful than the last one, and razor-sharp. I was falling in love with the new songs.
Then it happened – it was time to divert from the newest record for a moment. They missed not a nuance of the intro to “I am trying to break your heart” and when the first “thump” from the bass came in, it felt like a heart attack. I felt myself suddenly gasp for air shakily and violently and realized that I was sobbing. We were being treated to a far more dramatic, tense and yet somehow comfortable version of the first song from the now-legendary “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. Technically, they hadn’t changed a thing about the song, but the dynamics were more intense – the quiet parts were more tender, the loud parts were crushing.
I guess I didn’t realize how much that record means to me. So many memories came flooding back – of being hopelessly unhappy while Jeff sang my thoughts to me. I remembered sitting in the parking lot at work one morning, crying hysterically listening to the song. I remembered six months later, making out with Heather on my bed while the orgasmic flood of sound from this record poured into the room. When we brought Paul home from the hospital, I played this record for him twice every morning for the first couple weeks. A girl next to me noticed tears streaming down my face, so I smiled as I had my moment of living in the now and the past simultaneously. I was in complete awe of wilco.
Just when I couldn’t take any more, they played a particularly special song – “Shot in the Arm”. “OH MY GOD!” I called my wife Heather so that maybe she could hear her favorite Wilco song over the phone (she’s still breastfeeding Paul, so she’ll get an infection if she doesn’t pump every few hours).
The mood of the crowd changed from being annoyed at being packed in like sardines to one of courtesy. Everyone suddenly became concerned with the comfort of those around them. We weren’t strangers anymore – we were Wilco fans and when you get down to it, that means something.
I can’t say enough great things about the new people in the band. I wish they’d been there all along. The new keyboardist/guitarist looks to be about 24 and plays every chord both passionately and with a sense of humor.
Jeff looked happier than I’ve ever seen him. As always, his crowd banter is witty and comfortable.
In the list of songs that changed my life, “Jesus, etc” is one of them. “Our love is all of God’s money” is more than a lyric, it’s a philosiphy. The fact that Jeff thought to put that line into a song blows me away. That one LYRIC changed my life. Love is literally God. God exists when you put the pieces of the lost puzzle together; when you love someone. It feels familiar to share yourself with someone else, to experience their soul is liberating and awe-inspiring.
Even when it happens when a good lyricist puts pen to paper and shares a part of themselves – it makes the world a little smaller and less scary.
Nothing annoys me more than when people get excited that they’re in the front row and they think it means something when the lead singer looks at them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either experienced or heard “Remember when you looked at me during the show?” “Uh no. I can’t really see anything up there.” If the lead singer DOES make eye contact, it’s because they’re blankly staring at something while remembering the lyrics.
Jeff looked right at me and held my gaze for five seconds while he sang “Our love, our love is all of God’s money”. The scary part is that I knew he was going to do it. The magic of the coincidence isn’t lost on me. I felt myself breathing like I was crying again. This show was amazing.
Wilco brought out the rock for “Kingpin” in a big way. No more stifled, purposeful YHF-era performances, these guys were doing some Zeppelin-esque bone-crushing here. They whipped out “Candyfloss” from Summerteeth, another treat since they didn’t really PLAY any Summerteeth last time I saw them.
When Jeff kicked on the fuzzface and hit his low E string, the crowd exploded into cheers and applause. That is the band that Wilco have become – sharing moments with the audience. They launched into “I’m the man who loves you” and subsequently the way-better-than-the-record version of “Theologians”. “Poor Places” was amazing… I took some video of it on my digital camera as the stage throbbed and buckled impossibly under the weight of the song’s pulse, roaring eventually into chaos. This is the lineup that should have recorded Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, because they seemed to feel the music much better than the arguing, bickering-over-how-to-do-it band that they used to be.
Even the potentially tiresome “Spiders” was jaw-dropping live. The hard-rock spots of it inspired the crowd to surge up and down, the verses were toe-tapping ecstacy.
Wilco gave us two encores, including “Heavy Metal Drummer”, dedicated to Ken Coomer who was lurking in the VIP tent somewhere. Wilco visited their alt-country past rarely and dangerously, but we were treated all the same to a faithful “Passenger Side” after years of them doing punk or silly versions of it. “Be Not So Fearful” tenderly ended the show.
I can’t help it – I have to go work on some stuff that my childhood friend Steven and myself have been recording lately under the old fishrEmover moniker. Seeing wilco have made me itch to record – as if I haven’t been recording every day for the past few weeks already. Look for fishrEmover on college radio soon.
