Will You Go To Wilco?
Apr. 24th, 2005 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsAs stated previously, my former coworker Screaming Amy encouraged me to go see Wilco last night, even finding me a ticket to the sold-out show. I'll go ahead and make the big complaint about general admission tickets, and state for the record that my back doesn't really like me to stand for two hours anymore. I was in some big pain by the end of the show, and I was tired of the big crowd shifting all the time - stay in place and watch the damn show people! Stop going out for another beer! Why are you even here? Rant over.
I wasn't sure about the show. I remember seeing a little of Wilco live at Austin City Limits Festival last year, and they were playing a lot of stuff that just wasn't connecting with me, so we moved on to the next act after a few songs. I have a couple of the earlier albums, and I love Summerteeth, which is full of nice melodies and textures (even thought some of the imagery from the lyrics is a little - well disturbing, but that seems to be just the way it is for singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy.
One thing you'll always hear about Wilco is that somewhere they took a strange turn between Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot where a lot of the songs just grind down into clashes of noised and clanging, but really, I spotted some of this in early albums. Amy and I were talking in the show, as she and her husband really didn't know much about the band and had missed their performances at other shows, and she mentioned the disintegration of most of the songs towards the end. I said, "Yeah, a lot of bands, even the Beatles have had trouble ending a song, but Wilco just seems to take it a step further." One song they played, Via Chicago came from Summerteeth, their most melodic record, if you ask me, but still, it shows what turn they will take, when the drums, bass and keyboards just become a cacophony of thunder and the vocals and rhythm guitars keep going as if nothing happened. It certainly shows that they were willing to play with the simple form they were given.
Much of the show focused on the newer albums, the already mentioned Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. I picked up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot about a year ago, gave it one listen and never went back, not connecting to the fact that several minutes of prolonged white-noise could be interesting, but during the show, they kept that to a minimum, keeping the songs short and tight. The peppered some older songs in to, so there were recognizable favorites. Still, I heard some of the crowd leaving commenting on how they were confused by the bands disintegration style, wondering if it was intended or not. It does seem to be a modus operandi that is Wilco's, and is rather polarizing.
Leader Jeff Tweedy was interesting, popping up to the microphone to talk periodically, actually telling one fan to shut up when he kept yelling for the same request, but then later apologizing to him and the crowd for the outburst, and for several technical difficulties (that probably lead to more confusion by the unknowing) that I certainly didn't pick up on and that he was quitting smoking, and the patch, "wasn't fucking working".
It made for a more interesting show than I was expecting, and I found myself bobbing along with many of the tunes, several very unfamiliar, there in the middle of the crowd. There was a multi-media presentation behind them that provides different visuals for each song that helped keep things lively, but weren't so interesting that you lost the music entirely. Of course it didn't hurt that they played my favorite song, Candy Floss. Probably one of the most beatlesque in their repitore.
So I actually got out, and came away wanting to go see more live music, (I'm going to have to watch for Ben Folds' tour dates) and to give Wilco's library a fresh listen. I'm not sure I'm going to like their last two albums all that much more, but certainly there's some more to look at there. I'm glad I took Amy up on it. If you like alt-rock, alt county and good live shows, you might want to as well. (Sorry, Chicago is already sold out)
I stayed for both encores. Amy's husband Corey wasn't feeling the vibe, so they left early, so I guess I got more out of it that she did. My back's recovering, though.
I wasn't sure about the show. I remember seeing a little of Wilco live at Austin City Limits Festival last year, and they were playing a lot of stuff that just wasn't connecting with me, so we moved on to the next act after a few songs. I have a couple of the earlier albums, and I love Summerteeth, which is full of nice melodies and textures (even thought some of the imagery from the lyrics is a little - well disturbing, but that seems to be just the way it is for singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy.
One thing you'll always hear about Wilco is that somewhere they took a strange turn between Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot where a lot of the songs just grind down into clashes of noised and clanging, but really, I spotted some of this in early albums. Amy and I were talking in the show, as she and her husband really didn't know much about the band and had missed their performances at other shows, and she mentioned the disintegration of most of the songs towards the end. I said, "Yeah, a lot of bands, even the Beatles have had trouble ending a song, but Wilco just seems to take it a step further." One song they played, Via Chicago came from Summerteeth, their most melodic record, if you ask me, but still, it shows what turn they will take, when the drums, bass and keyboards just become a cacophony of thunder and the vocals and rhythm guitars keep going as if nothing happened. It certainly shows that they were willing to play with the simple form they were given.
Much of the show focused on the newer albums, the already mentioned Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. I picked up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot about a year ago, gave it one listen and never went back, not connecting to the fact that several minutes of prolonged white-noise could be interesting, but during the show, they kept that to a minimum, keeping the songs short and tight. The peppered some older songs in to, so there were recognizable favorites. Still, I heard some of the crowd leaving commenting on how they were confused by the bands disintegration style, wondering if it was intended or not. It does seem to be a modus operandi that is Wilco's, and is rather polarizing.
Leader Jeff Tweedy was interesting, popping up to the microphone to talk periodically, actually telling one fan to shut up when he kept yelling for the same request, but then later apologizing to him and the crowd for the outburst, and for several technical difficulties (that probably lead to more confusion by the unknowing) that I certainly didn't pick up on and that he was quitting smoking, and the patch, "wasn't fucking working".
It made for a more interesting show than I was expecting, and I found myself bobbing along with many of the tunes, several very unfamiliar, there in the middle of the crowd. There was a multi-media presentation behind them that provides different visuals for each song that helped keep things lively, but weren't so interesting that you lost the music entirely. Of course it didn't hurt that they played my favorite song, Candy Floss. Probably one of the most beatlesque in their repitore.
So I actually got out, and came away wanting to go see more live music, (I'm going to have to watch for Ben Folds' tour dates) and to give Wilco's library a fresh listen. I'm not sure I'm going to like their last two albums all that much more, but certainly there's some more to look at there. I'm glad I took Amy up on it. If you like alt-rock, alt county and good live shows, you might want to as well. (Sorry, Chicago is already sold out)
I stayed for both encores. Amy's husband Corey wasn't feeling the vibe, so they left early, so I guess I got more out of it that she did. My back's recovering, though.
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Oh, you gotta figure a jam band loving guy from Chicago has to comment
Date: 2005-04-24 06:47 pm (UTC)See I got into Wilco during Summerteeth. I liked a lot but it wasn't on the top shelf. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is probably my favorite album since the turn of the century. I could listen to it all the way through.
The way Tweedy turned the band in a slightly different direction after SummerTeeth and might have turned a few people off but I love the more experimental psychedelic side to them. And of course a mix of little jems.
A Ghost is Born is a really good album, not quite as good as Yankee but still good.
Judging from the thing about standing and long endless jams, I'm guessing you'd go crazy at a Phish show. :-)
One recommendation, if you haven't already listened to, is Jeff Tweedy's first band Uncle Tupelo. Great mix of straight forward Rock, with a folk and country mix.
Re: Oh, you gotta figure a jam band loving guy from Chicago has to comment
Date: 2005-04-27 03:38 am (UTC)Strangely enough, I haven't hear much of Uncle Tupelo, except for a few songs on Yahoo's Launchcast, but I've liked what I've heard. I was a big fan of the alt-country of the time.