Live

WILCO, GRIZZLY BEAR

UA CENTENNIAL HALL

Thursday, June 18

From Nels Cline’s wanker-bar burst in Wilco’s opening song, “Hell Is
Chrome,” to Jeff Tweedy’s hilarious, microphone-hurling, rock-star
posturing in the first-set closer, “Hummingbird,” and the fan-pandering
“Kingpin” crowd-coaching in the encore, lucky ticket holders for the
sold-out show at Centennial Hall had a night of first-rate rock.

There are some who have actually groused that on their way to
becoming global rock icons, Wilco may have become too good at it. The
show was technically flawless, with pros at the helm on every level:
the light-show spectacle, the impeccable sound (as contrasted,
especially, with the sound provided to openers Grizzly Bear, who
deserved better), the busy legion of instrument techs, even the
flotilla of guitars. Wilco’s got the gears in motion to dominate the
world of rock—record sales pending.

A.M., the band’s 1995 debut, and the two Mermaid
Avenue works were the only albums that the set didn’t touch. This
is so not that Wilco anymore. The 25-song romp was dominated by
selections from Wilco’s upcoming release, Wilco (The Album), and
their wildly popular 2002 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with only 10
songs taken from their other records.

In the second song, “Handshake Drugs,” Tweedy made a show of
signaling a three-guitar attack, as if to say, “Check this out.”
(His joy is apparent whenever Nels Cline is his guitar foil.) The
spectacle of the arrangement, performance and light show made it hard
to imagine how the rest of the set could top it. But 10 songs later,
the answer came within the homesick acoustic ditty “Via Chicago.” As
Tweedy sang, the rest of the band repeatedly interrupted with the
racket (and bright, flashing lights) of airplanes taking off and
landing. You had to be there.

The exercise of everyone swapping out guitars before and after
“Black Bull Nova” was like watching a tire change at the Indy
500—entertainment in itself. But one fan in front had the most
fun of the night: During the marathon “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” Tweedy
played the lead while the rest of Wilco played the high-intensity vamp.
Tweedy knelt down and allowed the fan to pluck guitar strings for a few
measures, effectively making him the leader of a band that might one
day achieve world domination.

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.