Oh, Wilco. How I Love You.
I’ve got a bit of a mooning infatuation with these guys. Thusly I jumped at the chance to see them in concert. And at Cain’s Ballroom?!? There really isn’t a bad spot to see or hear at that venue!So I got to the venue Saturday night about twenty minutes after the doors opened and camped out at a spot about thirty feet from Nels Cline’s “science experiment table.” I’d seen and heard my share of local bands from this vantage point, but never absolute musical heroes of national and even international fame. Another first: as none of my friends got tickets for this show I experienced all of the night’s music-making by myself. A very odd sensation.
As John Doe, (from the 80s LA punk band X) played an unexpected, yet well-received high-energy set of Americana rock, (including guest lap steel by Nels on one song), the crowd started to grow around me.
After the opener I don’t think I ever awaited a bunch of musicians to walk onstage with as much childlike expectation before. And after a minimum of waiting around for roadies to tune guitars and hook up mics, the band casually walked onstage- Jeff Tweedy wearing a Nashville- showbiz, white embroidered suitcoat, looking like he owned the place. To me he was the very image of a paradox. The soft-spoken artist equating his music to “pieces of his soul” in the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, wore this outfit about as convincingly as a little kid in a cub scout uniform. So I laughed as soon as I saw him. I had chosen my spot well, as I wound up mid-way between Tweedy and Nels for most of the show. (I say “most of the show,” because I had to get some breathing room about halfway through the first encore. Getting older sucks.)
All told, they played over 2 ½ hours’ worth of music spanning their entire catalog, including several Woody Guthrie covers in honor of one of this state’s most famous musical heroes. Most thrilling for me, (during a thrilling evening in general) was the song “Impossible Germany” off the new record. With this song you get three distinct guitar parts and one of Nels’s shining moments of beautifully lyrical soloing. This song clearly demonstrates one of the things that makes Wilco great- the interplay of a bunch of guys contributing often little things on their own to create this collage of tasteful sound that is much more than a mere sum of its parts, all the while striking a very delicate balance between improvisation and tight, well-planned arrangements.
I witnessed all this as a man alone in a crowd. There may be something to the talk of concerts being communal, tribal events, great “shared experiences” and all that, but not so for me this particular night.
It was as if those guys were playing just for me and I have been spoiled for other bands for a long time…
posted by Mike @ 11:45 AM
1 Comments:
I was wondering how the show was. Now I know. I so regretted not going, but since Kyleigh was in the hospital even if I had a ticket I wouldn't have gone, which would have (perhaps) sucked more, except for the bonus point emotion of sacrificing for family. Or, I could be bitter about sacrificing Wilco for a girl who got better anyway.
You only think you were alone, my friend. I was there with you in spirit the entire evening.
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