Review: Wilco - First Avenue - 6/30/01

What a difference 24 hours makes...

Wilco wrapped up its second night in Minneapolis - the second show of the
"Kotche" era - with a deliriously long, wild and, at times, devastatingly
powerful concert. Even though many of the same songs were played, things
couldn't have been more different from the first night which, in retrospect,
now seems more like a spirited warm-up show or dress rehearsal. On Friday,
for the most part, the songs were merely *played*. The second night was the
real deal. The boys were noticeably more relaxed and confident, the energy
flowed much better and there was little of the tentativeness that
occasionally (and understandably) reared its head Friday - the end result
was a solid, cohesive piece of live music art that bodes well for the rest
of the year (if not longer). There was a nice "ensemble" feel to many of the
songs that wasn't nearly as noticeable on Friday. The power of the music at
times was almost overwhelming; the crowd's reaction was more intense than
the previous night by several orders of magnitude. Indeed, there was a very
rare third encore (more on that later) that was entirely attributable to the
hysterical crowd response.

Saturday's concert reflected many of the flavors from past tours - Being
There, Summer Teeth, Mermaid Ave. - but, largely due to the new "Yankee
Foxtrot Hotel" material, the 2001 Wilco model looks to be new and improved.
This incarnation of the band is boldly marching down new paths - namely some
excursions into "noise-pop" and experimentalism - while still holding on to
a slew of their best songs from the last 4 years, many of which are
increasingly being fiddled and tinkered with, sometimes drastically so.
Regardless of the many familiar songs on the setlist, this is a band that is
very much alive and well, and looking forward.


Some random thoughts:

* Stepping out onto First Ave. after the show it was obvious that the awful
heat wave here in Mpls had ended - for the first time in a week the temp was
down to 70 degrees. Maybe the tremendous release of energy by the band shook
up the angry weather gods.
* Shades of the "Summer Teeth" tour: things started off with a familiar
1-2-3 punch - a sparse, scary "Via Chicago," followed by "Shot in the Arm"
and "I'm Always in Love" which, BTW, has reverted back to its familiar style
after the "heavy metal" readings from last fall (which I absolutely loved).
* "War on War" was again in the same place. Catchier on every listen,
another killer lyric ("You gotta learn how to die / If you wanna stay
alive") and I noticed that Leroy was on bass and John was playing some cool
acoustic guitar.
* The Wilco debut of "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" was next, so it was
obvious that the new material wasn't going to be relegated to the encore.
The song started off in its usual haunting manner - familiar to those who
heard it on the solo tour - but as the song progressed, things got very
weird, very fast. The dissonance, off-kilter rhythms and just plain general
strangeness that ensued was totally absent from the solo versions for
obvious reasons - as talented as Jeff is, there's only so much noise he can
make with one lil' ol' acoustic guitar. For the first, but definitely not
the last, time the band embarked on a spiraling, noisy rave-up that
indicated that Jeff has maybe listened to "Sister Ray" more than once. The
few people who have heard Jeff's collaboration with Jim O'Rourke at the
Noise Pop 2000 festival (Chicago - 5/14/00) might not be surprised at this
turn of events, but the crowd was pretty much stunned. This quite likely was
the weirdest, most *avant* 5 minutes of Wilco music ever performed on stage.
It will be interesting to see how crowds react to this over the rest of the
tour. Not bad for an "alt-country" band. :)
* A refreshing, at times exquisite, Mermaid Ave. mini-set followed. This
material is obviously important to Jeff and the band, and it shows in the
nearly always interesting performances of these songs. Highlights: Leroy's
electric lead and Jeff's acoustic solo on "Hesitating Beauty" and Jay's
souped-up acoustic 12-string slide work on a blistering "Feed of Man." Even
the epic "Mountain Bed" - Woody's half-century old words sounding very much
like a blueprint for the entire singer-songwriter movement - was
sufficiently compelling to quiet a fairly boisterous crowd.
* At one point somebody yelled out "BEAUTIFUL AND STONED." Jeff, who was
more engaging than Friday, paused and quipped, "well, you got it half
right." Speaking of which, where the hell was "Heavy Metal Drummer," which
was AWOL both nights. The clear crowd fave of all the new songs from the
solo tour was nowhere to be found. Hmmm...
* After the Mermaid Ave. set, Jeff said "we're gonna try and learn to play
some new songs," which was greeted by an encouraging, positive crowd
response. "Ashes of American Flags" and "Kamera" followed - both superb,
both destined to be highlights of the new album. "Ashes" had an ominous
undertow, much more pronounced than the solo versions from this year or the
few Wilco performances from last fall. Jeff was alone on electric guitar,
the song ending with another noisy freak-out. "Kamera" was dominated by
strong keyboard work from Jay and Leroy. For the record, Wilco's "new" sound
is somewhere between the 70-ish guitar rock of "Being There" and the
orchestral flourishes of "Summer Teeth." Also, the organ has moved front and
center, culminating in an honest-to-god "spotlight" organ solo (by Jay) on
"Kamera." Interesting "Kodak" moment: after "Kamera," which has some
seemingly tricky rhythms, Leroy turned to Glenn and delightedly applauded
his work. Aww....
* Not that Wilco is averse to "jamming" (who can forget those seemingly
endless versions of "Kingpin" from the BT tour?) but there were more than a
few times Saturday when you could see things pointing in that direction.
Although I think it will be some time before they receive their official
"Jam Band" credentials, this development could be troubling to some, even
Tweedy himself, whose opinion of the Dead is a matter of public record, his
fine 1999 cover of "Ripple" notwithstanding.
* Side comment: After seeing these two shows, why have I been thinking of
the Faces all weekend?
* After a sweet, samba-like "How to Fight Loneliness" and the ever-popular
"California Stars" (during which Leroy also got his moment in the spotlight
during an organ solo), the main set ended with, yup you guessed it, the
"Red-Eyed and Blue / I Got You" combo. The "divorce" lasted exactly 24
hours; musta been a "trial separation." Strangely, rather than being annoyed
to hear this for the umpteenth time, it instead seemed like the perfect way
to end the main set and the crowd was totally worked up as the band left the
stage. Jay was simply on fire during the finale, as he had been all night.
Not that it's any big news to dedicated Wilco fans, but when Jay is "on,"
the band generally is, too. And Jay was very "on" Saturday.
* After the main set, I realized that we hadn't heard either "Misunderstood"
or "Sunken Treasure" (not to mention any Tupelo material). So, of course, we
got both during the first encore. Both songs were longer and far more
intense than Friday's comparatively restrained versions, especially "Sunken
Treasure," which ended the encore with a ridiculously huge explosion of
noise and chaos - the band is getting quite good (or worse, depending on
your perspective) at the "wall of noise" technique. An intriguing "Jesus,
etc" (again with Jesse Greene on violin) was sandwiched in between the two
BT monsters, providing some much needed relief from the tension.
* The second encore was relatively straight forward but by no means lacking
in excitement. "Reservations" came first - one of Jeff's most touching,
personal songs - just like a nice little sorbet after a big meal. Solid
versions of "Passenger Side" and "Outtasite" followed, both greeted by
ecstatic crowd reactions. "Outtasite" was downright brilliant, as good as it
gets. In many ways, this is the quintessential Wilco song - they've played
it consistently, dating all the way back to their first show in November
1994, and they apparently liked it so much that they recorded it twice for
their best album (and who can forget the video?). By the end, the entire
main floor was bouncing in unison, dripping with sweat and exhaustion.
* It sure felt like the end of the show after "Outtasite." The crowd,
however, had other intentions. After a few minutes the video screen started
coming down, just as the band was coming out of the dressing room. After a
few seconds of confusion, the band trotted out onto the stage and
immediately huddled to ponder the next move. A wilted version of "Forget the
Flowers" followed as the video screen finally went back up. The band's
energy was clearly spent - Jay had a towel wrapped around his head - and
they had a hard time getting out of first gear. The lethargic vibe continued
as the next song began, sounding totally unfamiliar - kinda lounge-y, kinda
hokey, definitely half-ass. What we got was an odd, utterly unrecognizable
version of "Monday," with a completely foreign tempo and melody that very
well could've been made up on the spot. Perhaps they were simply too
exhausted to give the song the high-energy treatment it usually gets. I
immediately thought of similar "retoolings" done by the Replacements, a band
I had seen so many times on the same stage, who often seemed to delight in
treating their back catalog with a perverse, peculiar sense of (dis)respect.
As "Monday" ambled to a strangely subdued conclusion, the familiar opening
notes of "Casino Queen" rang out in the form of yet another wicked "tease"
intro. Thankfully, Jeff's hankering for radical revisionism had ended and
the night ended with this classic Wilco closer. As Dylan once said, "could
this really be the end..." but everybody knew that it was, despite the brief
appearance by one of the cameraman at the side of the stage who elicited a
big whoop when he swung his camera towards the crowd. I don't think there's
any way there could've been another encore unless there was some oxygen
backstage.
* All of YHF's songs were played over the 2 nights except for "Heavy Metal
Drummer" (played many times solo over the last few years), "Pot Kettle
Black" (which was on the solo tour "master" setlist), "Poor Places"
(recently previewed on XRT) and "Radio Cure."

Needless to say, an exciting, exhilarating, fun 2 nights. Jeff said they
might be back in the fall. If the shows are gonna be this good, I don't know
if I can wait. Good thing it's "road trip" season!


SETLIST

1. Via Chicago
2. Shot in the Arm
3. I'm Always in Love
4. War on War
5. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
6. Hesitating Beauty
7. Remember the Mountain Bed
8. Airline to Heaven
9. Feed of Man
10. She's a Jar
11. Ashes of American Flags
12. Kamera
13. How to Fight Loneliness
14. California Stars
15. Red, Eyed and Blue -->
16. I Got You

ENCORE 1
17. Misunderstood
18. Jesus, etc.
19. Sunken Treasure

ENCORE 2
20. Reservations
21. Passenger Side
22. Outtasite (Outtamind)

ENCORE 3
23. Forget the Flowers
24. Monday (weird slow version)
25. Casino Queen

(135m)