Wilco 8/20/2003

The last show of any long tour can bring mixed emotions. I’ve seen performers express sadness because they never wanted the evening to arrive. I’ve seen young artists already anxious to get back on the road, insisting that rest is very much overrated. And I’ve also seen completely disinterested souls that needed an extended break, or maybe just a few pints of Guinness.

At the luxurious Auditorium Theatre in downtown Chicago, I witnessed many of these emotions and more as Chicago’s own Wilco took the stage after two years on the road promoting Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. If nothing else, it was a grand celebration of what has been completed. It also gave us a golden look of the promising road that lies ahead for this captivating band in their prime.

The wind has blown Wilco back to Chicago many times throughout their nine plus years as a touring act. From their first organized show at Cicero’s basement in St. Louis in 1994, to their vintage performances at the Lounge Ax, never had Wilco been placed in such a glorious setting to hold a sold out two-night stand of, as lead singer Jeff Tweedy put it comprehensive performances. And comprehensive it was.

Leading the second night off with "Misunderstood," Tweedy literally thanked us all for nothing a deafening 40 times, with each nothing building thunderous applause from the 3,800 followers in attendance.

The set remained rather quiet until "Magazine Called Sunset" a number off the band’s recent EP (which you can now download for free on their website). With the inspiring play of multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach on guitar and new computer guru Mikael Jorgensen, this song seemed to get the extra punch it needed to explode before a live audience. After a false start into Summerteeth’s "I’m Always in Love," Tweedy assured us that it was going to be a long night. From here, Wilco was ready to rock, and even experiment with some new material.

"At Least That_s What You Said," a potential track for their new album that is currently being recorded, may have caught many in the audience by surprise. Before you could begin to decipher its lyrics (I thought it was cute for you to kiss my purple black eye/even though I caught it from you), the song blooms into a cloud of feedback that makes you forget about the lyrics and swear that the song could stand alone as an instrumental. And if that wasn’t enough to give us taste of what is in store for the future just as powerful was the electric, almost-heavy metal "Kickin Television," which closed out the opening set, leaving many in the audience wondering what had just happened to the band, who had moments earlier equally satisfied them with the delicate "Reservations" off of YHF.

Whether it is the soft ballads or experimental new rockers that are being performed, always a force in the sonic creation is the (literally) moving drummer Glen Kotche. Usually breaking a sweat before the fourth or fifth song, Kotche brings Wilco to another level of imagination. Simply put, Kotche’s improvisation gives Wilco a little bit of what Ryan Adams brings to a live performance: you never know what is going to happen next, and even better in Kotche’s case, what sound you will hear next. Yet, he fits nicely with the steady bass grooves of John Stirratt on slower songs like "Jesus, Etc." He has even recently admitted that "it would be too hard to try to perform a specific way for every show. Each show is its own thing. We do what feels right the night of the show."

What Kotche and company brought us next after a YHF trio of "I am Trying To Break Your Heart," " Pot Kettle Black," and "Jesus, Etc." was a surprising 10-song second encore of the old and new, which might as well be called a second set. Leading off with another new tune called "Late Greats," Tweedy sang about how you can’t hear the best songs on the radio. This set the stage for excellent versions of "Airline to Heaven," "Hoodoo Voodoo,"_ and the sing-along, "California Stars," making it an almost perfect Mermaid Avenue moment, except most of the audience struggled to remember the words. Even present was "New Madrid" and "We’ve Been Had," two songs from the Uncle Tupelo catalogue.

Capping of this extraordinary evening was a song about, well, curiosity, which pretty much summed up the evening for me. "Say You Miss Me" had the audience wanting more, and as the house lights went on, each Wilco adorer had his or her own curious questions. When will the next tour begin? When will the next album be released? For now, the members of Wilco will not have to worry if their fans miss them too. Forget about the passenger side. Wilco is now in the driver’s seat.

Setlist

Misunderstood / How To Fight Loneliness / Handshake Drugs / She's a Jar / Remember the Mountain Bed / Magazine Called Sunset / I'm Always In Love / At Least That's What You Said / Pieholden Suite / Box Full of Letters / Kingpin / I'm the Man Who Loves You / Poor Places / Reservations / War On War / Cars Can't Escape / Kicking Television //

Encore 1: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart / Pot Kettle Black / Jesus, etc. //

Encore 2: Late Greats / Airline To Heaven / California Stars / Forget the Flowers / New Madrid / Hoodoo Voodoo / Casino Queen / Monday / We've Been Had / Say You Miss Me

Photos by Jason Gonulsen

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