Show Review

Who would have thought just a couple years ago that three bands by the names of Sleater- Kinney, Wilco and The Flaming Lips would be headlining a place called Madison Square Garden on New Years Eve. In 2001, there would have been a better chance of Blink 182, Sum 41 and Jimmy Eat World headlining the hallowed building that played home to Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same. Thankfully things change, as this tripleheader proved to be quite the contemporary attraction.

Sleater-Kinney kicked things off around 8:00 with their riot grrrl rock to a typical opening slot crowd, with people bustling about, giving little time for the trio to heat up. Playing perhaps the most prolific show of their careers, the trio delivered their anti-consumerism, gender-inequity rants with authority and gusto for a majority of their petite 45-minute spot.

With balloons, gags, theatrics and confetti as part of their stage routine, The Flaming Lips might be the greatest New Years eve band that never was. Looking at the billing, most people would donate their evening’s booze that the Lips would be playing at midnight, but instead the more straight to business Wilco got the honors.

The Flaming Lips (aka Freak Show from Oklahoma City) took the stage complete with those fur suit plushies, oversized balloons, scantily clad women and the less-than-standard Lips special effects. Wayne Coyne and his madcap fiction adventures took the stage to a triumphant “Fuck Yeah.” After touring the past two years behind Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips are in great need for musical and set reinvention, but always manage to entrance their fans. Sure, the first Lips show you see is out of this world, but any show you see after that is as scripted as Usher on Grammy night. Still, as entertainers, with sheer performance art theatrics, they are Pee Wee’s Playhouse meets Alice Cooper meets Pink Floyd. And how can’t that be fun?

Delivering their festive “last night on earth” mentality to the stage, Coyne feverishly yells “c’mon you guys” like a little league coach between each song, while a small camera attached to a microphone, illuminates live, close-up images of the gray vested Coyne on a giant-screen TV. But it doesn’t take a jumbo-tron to see those eyes twitching, face sweating and stained blood behind the twirling lights and his frantic prancing like a newly freed inmate.

Their one hour set was more a party than anything, with most songs from Yoshimi filling the set. Even ones they admit they are sick of playing like “She Don’t Use Jelly,” complete with the arms waving sing along of “She Uses Vaseline.” Nothing subliminal there of course.

Perhaps the only surprise was a politically charged cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” Indeed, The Flaming Lips throw a great New Years Eve party full of sensory overload while granting everyone in the crowd a token that this is “their night.”

Wilco, perhaps playing the biggest show of their lives, took the stage around 11:00 with lead singer Jeff Tweedy sporting cartoon bunny rabbit pajamas. Following the Flaming Lips cartoonish festivities, Wilco went out of their way to prove that they can get away with whatever they wanted as well, opening with the most humdrum song on their latest opus A Ghost Is Born: “Less Than You Think.”

With a seventh member on stage, producer Jim O’Rourke adding a fourth guitar to the mix, Wilco become a revved up engine – a Lynyrd Skynyrd for the left wing. Nels Cline was rocking one side of the stage and Pat Sansone the other, with O’Rourke and Tweedy laying a rhythmic foundation during the Stereolab sounding “Spiders.”

It’s hard to believe that Wilco was a one guitar act for more than two years, following Jay Bennett’s departure, or even harder to believe that this same band was a rustic alt-country band. Although Wilco has only been touring as a six piece unit since the spring, they’ve become incredibly tight in a short time, and proven to be Wilco’s most exhilarative lineup yet. After a handful of fiery originals, including a version of “Jesus, Etc” that Tweedy mentioned eerily tied into the events of 9/11 with the lyrics, “Tall buildings shake/voices escape singing sad sad songs.”

At the stroke of midnight, as the venue turned its eyes to the ball dropping in Times Square, Wilco became in the word of Tweedy “a $50 bar band.” Further proving they can get away with whatever they want, Wilco delivered a series of cover songs ranging from Judas Priest (“Livin After Midnight“), Captain and Tennille (“Love Will Keep Us Together“), Randy Newman (“Political Science“), The Band (“I Shall Be Released“), Thunderclap Newman (“Something In The Air“) and even Blue Oyster Cult’s (“Don’t Fear The Reaper“) – complete with cowbell.

Tweedy even made a New Years resolution not to play his guitar after midnight as he held center stage with just the microphone, reckoning himself as New York City’s finest karoke singer. However, it was during the cover of “ I Shall Be Released” when Tweedy hit the Music From Big Pink version of Richard Manuel’s spectral croon on the fabled Dylan/Band classic- the evening's highlight was met. For that night yes, Wilco was the best bar band around. Even the karaoke standard, “Love Will Keep Us Together” stayed more cool than cheesy.

Mixing songs mainly from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, Wilco’s songs, full of their intelligent lyrics and exciting exploration are renowned live gems. Other than two older numbers, “King Pin” and “Shot In The Arm,” Wilco’s set was all post 9/11.

Rounding out their two hour set, Wilco proved to mix seriousness with playfulness, top-notch musicianship and spontaneity, to make this performance a memorable evening. There are only a few bands that can get away with playing whatever they feel like and rightfully get away with it. To their devoted fan-base, Wilco could have gotten away with a few Culture Club songs and still had the crowd in their hands. Yes, stretching the concert rules... even with baby blue pajamas.

Photos by Adam Foley