Hallelujah Here She Comes
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Jeff Tweedy/Wilco
This is sort of a belated post and I'm not sure how many people will be interested in this, but here goes.
Jeff Tweedy (lead singer of Wilco) just did a few solo shows here in Chicago before Wilco heads out to do a tour in Australia and Japan. A friend (who is Mirrorball Girl on this board) let me know about this shortly before the tickets went onsale and it was decided that we were going to see one of them oh yes we most certainly were. We figured if we were going to go to one show, the last show would be the one to be at...and, if i do say so, we were so very right. Short story: this is tied with my first U2 show for the best concert I've ever seen, and I'm not sure I could give a show a higher compliment than that. I went in as a fan and came out a complete fucking obsessive. But anyway.
The first hour and a half of the show was just Jeff and his guitar and his incredibly deadpan humour. He's not your typical rock star in that he comes off as rather shy and unflamboyant, but there's an intensity (and also a vulnerability, I think) about him that commands your attention. He played an amazing variety of stuff, from all the Wilco albums, the two Mermaid Avenue albums, and even a fair amount of Uncle Tupelo stuff (which I adored, even though I was wholly unfamiliar with it).
Honestly, if the show had ended right there, I would have walked out of there completely in love with him. But, as it turns out, that's not what this show was meant to be. During the first encore, in the middle of Misunderstood, his roadies start carrying stuff onto the stage: first some sort of mat that they plopped down behind him (the initial response of my hazy brain: what the...? is he going to do gymnastics?? ). Then, they start to set up a drum kit on top of the mat ...and bring out a keyboard...and a bass. Slowly it dawns on the crowd that we're going to get a full-on Wilco show in addition to just Jeff Tweedy. You could feel the realization move over the crowd. And the moment they all started playing together, you could feel the energy in the place just surge. It was just this overwhelming sense of joy that felt like it was going to blow the roof off the place. I don't think I've ever left a concert feeling so unabashedly happy.
I've spent large portions of the past two days downloading everything having to do with Wilco and/or Jeff Tweedy I could get my hot little hands on. Right now I feel the way I did when I first started really getting into U2: like there's just this infinite store of wonderful music that I get to discover now. I'll stop before I get any more gushy.
Anyway, I just felt like this was an experience to amazing not to share and I figured this was the place to do it. Feel free to use this as your all-purpose Wilco thread. Comment on your favorite songs or albums, shows you've seen, things you were eating last time you listened to a Wilco song- I don't really care. Right now I just can't get enough of this band.
This is sort of a belated post and I'm not sure how many people will be interested in this, but here goes.
Jeff Tweedy (lead singer of Wilco) just did a few solo shows here in Chicago before Wilco heads out to do a tour in Australia and Japan. A friend (who is Mirrorball Girl on this board) let me know about this shortly before the tickets went onsale and it was decided that we were going to see one of them oh yes we most certainly were. We figured if we were going to go to one show, the last show would be the one to be at...and, if i do say so, we were so very right. Short story: this is tied with my first U2 show for the best concert I've ever seen, and I'm not sure I could give a show a higher compliment than that. I went in as a fan and came out a complete fucking obsessive. But anyway.
The first hour and a half of the show was just Jeff and his guitar and his incredibly deadpan humour. He's not your typical rock star in that he comes off as rather shy and unflamboyant, but there's an intensity (and also a vulnerability, I think) about him that commands your attention. He played an amazing variety of stuff, from all the Wilco albums, the two Mermaid Avenue albums, and even a fair amount of Uncle Tupelo stuff (which I adored, even though I was wholly unfamiliar with it).
Honestly, if the show had ended right there, I would have walked out of there completely in love with him. But, as it turns out, that's not what this show was meant to be. During the first encore, in the middle of Misunderstood, his roadies start carrying stuff onto the stage: first some sort of mat that they plopped down behind him (the initial response of my hazy brain: what the...? is he going to do gymnastics?? ). Then, they start to set up a drum kit on top of the mat ...and bring out a keyboard...and a bass. Slowly it dawns on the crowd that we're going to get a full-on Wilco show in addition to just Jeff Tweedy. You could feel the realization move over the crowd. And the moment they all started playing together, you could feel the energy in the place just surge. It was just this overwhelming sense of joy that felt like it was going to blow the roof off the place. I don't think I've ever left a concert feeling so unabashedly happy.
I've spent large portions of the past two days downloading everything having to do with Wilco and/or Jeff Tweedy I could get my hot little hands on. Right now I feel the way I did when I first started really getting into U2: like there's just this infinite store of wonderful music that I get to discover now. I'll stop before I get any more gushy.
Anyway, I just felt like this was an experience to amazing not to share and I figured this was the place to do it. Feel free to use this as your all-purpose Wilco thread. Comment on your favorite songs or albums, shows you've seen, things you were eating last time you listened to a Wilco song- I don't really care. Right now I just can't get enough of this band.