Wilco

I would be a remiss blogger if I didn't in some way cover the Wilco show Wednesday night.

But first, some links: My friend Alison, who went with us, has her take here. And you can scroll down to find another nice take on the show here. The forums and set list are here.

The highlights, for me: The band opened with "Shot in the Arm." A beautiful song, and it kicked off the concert beautifully. The crowd stood up once the first chords were struck, and nobody ever sat down. It was a great atmosphere until that fight during the encore, which you can read about at the above links. My friend K, who also went with us, was right next to the fight (and next to a mother and her ten-year-old child who were also next to the fight) and he said that the one guy was definitely taking a beating. He went so far as to say it was the most violent fight he'd ever seen in person.

But back to the highlights: The arrangement of "Via Chicago" was gorgeous. And Tweedy, I should mention here, sounded great throughout the show. This was my first real experience at a Wilco show (I saw them one other time but it was at an outdoor venue) and I wasn't sure how they would pull off some of what they pull off in the studio, but they did. All that sound, from just six guys on stage. And Tweedy, I'll say again, sounded fantastic.

Lastly, the second song of the encore was "The Late Greats." To me, this song is pure pop heaven (and smart besides--it's great standing in a crowd of adoring, screaming fans while Tweedy muses, "This song, will never get sung," etc.). I danced for the entire three minutes, and was even doing some strange things with my arms.

All in all, it was a fantastic show. The lowlights, if there were any: the fight, obviously; and the 10:30 curfew, which cut the encore short by five songs. Had Wilco been allowed to continue to play, we would have heard "What Light," "Heavy Metal Drummer," "I'm a Wheel," "Poor Places," and "I'm Always in Love." I have a lot of love for a couple of those songs, but the show was so good I'm not devastated or anything.

Oh--and though I missed a song or two by the opening act, Low, what I saw was pretty great. I read this a while back, and ever since then, I've wanted to check out Low but haven't. After seeing them live, they'll be a high iTunes priority in the near future.

*Image by way of Alison by way of Quad City Images, because when I got my fancy new cell phone out of my pocket to take a shot, I found out the battery was dead.