Home for the Holidays: Opening Winterlude on the 'Ode to Joy' Tour, Wilco Is Helped by One of Their Heroes -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Wilco

w/ opening act Robyn Hitchcock

Chicago Theatre

December 15, 2019

(also playing 12/16, 18, 19)

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Over what is now a 25-year-career, Wilco has done quite well for themselves, putting out many acclaimed albums, selling out numerous Chicago shows and playing all around the world.

Many acts would kill to be able to fill four shows at the Chicago Theatre, and in the annals of alternative rock I think it's fair to call them a "major band."

But it does seem a bit surprising, to me if no one else, that Sunday's show at the splendiferous Chicago Theatre was the 14th time I've seen Wilco live.

OK, so that includes a 4th of July free show at Grant Park in 1996 when I really just heard them from the lawn, and an opening slot for R.E.M. in 1999. But it doesn't count one of the coolest gigs, when I got to see Wilco's singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy perform Wilco songs (alongside various assemblages of music students) in the living room of my friend's sister, as a benefit for Chicago's venerated Old Town School of Folk Music. I even got to meet him and chat a bit.

Robyn Hitchcock

So heck, let's call it 15.

That's more than I've seen anyone live except Bruce Springsteen, U2, Pearl Jam and Wilco's Chicago brethren, the Smashing Pumpkins (in various incarnations).

And it's now more than I've seen the Foo Fighters, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and the Who.

I love Wilco, but not as much as any of those acts. 

They have many stellar songs, Tweedy is an amiable if at times crusty frontman and the band's diverse musicality--led by guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche--is fantastic.

They're local heroes, and I'm glad to have seen them as often as I have, including once again.

Yet compared to the other artists mentioned and some other favorites of mine, Wilco just isn't that exciting.

In part this is because--especially at this point on several recent albums--they traipse in folk and country stylings much more than what I would call hard rock.

From the stage on Sunday, Tweedy spoke of the band's knack for doing "waltzes and laments" and that even when they get the party started, it's mostly "mid-tempo rock."

I still love their harder-charging late '90s albums--Being There and Summer Teeth--when they reminded me at times of The Replacements, and my favorite Wilco shows have been ones where they've largely rocked out.

But to be clear, I didn't attend on Sunday expecting them to do.

Not every concert need blow my head off, and I certainly didn't mind that in being comfortably seated in the last row of the balcony, no one in front of me was inspired to stand. 

Wilco is touring on their 11th studio album, Ode to Joy, which is a rather sedate set and still settling in for me.

Eight of the show's 28 songs--see the setlist here--came from the 2019 release, and particularly early on, set the relaxed tone.

They mined their catalog for several gems--"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," "War on War," "Hummingbird," "Via Chicago," "Box Full of Letters," "I'm the Man Who Loves You," "I'm Always in Love," "California Stars"--and the overall vibe was of a strong, but fairly typical Wilco show.

I've given most Wilco concerts @@@@ or @@@@1/2 (out of 5) and really could have gone either way on this one.

I settled on the latter for a couple main reasons.

First, was the band's hand-picked opening act, Robyn Hitchcock, a veteran literate British singer/songwriter once in The Soft Boys and later backed by the Egyptians.

Hitchcock is one of those guys whose name I've long known, but whose music I've never acquainted myself with as much as I should have.

I did once catch him opening for R.E.M. 30 years ago, and was intending to see him last January if something--weather, illness, ticket prices, can't quite recall--didn't intercede.

But I've never owned any albums, nor in these days of streaming, sought to explore much of his vast output.

And I forgot he was opening this show until I got there, so I didn't Spotifamiliarize myself with anything ahead of time.

Still, with Robyn solo on acoustic guitar, cheekily telling the audience that he was "incredibly old" and sharing odd stories about his cats, hens and other such stuff, Hitchcock's half-hour set was a delight.

His setlist isn't published, but I think "I Pray When I'm Drunk," "My Wife and My Dead Wife," "Queen of Eyes," "Madonna of the Wasps" and "I Want to Tell You About What I Want" covers most, and perhaps all, of what he played.

I don't typically loop the opening act into my rating of a headline artist, but not only did he speak of being there expressly because the Wilco guys were longtime fans, Hitchcock made a cameo--get it?--on the last two songs of the night.

With Robyn on lead vocals, first was a cover of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," followed by a great "I Wanna Destroy You" from the Soft Boys' highly acclaimed 1980 album, Underwater Moonlight.

So this was a case where the opening act demonstrably abetted my overall enjoyment.

And while, even with a few late rockers, Wilco were largely their laid-back selves, when they did get thunderous--such as the cacophony that erupts in "Via Chicago," some brilliant guitar playing by Cline, which turned "Impossible Germany" into an unexpected highlight, the escalating anxious rattle of "Misunderstood"--it was truly blissful.

And served to reiterate why I keep coming back.

First Ever Full Show by Wilco at the Chicago Theatre Feels Quite Homey -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Wilco
w/ opening act The Flat Five
Chicago Theatre
February 22, 2017
(Also playing 2/23, 25, 26)
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Some--whether regular readers of my reviews who know my tendencies on a @@@@@ scale, or those who attended Wednesday's Wilco concert and found it absolutely phenomenal--might see my @@@@ rating above and perceive that while I liked the show more than not, I have some gripes about it.

This wouldn't be a crazy thought, especially when it comes to the erstwhile Chicago folk-rock combo, who I've now seen as a headline act 11 times over the past 15 years and more often than not bestow @@@@ for their proclivity to keep their setlists more mellow and esoteric than I would prefer.

And such is pretty much the case once again.

Yet while @@@@@ or @@@@1/2 denotes a concert (or musical, play, opera, etc.) I loved to the point of urging others to attend at the next opportunity, per my Reviews Key at right @@@@ = Excellent, which I think of as a show I enjoyed and am entirely glad to have attended, just not one of the very best of dozens I see. 

This seems to be where Wilco fits in for me as a live act and--though I have more robustly rated and raved about shows where they've rocked out rigorously--I wouldn't want this taken as anything but a positive review. 

And I wouldn't even dare suggest Wilco should change anything to please me more.

By a band I very much like, this was an excellent concert, just to a @@@@ level rather than beyond. 

It was, however, made all the more special by being at the Chicago Theatre, my favorite local concert venue, with a good main floor seat at that (though I stood through Wilco's set with everyone else). 

Oddly, the quintessential Chicago band--though I prefer the Smashing Pumpkins at their peak--had only once previously played the glorious, 3,600-seat former movie palace on State Street, where they would seem to fit perfectly.

And that was just a guest slot on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in May 2006, where the evening's first guest on the visiting NBC show was a junior U.S. Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

No, I didn't remember that, but Tweedy did and mentioned it from the stage, in between genial appreciation for being "back home" and some mild, then harsher comments about our new President.

In his longest harangue on Wednesday, the singer and guitarist, who had gotten some online flack for remarks supporting basic human decency and dignity--seen by some as anti-Trump--said:

"If you voted for Trump, and don't want me to say anything about him, just remember, you voted for a reality TV star.

I'm going to say whatever the fuck I want to. We're going to persist and we're going to resist."

Formed by Tweedy 23 years ago, from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo (with Jay Farrar), Wilco continues to sell every ticket they put on sale in Chicago.

Wednesday was their first show of 2017, and the opening of a 4-gig Wilco Winterlude at the Chicago.

Tweedy joked that the band had to relearn songs they had last played "in a simpler time."

Opening the evening were The Flat Five, whose easygoing stylings were largely ruined by two dumb-asses behind me conversing loudly throughout their 40-minute set.

Then at 8:30pm, six months and a day since I had last seen them, on a February evening nearly as temperate as that August night under the stars at Millennium Park--accompanied now by a friend named Alison who happens to share my last name and is therefore a homonym with sister, who was with me then--the six members of Wilco took the stage.

I didn't give much thought to their opening song, "Ashes of American Flags" at the time, but given Tweedy's subsequent remarks about the times in which we now find ourselves, I doubt the selection was coincidental.

As referenced above, Wilco has a tendency to slow-groove for awhile, and though everything they played sounded good, the first half of the 24-song set was dominated by newer and/or lesser known songs, including from 2016's Schmilco album.

A couple of gems from 1996's Being There and 1999's Summerteeth--"Misunderstood" and "Via Chicago," the night's only representatives from my two favorite Wilco albums--were mixed in early, with the cacophonous thunder bursts of the latter soon leading to greater sonic excitement.

Some great guitar leads from Nels Cline powered a blistering end to "Impossible Germany," and it was great to hear "Box Full of Letters" from Wilco's 1995 debut A.M., "Heavy Metal Drummer," "I'm the Man Who Loves You" and "Hummingbird," among others.

Though I've heard them plenty of times, I was hoping for "Shot in the Arm," "Monday," "Outtasite (Outta Mind)," "I'm Always in Love" or some other early rockers in the encores, but I realize these are probably being spread out over the residency.

A terrific 10-minute romp through "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" seemed to end the evening, but I was delighted to see the band come back onstage for a closing "California Stars."

And even more so was my friend Alison, who had gotten married to the song Wilco composed with Billy Bragg to previously unheard music by Woody Guthrie.

That legendary folk troubadour never shied from mixing his social and political beliefs into his music, and Wilco seems content to travel a similar road.

Perhaps particularly when it brings them back home.

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Wilco's show at the Chicago Theatre on Saturday, February 25, will be broadcast on WXRT and streamed worldwide on 93XRT.com.