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ARTS Monday
July 22, 2002

WILCO - AMERICA S GREATEST BAND?

Briiant pebrmn
from stressed out
By Luke Smith bolted for good amid the dispute with
Daily Arts Editor Warner Brothers/Reprise.
After purchasing the rights to Yan-
Watching Wilco is like watching a kee, the band released the set on the
highway chase in slow motion. Songs Internet and the record raked in rave
twist and turn, careening violently out reviews and notable namedrops
of control, and at any moment it feels nationwide. Following a tour in the
like a mis-step could carry the band fall, Nonesuch Records, (comically, a
over the centerline and into a wreck. division of the Warner Brothers' label)
Their sonic violence picked up Wilco, essen-
certainly isn't an explo- M tially re-buying the rights
sion or a burst of WIto an album Warner
euphonic energy - it ILCO Brothers had sold back to
is a methodically paced At The Royal Oak the band months ago.
and masterfully delib- Theater From the moment
erate destruction. Wilco took the stage,
Wilco is a band on the Saturday July 20 at 9 p.m. sinking into "I Am Try-
edge of the end, danc- Clear Channel ing to Break Your Heart,"
ing with their denoue- it felt like the beginning
ment. Each song they play feels like it of the end. After staggering perfectly
could be their last. It is that despera- through the song's minute-plus open-
tion and intensity that has made Wilco ing, it became crystal clear when Jeff
America's best band. Tweedy began his wonderfully laconic
Ironically, almost a year ago, Wilco delivery that he was the one driving
almost wasn't a band. After wrapping Wilco wherever he chose.
up work on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, their Wilco countered the country-fried
label Warner/Reprise refused to put acoustic flippancy of the richly
out the set, condemning it as a career orchestrated "Jesus Etc." with the sim-
ender. Tensions were complicated ple pop perfection of "Heavy Metal
when original g'uitarist Jay Bennett Drummer." It was during the homage

to love-lost to as
timekeeper that the
enigmatic Jeff
Tweedy cracked
his first smile of
the night. The
show gained
steady steam with
"Heavy Metal
Drummer" and
built to the show's
buil to he sow'sCourtesy of Nonesuch Records
aural peak during The fragile members of Wilco. From left, Glenn Kotche, Leroy Bach, Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt.
"I'm the Man Who
Loves You," which followed it imme- the Arm," Wilco turned in their finest encores, Jeff Tweedy may have subver-
diately. performance of the night on their sively made his only comments about
The dirt-filled bluesy beginning finest song, the future of the band. On the magi-
"I'm the Man Who Loves You," The arduously depressing "She's A cally tragic "Reservations," minor-
washes away to psychedelics then Jar" - far and away the best song the sounding keyboards plunked
bursts open completely into a gentle band has recorded - was beaten disparingly pushing the song forward,
rain of strumming, complete with a down to new depths of depression while Tweedy's voice wrestled and
second guitar filling in the details, with Tweedy's strange-time strums and groaned, begging and pleading to pull
like a series of PSs at the conclusion adjusted tempo singing. The bands it back. The singer/songwriter is well
of the letter Jeff Tweedy is writing to backing vocals were as hauntingly aware of the dire straits and slippery
the world. harmonious live as they are on Sum- slope Wilco's footing is steeped in. He
While many of Yankee Hotel merteeth. When he felt like it, Tweedy cooed to the crowd, "I've got reserva-
Foxtrot's songs dominated the setlist, cut a word here and there, displaying tions/about so many things/but not
Wilco managed to toss in a handful of clearly that he was the song's master about you." Tweedy's reservations
Summerteeth tunes. After rumbling and could take the tune wherever he about Wilco's future are more than
and bouncing through the not-so- desired. warranted, and like much of Yankee
veiled heroin referencing "A Shot in Before their return for a pair of HotelFoxtrot, are terribly poignant.
Hey Graduate.Moving to Chicago?