So, after eating too much at Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill, four of us made it to Kingsbury Hall and thought we'd missed the opening act, Calexico. Fortunately, we were wrong and Calexico turned out to be really quite good. They were a very fun amalgamation of country & western, mariachi, 60's Bond themes, and rock. Surprisingly, their horn players would show up later to help with a few songs in the Wilco set. If you haven't heard Calexico, assuming their recorded work reflects their live set, you should check them out.
What can I say about finally seeing Wilco? I've wanted to see these guys play live from the time I started rabidly listening to "Summer Teeth" back in 1999. I really wanted to during my whole Billy Bragg & Wilco era of 2000 - 2002. I remember being in Phoenix in February 2002 and seeing a flyer that Wilco were going to be playing there just after I left and feeling frustrated that they were coming to Arizona but not Utah. So, there I was last night in the beautiful old Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus finally getting to see Wilco. But, something just wasn't right. I really enjoyed the show and they were in top form, sort of.
See, a few months back, I caught Sonic Youth and Wilco live on PBS. I was flipping channels and so I'm not sure if it was an episode of Austin City limits because I missed the opening credits and I was mesmerized by Thurston's guitar playing. I've never been much of a Sonic Youth fan but I really did enjoy watching Thurston Moore play (just shy of 30 min. was about the right amount of his playing though). Then Wilco came on and this was them without Jay Bennett. Jay Bennett who was an important member of the band from A.M. throught Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Jay, the guy, I really felt empathy for as he was publicly kicked out of the band in the middle of making the movie "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". I noticed how the arrangements of the songs with the new stripped down Jay-less lineup were rougher and noiser. And, I'm basing this on my memory, is that Jeff was overly complimentary to Thurston and Company.
Then, I bought "A Ghost Is Born" and listening to it, I couldn't help but think about that Sonic Youth/Wilco show on PBS and I began to think that maybe, without Jay Bennett's input and influence, Jeff (whether consciously or not) was now to trying and emulate Thurston Moore a bit too much. Because, much of the new album is filled with long stretches of guitar noodling and white noise. It's not bad. In fact, I really enjoy the new album. But, for some reason, I didn't enjoy it live as much as I thought I would. Even the new arrangements of songs from "Summer Teeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" just don't seem as good to me.
Of course, last night was the last night of the tour, so it's not like anyone who might read this will have fair warning to stay away if they don't like the idea of Jeff Tweedy attempting to be Thurston Moore. There was one upside last night- after the white noise set, they came out and played a really killer country set.
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