strong finish

backstage pass

vital statistics

march to glory

wilco at the greek

shot up the bay to catch wilco at the greek last night. boy, was i surprised by both the makeup of the audience and the evolution of the band. no longer was i at home with the familiar homogopodge of soft nerd boys, but rather surrounded by yuppies, hipsters, hippies and hotties. wtf!? when did the boys become so popular? i suppose this was inevitable. if the band is truly as good as i’ve touted for so long, how on earth can i begrudge them for reaching an extended, enthusiastic audience, johnny-come-latelies, or not.

as for the band’s dynamic, gone are the charming imperfections of yester-year. you remember, right? the days immediately following jay bennet’s departure. the days of tweedy feverishly fiddling with his propped up g3 powerbook between each song, setting up the part of the conspicuously absent multi-instrumentalist for the next song. and the days when the current incarnation of the band laboriously built their chemistry on-stage while acclimating to their newfound, dare i say mainstream, popularity.

don’t get me wrong; the current incarnation of wilco is by far its best. wilco circa 2007 is a near-perfect, tightly integrated aural assault unit. they play their audience into a since of false comfort with honey sweet melodies and smooth rock grooves, only to unleash a pefectly synchronized wave of subversively melodic distortion and electricity. and i do mean this in the most positive way. wilco is tighter, more polished and as comfortable in its own shoes as it has ever been.

while i miss standing at the front of the fillmore’s stage, amongst my fellow social refugees, goofily smiling as jeff setup the next song on his trusty powerbook, i was absolutely enthralled with the band’s performance last night; tight, energetic and confident.

slowly but surely, jeff and crew are earning themselves a place along side the likes of such timeless acts as the beatles, the dead, floyd and the velvet underground in the great rock & roll canon. and they have and continue to do so on their own terms. prost.

places, everyone

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the show

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