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Wilco puts on ACL taping for the ages
Do you ever have one of those shows where you can’t shake the goose bumps for the first 20 minutes, when you feel a lump in your throat and are basically overwhelmed with the sonic beauty engulfing you? Yeah, I never had either really, maybe Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter in Paris in 1997 came closest, but such was my state of being at the beginning of the Austin City Limits taping by Wilco Saturday, September 15.
The band, introduced by ACL Producer Terry Lickona as the “one band that sums up better than any other” the type of music ACL aims to air, opened their 90-minute set with “You Are My Face,” a song from Wilco’s latest release “Sky Blue Sky” that starts out hushed and dreamlike before kicking into overdrive with the whisper-to-a-wail vocals of Tweedy and the powerhouse licks of guitar genius Nels Cline.
Following the first song, the band made it clear that they did not intend to use their third ACL taping solely to push their new record, as they launched into the layered and frantic “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” one of a handful of songs they would play from 2002’s critically-acclaimed “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” The song was the perfect platform to demonstrate the band’s ease of transition from a complex, layered cacophonous sound to a clean and simple one.
Wilco stuck with older songs for the first half of the set with crowd favorites like “Handshake Drugs,” a song that featured Cline at the top of his powers. The avant-garde guitar wizard has such a heightened sense of timing, space and tone, that his contributions to even the most simple three-chord songs elevate Tweedy’s tunes to almost unimagined heights. Backed by the sweaty pounding rhythm of drummer Glen Kotche, the full resounding bass of John Stiratt and the rhythmic and melodic contributions of keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, Tweedy and Cline led a full frontal aural assault that came across pitch-perfect in the ACL studios, the ideal setting in this town for a concert, in this writer’s opinion. Every note from all six of the members was discernible, creating a sonic fabric that gave the sensation that you had just walked into the band’s rehearsal space.
The 16-song set weaved old Wilco classics from the past dozen years, re-imagined with new vitality, with a half dozen new songs from “Sky Blue Sky.” Tweedy even decided to toss long-time fans a gift with the song “Too Far Apart,” from the band’s debut album “A.M.” from 1995.
Saturday’s taping exemplified a band at the height of its creative power, playing with a joy and cohesion most bands could only dream of in a setting that illuminates a band of Wilco’s power, allowing them to transcend a 90-minute musical experience from the earthly to the sublime. It is no wonder then that this is the band ACL producers hold as the paragon for their shows; it just doesn’t get any better.
Set List
“You Are My Face “
“I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”
“Pot Kettle Black”
“Handshake Drugs”
“Shot in the Arm”
“Side with the Seeds”
“Via Chicago”
“Impossible Germany”
“Sky Blue Sky”
“Too Far Apart”
“Jesus, Etc.”
“Hate it Here”
“Walken”
“I’m the Man Who Loves You”
“Hummingbird”
“On and On and On”
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: ACL
Comments
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By Tyler Broussard
September 18, 2007 5:04 PM | Link to this
Just so you know, they certainly didn’t play Pot Kettle Black. That’s the song I hope and dream for each time I see Wilco but have never gotten. I was there in the first row too. No Pot Kettle Black, sorry buddy. Now that I look at it this set list has a lot wrong, they didn’t play Hummingbird from what I can remember. But they did end with Casino Queen and Outta Sight Outta Mind somewhere in there. Haha, where the hell did you get this set list? They also didn’t play Sky Blue Sky…
By Tyler Broussard
September 18, 2007 5:07 PM | Link to this
Yeesh. Forget that last comment, I just now noticed this was for the taping of the show, not the ACL Festival Concert. Now I’m excited to see this show, I apologize. And now I can’t believe I missed a Pot Kettle Black! Arg.
By JDS
September 24, 2007 5:35 PM | Link to this
I was at the taping. I too had the goose bumps. I was sure I just saw something special. I am glad you agree. It was amaazing.