For a band like Wilco, pilule there aren’t really any milestones left to achieve. The notion “making it” has long since past. Even after that was gone, sale the idea of marking their place in rock history that might have encapsulated the creative process in an attempt to make a career “defining” record has come and past as well. It seems like all of this perceived or imagined self-inflicted pressure Wilco has put on themselves (or we as fans have created) over the years has finally been stripped away and Wilco can now just be Wilco. And very quietly that is that they still one of the greatest rock bands of the past fifteen years.
Wilco just being Wilco is a great thing. Perhaps their fading into and defining of a quirky satirical genre known as “dadrock” has worked for them. After all the band, patient now in their second decade of existence doesn’t need any new fans. So when they do something like release Star Wars; an unannounced album for free, they don’t really need you to buy it, or to really even pay attention to it, or give them your approval. Their passionate fans found it to be more than a pleasant surprise and the bands willingness to play it in order, in its entirety every night of their tour so far proves their confidence in how great it is. In the process, Star Wars brought a rejuvenated sense of excitement to a sold out audience that filled the Orpheum theatre this past Friday night for the first of two sold out shows.
After about three songs into their set, dazzled by tapered curtains of LED twinkle lights, a quick Spotify check proved that they were indeed playing Star Wars in order. “Random Name Generator” was an early highlight and one of the more fun tracks from it. The majority of the tracks on Star Wars almost feel like quick ideas not fully fleshed out but stand so well on their own that there was no reason not to call them finished songs. “You Satellite” and the seamless “Cold Slope>King of You” standing out as exceptions that let the magnificent Nels Cline slap on his patented staccato static noise guitar affects and drummer Glenn Kotche let loose on the straightforward art rock songs. They essentially whipped through the record without a smidgen of stage banter until the end with Jeff Tweedy announcing “thats our new record, Star Wars” before indulging into the rest of the bands storied catalog for the rest of the night. In fact the only other time Tweedy spoke throughout the night was to critique a front row fan for eating a slice of pizza during the show. Add a quick few “thank you’s” and the band was easily able to throw down a close to thirty song show in under two hours.
Without much of a breather in between the night could essentially be broken down into three parts. The Star Wars revue was followed by a dozen or so songs spanning the career for the art rockers. “Art of Almost” provided the grooviest and darkest moment of the night with almost a Radiohead feel to it. Whereas most of their material is straightforward renditions, “Kamera” was transformed into a two minute fuzz rock song. “Impossible Germany” was nearly impossible to not play air guitar to especially when the dueling begins between Kline and second guitarist Pat Sansone. “Via Chicago” gave the audience the most transformative and emotional moment of the night with the band filling the theatre with their messy noise rock ambience before melting away back into the songs chorus. “Heavy Metal Drummer” was the breeziest song of the evening triggering the beginning of singalong time while “Jesus Etc.” triggered nostalgia for still being on the bands most endearing songs to date.
The encore of the show was more of a six song acoustic set completely unplugged with Tweedy and bass player Stirrat playing acoustics into stage microphones set up Grand Ole Opry style. Keyboardist Mikael Jorgenson stepped out on melodica and Kotche and Sanson filled out percussive roles while Kline sprinkled in some pedal steel and washboard-esque metal comb strumming techniques. The crowd was in full on singalong mode even robbing Tweedy of singing the ending of “Misunderstood.” “War on War” acoustic was a delight and “California Stars” still holds the ability to warm the soul like the “barleywine.” “A shot in the Arm” closed the night with the band adapting the song’s warping vamps and noise on their simple set ups. The acoustic set is nothing out of the ordinary for a Wilco show these days, they played a nearly two hour unplugged and inaudible set at their Solid Sound festival last year. Placing it at the end of the set and bringing out the full band (Tweedy would sometimes do these solo) added an element of icing on the cake of a jam packed rock show. Even though the acoustic set was your last impression of the band for the evening it was really the Star Wars material from the beginning of the night that was the “shot in the arm” for the band and their loyal fans.
