At Wilco's last show at Massey Hall in 2006, Jeff Tweedy ended up calling the audience motherf*ckers for sitting down for more than half the set and being so comatose. However, it didn't help that the set consisted a lot of slower tunes and Jeff hadn't bothered to say anything to the audience for much of it. He subsequently apologized for his comment and said he should have invited the audience to stand up sooner. In response to those circumstances it seems, much of the audience for this past Saturday night's Wilco show at Massey Hall were on their feet right from the beginning of the show and Jeff and the band appreciated it wholeheartedly. Toronto was the last date of Wilco's eastern seaboard tour and in return we got a rousing show that was worthy of that honor.
The musicianship was tight and the band's enthusiasm definitely shone through. Nels Cline was on fire on guitar, particularly on solos and several guitar freakouts but was also quite adept on adding subtle touches like his pedal steel which graced the beautiful country-esque 'Sky Blue Sky'. I never paid particular attention to the drumming in the past, but this time I realized how tight Glenn was on the drums as well as other percussive instruments like xylophone. Multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone was dynamite on a range of instruments like guitar, keyboards and a few handheld percussive instruments. The double guitar assault of Nels Cline and Pat Sansone during encore number 'Hoodoo Voodoo' was a highlight of the evening. Jeff broke out into a stationary running man dance during 'Hummingbird' which got the crowd absolutley giddy. The band's new album "Sky Blue Sky" was represented with a few tracks including the breezy Impossible Germany', and the aforementioned 'Sky Blue Sky'. Much of the set(thankfully) did rely on "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "A Ghost Is Born" with a few favourites from "Summerteeth" thrown in. In between Wilco's set and opener Low's set(I missed their set unfortunately), I chatted briefly with a girl next to me who I remember said she was from Chicago and going to school up here in Toronto and I could have sworn that during 'Via Chicago' she wiped away a tear. Their set opener reached back to "Being There" with the lonely beauty of 'Sunken Treasure'.
The following(and not in the exact order necessarily) are some of the songs I recall Wilco performing[the ?'s I'm not as sure about though]:
Sunken treasure / Impossible Germany / Sky Blue Sky / Via Chicago / Ashes of American Flag / I am Trying to Break Your Heart / Kamera / Jesus, etc. / I'm the Man Who Loves You / Shot in the Arm /
Update: Set list here. Thanks to Thierry for the heads up.
Here are my photos from the show. [You might notice I'm now using Flickr!]
Chromewaves reviews the show favourably and has some great photos. The Toronto Sun and The Globe and Mail also review the show.
MySpace: Wilco
No comments:
Post a Comment