The nearly three-hour show on Friday came amid ideal, sunny weather, with the diverse Chicago band playing more than 30 songs over two sets. The review and photos at Local Spins.
Crowd-Energizing Night: Wilco on stage Friday at the sold-out Meijer Gardens amphitheater. (Photo/Steve Baran)
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Catching Wilco in concert is like taking a trip on a well-oiled, well-traveled Winnebago. You have a good idea of where it’s been, and you’re not sure where it’s headed, but you know you’ll enjoy wherever it takes you.
Fueled by the songs of Jeff Tweedy, the critically acclaimed, Chicago-based rock band took a sold-out crowd Friday at Frederik Meijer Gardens on a 2-1/2-hour rollicking journey 0through its career catalog, pulling 31 songs that covered country to Krautrock and everything in between.
The sound was always decidedly Wilco, but there were plenty of detours along the way as the music showed all types of influences as Tweedy so artfully describes in his exceptional musical memoir, “World Within A Song,” a highly recommended tome that allows Tweedy to explore the connection between life and music.
Playing its first show in five weeks on a summer tour that has the band playing two long sets each night, Wilco covered a tremendous amount of ground in drawing from its adventurous, three-decades-long career.
Wilco opened its Grand Rapids date with the semi-autobiographical “Handshake Drugs,” a powerful number drawn from Tweedy’s desire for a road to recovery after rehab, a song that ended in an explosion of haze and feedback.
Jeff Tweedy (Photo/Steve Baran)
The number set the tone for many of Tweedy’s tuneful exaltations this night as the exceptional musicianship of the band brought each song to life, most notably the always-interesting instrumental work of Nels Cline, whose inventive playing distinguishes so much of the band’s material.
For example, “Bird Without a Tail/Base of My Skull,” a mini-epic of musical magic, was a highlight of the first set, the ever-skillful playing building to an Allman Brothers via Tom Verlaine-like crescendo that was breathtaking in its boldness.
Tweedy took almost all the lead vocals through the course of the evening, stepping aside once for fellow founding member John Stirratt, who handed over his bass guitar to Tweedy for the pleasantly popish “It’s Just That Simple.”
If there was one song that defined the Wilco approach to songcraft, it might be “Via Chicago,” a traditional-sounding rocker that gloriously comes alive with deranged and damaged sound swells that sound like they were taken from a Frank Zappa concert.
“Falling Apart (Right Now)” closed the first set by allowing multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone to shine on second guitar, setting the stage for the second set that saw the band shift into another gear with a selection of songs that upped the rock quotient considerably and allowed long-time drummer Glenn Kotche to showcase his skills even more.
Wilco came out rocking with “Box Full of Letters” and “Annihilation” to open the slightly longer second set, which featured several of the band’s strongest and most-loved songs: “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” “War on War,” “Impossible Germany,” and “Jesus, Etc.,” the latter evoking a crowd singalong and a word of thanks from Tweedy for the audience participation.
Tweedy seemed in good spirits throughout, frequently commenting on the weather as the night was absolutely perfect for the band’s exceedingly adventurous excursions through musical time and space that went far beyond the band’s alt-country beginnings in the wake of Uncle Tupelo.
“Kingpin,” one of many highlights in the second set, saw Cline and Sansone trading fiery licks back and forth for a ferciously lengthy amount of time. The jam was the perfect setup for “Heavy Metal Drummer” an almost-silly bit that showed Wilco knows how to convey a sense of fun. It’s a devil-may-care ethic that often undescored the work of keyboardist Mike Jorgensen, whose frequent embellishments ranged from wonderfully weird to essential.
Wilco closed its never-odd-to-see oddyssey with a three-song encore of “The Late Greats,” “I Got You (At the End of the Century),” and “Outtasite (Outta Mind),” a trio of tunes which served as an indispensable and not parenthetical ending to what was an altogether triumphant performance.
PHOTO GALLERY: Wilco at Meijer Gardens
Photos by Steve Baran
SET LIST: Wilco at Meijer Gardens
Setlist.fm
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