Two much-admired, inventive rock bands brought their respective, polished spectacles to West Michigan on Wednesday. Local Spins was there to document the impressive performances for packed houses.
Western-Tinged, Reimagined Indie-Folk: Lord Huron at Calvin College on Wednesday night. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
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WILCO: STATE THEATRE IN KALAMAZOO
More bands should be like Wilco.
Lighting Up ‘Star Wars’: Wilco played the entire album in Kalamazoo. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The venerable Chicago group pulled a half-gainer over the summer and surprise-released an album with the baffling title, “Star Wars.” It’s a lean, weird little recording that felt a bit like a stepchild in Wilco’s extensive discography — pleasant, but perhaps undercooked.
But when the six-piece, Jeff Tweedy-led band opened its show Wednesday night for a capacity crowd at the Kalamazoo State Theatre with a full performance of “Star Wars,” man, they cooked the hell out of that thing.
With Wilco in full Crazy Horse mode — guitarist Nels Cline invites that comparison — the new material’s force awakened, and the album roared to life. By the time the band had ripped through the 10-song, 35-minute record, tracks such as “Random Name Generator,” “Taste the Ceiling” and “I Should Have Known” felt as familiar as classics from “Summerteeth,” and dare I say it, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.”
Razor-Sharp Musicianship and Songs: Jeff Tweedy led Wilco through a lengthy show at State Theatre. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The crowd favorites certainly stacked up during the remainder of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour set, whose middle section kicked off with renditions of “Handshake Drugs” and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” (whose frail weirdness has lost none of its aching potency since “Yankee” came out in 2002).
The three guitars blazed dynamically on “Art of Almost,” a blistering kraut-rock epic from the underrated “The Whole Love” album, and simmered during a subdued, poignant take on perhaps the greatest Wilco song, “A Shot in the Arm,” which closed a six-song, entirely acoustic final encore.
“We like to come back every once in a while and bring our guitars back home,” Tweedy said, referring to Kalamazoo’s Gibson guitar legacy. He laughed when realizing he was holding a Fender while saying that.
Forget about it: Come back any time and bring whatever guitars you want. — By Troy Reimink
WILCO: Photo gallery by Anna Sink
LORD HURON: CALVIN COLLEGE IN GRAND RAPIDS
As usual, things are off to a promising start for another season of musical entertainment at Calvin College. On Wednesday evening, Lord Huron kicked off a fall lineup with hip acts like Sylvan Esso and hi-ker (Sept. 25) and Great Lake Swimmers (Nov. 20) sprinkled throughout the bill.
Stepping Up: Ben Schneider and Lord Huron delivered a crowd-pleasing show at Calvin College. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Michigan-turned-Southern California indie act Lord Huron — the brainchild and pet project of home-state hero Ben Schneider — filled the house at Calvin’s 1,100-seat Covenant Fine Arts Center. The band has tightened up and honed its live show considerably since appearing in Grand Rapids before a sold-out crowd in June 2013 at the 420-capacity Pyramid Scheme.
While both the Wednesday and 2013 shows were good — quite good, in fact — it’s clear that during the intervening period, Schneider and crew have stepped up their game in both songwriting and showmanship.
A tight 85-minute set packed in 16 songs (including the two-song encore, “The Night We Met” and “Time to Run”). Most selections came from the newest work, “Strange Trails,” (April 2015) though Schneider delivered on a promise to play “older” tracks from 2012’s “Lonesome Dreams.”
Set highlights included the title track from “Lonesome Dreams,” a danceable, sunny rendition of “Fool For Love,” bassist/multi-instrumentalist Miguel Briseno’s theremin skills on “Way Out There,” and set closer/mega-crowd-pleaser “Ends of the Earth.” Killer-cool retro/surf/revenge number, “The World Ender,” stood out as one of the night’s winners, with a sound that melded perfectly with a hypnotic light show, moody fog and silhouetted rock stars.
Son Little opened the evening with a 40-minute set featuring roughly nine songs, most with spare instrumentalism and mellow vocals. He’ll release a self-titled album on the Anti-label in October. — By Tricia Woolfenden
LORD HURON, SON LITTLE: Photo gallery by Anthony Norkus
