Sunday, February 17, 2008

Wilco loves Chicago

In my opinion, Wilco is one of the best live bands currently touring, and I am still unspeakably sad that life and Ticketmaster conspired to prevent me from seeing any of their 5-night Winter Residency shows at Chicago's Riviera Theatre this weekend (tonight is night 3.)

But thanks to the miracles of YouTube and Chicago Tribune music blogger Greg Kot (another huge Wilco fan,) I feel a little bit closer to the action today.

What really impresses me about Wilco live is how they are able to both rock out and entertain so consistently and also reinterpret old songs just enough to make them sound revolutionarily different from their album counterparts. Case in point, "Pot Kettle Black" from Friday night:


I love how it starts out pretty straightforwardly, sticking close to the album version and then opens up in the middle to become eye-opening uptempo soul. This song, which frankly gets a little overshadowed on the album, suddenly comes into its own through the live performance. Amazing.

Can't wait to hear how nights 3, 4 and 5 go.

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