Wilco – Gentilly Stage [5:30 pm]:

Wilco is:
• Jeff Tweedy: Vocals, guitar
• John Stirratt: bass
• Nels Cline: lead guitar, lap steel
• Pat Sansone: keyboards, guitar
• Mikeal Jorgensen: piano, keyboards
• Glenn Kotche:`drums
Set review:
Before the set began several Wilco fanatics debated whether or not they’d play any new songs off their soon-to-be-released CD. The main Wilco scholar standing to my left was expecting they would, while another girl said they’d play all old stuff (which turned out to be the case). During the first part of the show, the Wilco expert was vocal about wanting to hear some new songs as the old ones were played. However he gave up after a while because the band did such great performances of these older songs, primarily coming from their last CD Sky Blue Sky. The crowd was quite heavy today and really up for Wilco, who did a great show.

Mr. Tweedy seemed pretty relaxed and friendly, making some nice banter with the crowd between songs. Nels Cline played quite a number of incredible guitar solos, many of which caused loud applause and head-shaking. At times he looked like a man possessed when he was wringing out these spectacular guitar solos. To summarize, this headlining band hit the high marks and the crowd insisted they do an encore.

Blog Gallery by Picturesurf

Set List included:
• I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
• Handshake Drugs
• Shot In The Arm
• You Are My Face
• Impossible Germany: This was great in concert.
• California Stars: Wonderful
• Jesus, Etc.
• The Late Greats: More upbeat live than the original CD version.
• Heavy Metal Drummer
• Hate It Here: Great live version of this “Sky Blue Sky” song
• Box Full Of Letters
Encore:
• Casino Queen: My favorite song from their first CD. Excellent.
• Hoodoo Voodoo: This upbeat manic number was from the first “Mermaid Avenue” CD, according to the “Wilco expert”. I have the CD, but forgot all about this one. In concert they revved it up to a manic (and comic) degree, where Nels and Pat took turns trying to outdo one another on guitar solos. While that was happening, a weird shirtless dude was doing the chicken strut around the stage while banging on a cow-bell. But it all worked, and worked the crowd into a frenzy as well.
• Outtasite (Outtamind): They left us with a nice version of this song, which was much better than the original.

Live tracks are from Wilco’s Winter Residency 2008 at the Riviera Theatre, Chicago
MySpace | Website | Label: NonesuchRecords
Buy at Amazon, iTunes

Filed under: New Orleans Jazz Festival 2009, Uncle T, Jeff Tweedy, Nels Cline, Wilco

• alt-gramma (371)
• indie.mom (395)
• Uncle T (7)