Like conquering heroes surveying their newly-won realm, Wilco came to the 9:30 Club earlier this week for a pair of sold-out dates. After the impressive critical and commercial success of the band’s latest album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as well as a well-received film documenting its making and the band’s most extensive mainstream press coverage to date, Wilco has reached a decidedly new audience since its swing through D.C. last September.
The band’s rising popularity was echoed in the overflowing crowd Monday night. It was an older, better-dressed crowd than the mostly veteran fans that came for the band’s single date in September last year. This year, there was less Miller Lite in plastic cups and more Sam Adams in the bottle. A great number of these neophytes likely heard the band’s dramatic story of record label trouble and were now ready to shell out their $25 to see the drama onstage.
But from the beginning, Jeff Tweedy and company let the crowd, however unfamiliar, know that this concert would be presented on the band’s terms?this would not be a rehash of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or a greatest-hits extravaganza. The band surprisingly began the show with a new, as-yet unrecorded track, unfamiliar to newcomers and old hands alike. The song, “Spiders,” continued in the vein of the new album’s less twangy, more melodic moments, culminating in its lyrical hook?”It’s good to be alone.”
While the unfamiliar opener was well received, what came immediately afterward, Glenn Kotche’s instantly recognizable drum beat from “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” sent a palpable chill down spines throughout the club. The reading of the song was remarkably close to the recorded version, complete with atmospheric effects provided by a gentleman sitting on stage’s edge alternately fiddling attentively with a PowerBook and providing auxiliary percussion. The undeniable crowd-pleaser was immediately followed with a simple, droning acoustic take on “Sunken Treasure,” from 1996’s Being There. The song soon built to a chaotic climax, however, with an unseemly attack of drone and feedback from Tweedy.
From that point, the band delved deeper into Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, playing a brisk take on “War on War” and a rocking “Kamera.” Surprisingly, tracks from 1999’s Summerteeth were few. But even more surprising, the band relied on Being There for the majority of the show-stoppers. The duo of “Red-Eyed and Blue” and “End of the Century” was the high point of the first set, before ending with a typically chaotic take on “Misunderstood.”
The first encore began with the sober “Reservations” from the new album, before the the band dug into the Woody Guthrie material from the two Mermaid Avenue records, ending on a whimper with a particularly flat “California Stars,” during which erstwhile openers the Boas appeared on stage looking grateful to strum their guitars along with Tweedy. The encore’s most memorable moment came courtesy of multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach, who disappeared for his guitar solo on “Hesitating Beauty,” only to reappear mid-song to affix Band-Aids Nelly-style to his bandmates’ faces.
The second encore, though, proved Wilco hasn’t forsaken its hard-rocking roots just yet, returning to those earlier albums. The final trio of songs were longtime crowd-pleasing standbys: “Monday” and “Outtasite” from Being There, finishing with the set’s only song from 1995’s A.M., “Casino Queen.”
Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t respond to the energy Wilco brought to the night’s conclusion. Maybe it was because it was a weeknight. Maybe they didn’t know the songs. Maybe they didn’t drink enough. But in any case, the undeniably rocking finale failed to rock this audience like it should have.
The crowd emptied out onto V Street not quite ready for a new day of work and having likely not seen precisely the band they expected. But Wilco proved Monday night to its Washington audience that while now king of its realm, it’s the same band it’s always been.
