Wilco Get Participation When They Ask For It

In music criticism, there's an unfair comparison game that takes place every time a new singer-songwriter with vague promise breaks through to the mainstream — someone inevitably compares them to Bob Dylan. And while it's tremendously unfair that Dylan gets compared to every KT Tunstall and Willy Mason who falls out of the tree, it's also unfair to the few current singer-songwriters who actually deserve the accolade. Chief among them is Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. With his current crew of insanely talented alt.country rockers in tow, Tweedy and Wilco played a set of new, old and new-new material at Massey Hall on Friday night.

As the band hit the stage, most of the floor stood up to applaud them, but as they launched into brand new song "There Is A Light," most sat down. Those who didn't were cursed out by the people sitting behind them and they quickly followed suit. While this meant everyone on the floor had a perfect view of the stage, it also sucked some of the energy out of the room.

It didn't help that Tweedy (who seems to be in a competition with Jack Black to see who can look more like Jack Black) didn't speak to the crowd for the first half of the two-hour set, which included sterling renditions of "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," "A Shot In The Arm" and "Misunderstood." After "Airline To Heaven," the frontman finally said "hello" and loosened up a bit. A few songs later, he completely changed his demeanour.

"Is it the seats?" he asked of the relatively relaxed reception the band had received up to that point. "I know I didn't say hello, but it's getting down to crunch time, and if you guys don't get into it, we might not come back out!" Then, after calling the crowd "motherfuckers," a funny thing happened: everyone in the building stood up and the set took an upbeat turn.

"If I'd known you were waiting for an invitation, I'd have asked sooner," Tweedy joked when the band returned for an encore that included Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tracks "War On War" and "Heavy Metal Drummer," and Being There's participatory scream-fest, "Kingpin."

The band returned for one more encore that featured Summerteeth's ultra-morbid "Via Chicago" and A Ghost Is Born's 10-minute rock demon, "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." Those who complain that A Ghost Is Born represents the band's descent into stoner rock jams aren't entirely wrong, but those tracks do tend to play well live when interspersed with tighter versions of some of their earlier hits. And while A Ghost Is Born may be the beginning of Tweedy's move away from Wilco's Dylan-inspired early days, fans will always have the live shows to remind them why the Chicago sextet belong in a league of their own.

Here's Wilco's set list:
"What Light" (new song)"
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”
“Handshake Drugs”
“Impossible Germany" (new song)"
A Shot In The Arm"
"At Least That's What You Said”
“Misunderstood”
“Wishful Thinking”
“Airline To Heaven" "Hesitating Beauty”
“Walken" (new song)
"Theologians”
“I'm The Man Who Loves You”
“Jesus, Etc.”
“Hummingbird"

Encore 1:
"War On War"
"The Late Greats"
"Heavy Metal Drummer"
"Kingpin"

Encore 2:
"Via Chicago"
"Spiders (Kidsmoke)"

To view some photos of Wilco at Massey Hall, click here.