Wilco
Rockin’ at the Knox
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo, NY
June 29, 2005
by Kevin J. Hosey
If the reaction from the thousands of fans at Wilco’s headlining show at the Rockin’ at the Knox 2005 fundraiser was any indication, the band’s relatively recent swing from alt.country rock to big, loud, sometimes spacey and somewhat experimental rock on “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and “A Ghost Is Born” is a welcome change. The audience’s repeated loud, extended cheering, singing along, jumping around and air-guitar histrionics demonstrated that Jeff Tweedy and crew, guitarist Nels Cline his main collaborator, were on the right track; more familiar with the country rock Wilco, I, too, was impressed and quite enjoyed the show.
Rockin’ at the Knox is a, if not the, major fundraiser for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, a world-renown modern art gallery; among the changes this year was the booking of Wilco and the next-main band, My Morning Jacket, requiring the proceedings to be moved to the main parking lot, in front of the Albright-Knox and across the street from Rockwell Hall at Buffalo State College. Previous shows had featured local bands and never attracted this large a crowd. An art exhibit and much of the musical proceedings were curated by Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac, whose techno group Amungus performed inside. Among the standout artists on display were photographers Wendy Marvel and Eric Jensen, as well as painter/musician Mark Freeland. Wilco opened with “Airline to Heaven” with some nice acoustic guitar from Tweedy and smart, soft lap steel from Cline, with the band eventually joining in for an elegiac ending;
Jeff Tweedy, surprising in his humor...
next up was the much thicker sounding, upbeat “A Shot in the Arm,” with telegraph sounds and an energetic, frenetic guitar solo from Cline, the first of many that night. The piano-driven “Hell is Chrome,” which also featured some fine organ, was followed by the guitar-laden “Handshake Drugs,” with Cline in particular going from heavily ringing and chiming to feeding back before he and Tweedy virtually dueled at the end, Tweedy adding some stinging distortion. Bells and glockenspiel sounds led to the fuller “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” which swelled from majestic to maelstrom. The sounds came down a bit after this, first with the 1960s flavored pop rock of “Kamera,” then on “Sunken Treasure,” with Tweedy singing and strumming his acoustic guitar while Cline played some sweet lap steel, later getting a bit wild on it. Wilco gained steam again with “War on War,” good rootsy rock with some extra electronics. “Far, Far Away,” from “Being There,” pleased us older fans not yet overly familiar with the newer material; the slower, rootsy song had Tweedy noting that this was the second-last show of the tour before the band returned to Chicago, missing it and glad to be home soon. The next tune, “Hesitating Beauty,” from the “Mermaid Avenue” CD Wilco recorded with Billy Bragg, also appealed to the alt.country fans with its organ and twangy guitar.
Nels Cline plays lap steel and adds some electronics while Jeff Tweedy sings and strums
Detailing all of the more than 20 songs Wilco performed would take the spark and fire out of the actual show, but before the band kicked in to the next song, “At Least That’s What You Said,” Tweedy, who was surprisingly talkative and funny to people who have caught Wilco before (like Val; this was my first time), said: “something we like doing at these big outdoor shows is singing songs that make you want to slit your wrists.” As the crowd laughed, one of the security guards up front turned around and looked at Tweedy. “Turn around and get back to work,” Tweedy joked, adding with a laugh, “keep your eyes on these animals.” As the band played the soft to seething number of a relationship dying from “A Ghost Is Born,” Tweedy harshly attacked his guitar while Cline joined in the sonic attack, not white noise but fierce rock; wow.
Other highlights included: nearing the end of the set, Wilco ran through a choppy “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” with Tweedy and Cline busy again on electric guitars, working up to wild and distorted and leaving people wondering how Cline’s whammy bar was staying on his guitar. The regular set ended with “Hummingbird,” a lovely song concentrating on piano before soaring with the full band.
The first encore began with “Misunderstood,” and just after the band crashed and crescendoed to start the song, one of the enormous NOCO beach balls tethered around the stage and museum grounds broke free and was knocked onstage; Tweedy had to stop playing and singing to joke, “Buffalo, you’ve got big balls,” before leading the band into a molten version of the song. “The Late Greats” was very country/roots rock sounding, with organ adding flavor; “Jesus, Etc.” was sadly pretty with its soft organ, and the first encore ended with “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” with the guitar passages from Cline and Tweedy reminiscent of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd from Television. Tweedy continued his playfulness during the second encore, particularly on “Kingpin,” where he conducted a call and response section by asking not only for singing, but for ugly faces “as if George Bush had just taken a big dump in your salad.” After the upbeat rocker “I’m a Wheel,” Wilco ended its show with a lovely version of Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air,” with Tweedy’s falsetto just making it through the song.
As I tried to say, I was not too familiar with Wilco’s newer material, particularly “A Ghost Is Born,” but I was very impressed and entertained by the show, with Cline’s guitar playing the star, barely beating out Tweedy’s vocals and guitar.