That’s right…Wilco.  Last night Andy and I saw Wilco in concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  I bought the tickets months ago, and it felt like the show was never going to get here.  The venue only holds around 3000 people and it was general admission so we got there pretty early, mainly due to the fact that I’m shorter than 90% of the general population.  We were there for about 45 minutes when the opening act, Low, started playing.  They were one of the worst bands I’ve ever heard.  Andy described it as the music you would listen to while shooting up heroin and having your eyes roll back in your head.  Someone else I read described it as the music you would listen to while playing D & D in your cousin’s basement.  Either way it was freaking terrible.  Everyone around was cracking jokes about how they were being put to sleep and how Low was a really appropriate name for the band.  Two thumbs down.

Fortunately Wilco more than compensated for the horrible opening act.  I haven’t been to a lot of general admission shows, mainly because they are much more rare in LA and I tended to avoid them because I’m shorter than 90% of the general population.  However, I’m starting to enjoy them more and more since it means I can suffer through a terrible opening act and then get the privilege of being 10 people back from Jeff Tweedy for the entire night.  It’s also a fantastic calf workout since I spent most of the show on my tip-toes.  There were two tall guys right in front of me but they moved around a lot so I had a pretty good view for most of the songs.  Wilco opened with two songs from their new CD, Sky Blue Sky, which is really chill. I didn’t like this album at all when I first listened to it but I like it more and more each time.  They also played songs from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and a couple from A Ghost Is Born and the songs from Sky Blue Sky really translate best to a live performance.  YHF is much more stylized and seems more appropriate for an album whereas everything from Sky Blue Sky sounded amazing live.  They did play Kamera from YHF which is my favorite song from that album.   Jeff Tweedy talked in between songs and was funny and amiable and just seemed like a generally nice guy.  He also joked about them getting ready for a stadium tour so they were going to get a backdrop and then lowered a two foot tall macrame owl down from the rafters which i thought was really funny.  He was really interesting to watch during the show…his face is very expressive and moves in an unusual way when he sings. 

When they came out for the encore there was some rearranging of the crowd in front of me which opened up a clear view of the entire band for me which was really nice as there was a guitarist on the far side of the stage that I hadn’t even known was there.  The energy from the crowd really improved for the encores, maybe because some of the dead weight left.  I read a few reviews of the show that complained about the venue and how much it sucked….I think this just shows how spoiled New York audiences are.  They expect even big bands to be at venues the size of my aparment.  I for one was definitely not complaining.  Since many of my readers are stationed in the South I would definitely check out Wilco at the Voodoo Music Festival in October.  Very good show.