Wilco the Bull Black Nova (Live at the Greek)

In 2003, Wilco played a tiny show in Dallas at the Gyspy Tea Room. The venue was small and burning-hot with sweaty Son Volt lovers. Bearded roadies were roaming the stage with fingerless gloves. Wilco played a set, and came back for an encore. I'd never seen an encore at the Gyspy Tea Room, never seen one since. It wasn't ego.

They played Immigrant Song (yes the Zeppelin song), but Jeff Tweedy didn't sing -- a roadie who moved speakers did. It was remarkable and kick ass.

On Saturday, they played under the California moon at Berkeley's Shakespearean Greek Theater. It's true what Pitchfork says about their Rembrandt-like sound: no one is more precise live than Wilco. They opened with "Wilco (the Song)": it was scalpel-sharp, bright, like that sound a fastball makes when it hits a glove. The audience was (predictable) too baked to dance, but minus a crusty-with-smoke brain, I know they would have.

Nels Cline roared his electric. Kotche stood on the drums in a shaft of blue light for the sizzling "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart." Every note was strong. When you listen to Wilco live, you are home. Don't mistake this for being familiar or uninteresting, Tweedy always manages to surprise: "Bull Black Nova" is a mechanical, scattering of sounds like hundreds of cells splitting off, a spearing repeating piano note, and the driving sounds of Tweedy's poetry:

"If I’m the one with blood on my sofa
Blood in the sink, blood in the trunk
High at the wheel of a bull black Nova
Then I’m sorry as the setting sun"

Perfectly, the moon above was knife shaped. Freaking brilliant. To me, Wilco has been about letting go. Certainly A Ghost is Born was about that - the "you'll miss me" declaration of suicide in "Theologians":

"I'm going away
Where you will look for me
Where I'm going you cannot come"

But something has changed with Wilco (the album). Tweedy has found a way to smile, and his band knows how to rock. The two together combine like metals in a bomb, and they become unstoppable. Have you re-listened to Wilco's first album, A.M., recently? "Casino Queen" blows the doors down. They just, quite simply, didn't give a shit. Why should they? They play good music, across the board. They've infused that same optimistic carelessness throughout the album, and live it couldn't sound better.

"All you fat followers get fit fast
Every generation thinks it’s the last
Thinks it’s the end of the world"

"I don't care anymore," Tweedy sings. It's the same sentiment in Dylan's "The Times They Are-a Changing," with a modern twist: just have fun, man.

Their new album, Wilco (the album) is out everywhere. Right now. Go to Starbucks, Best Buy, Amoeba, Barnes & Noble, and listen to some good friends (music).

Wilco - Casino Queen

Wilco - California Stars