As Gov’t Mule was nearing the end of their cover of the Beatles “Helter Skelter” on the Which Stage, I phoned a friend back home just to let him know what was currently happening at the ‘roo. He was watching their live web cast on the AT&T Blue Room, as I was making my way to get a good spot for the soon-to-be Wilco show on the What Stage. Still on the phone, my friend said to me that his wife liked the cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”, at which point I was devastated to have missed. But there was no turning back now. I was already nearing the center of the field of the What Stage, where Wilco would be taking the stage in about ten or fifteen minutes. Did I leave Gov’t Mule much too early? Sure, but what can you do. Come to find out later, Grace Potter and Scott Tournet (of her band the Nocturnals) had joined Mule onstage for a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” Damn!
Looking back at my history of some of the music festivals I’ve attended, it seems as if I always pick the worst times to leave a show. At Bonnaroo 2005, I left the Allman Brothers set early to regroup at camp before the Dave Matthews Band show that night. As I was walking back to my camp, I could hear their long, instrumental jam, “Jessica”, off in the distance. Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks were completely tearing it up - in a good way! I also missed quite a few things at Bonnaroo 2007, like the Flaming Lips late night set, where they ”landed” a giant UFO onstage, Gov’t Mule’s late night set which was going on at the same time, in which they brought out guests like Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, several members of Hot Tuna, and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, now with the Black Crowes. But worst of all that year, I missed John Paul Jones join Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals for a really long cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” I think that song nearly went on for half-an-hour. I had left to catch Keller Williams set, which let’s just say, was okay. I think the worst thing I missed at Bonnaroo 2009 was Phish’s encore from the first night, in which they covered the Beatles “A Day in the Life.”
But there’s always going to be something you’re going to miss at a music festival, especially when you put Wilco up against bands like the Mars Volta, the Decemberists, Elvis Costello backed by Jenny Lewis and her band, and the David Grisman Quintet. These were all bands I was hoping to see (before the schedule came out), but my choice seemed rather easy because I simply love Wilco and had only seen them twice prior. The first time that I saw them was at Bonnaroo 2007, and in fact, they were one of the very last bands I saw that year – I also missed nearly all of the White Stripes as well. Wilco was also my favorite show that year, so I also choose to see them this year because I knew they could do nothing but get better, if anything be just as good. It was now time for my third Wilco show.
They kicked things off with “Wilco (the song)”, which I’m having a really hard time understanding. What kind of band writes a song named after them? Maybe it’s not a big deal, maybe I’m making it a bigger deal than it should be or maybe I should just focus on the music rather than the lyrics. Maybe it’s just a song to let people know who they are. I don’t know. I guess it won’t be bad after I hear it several times. Lucky for me the song was short and simple and over before I knew it. Maybe they just wanted to get it out of the way because right after the song ended, they quickly began creating some feedback and harmonics, later joined by drums, clocks and a strumming acoustic guitar, which you may know as the beginning of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.” As one of the first Wilco songs I fell in love with, what I love is the experimentalism of it. Kind of how everyone’s instruments seem to not be playing exactly the same thing, especially towards the end – and somehow it works very well. Drums and cymbals pounding and crashing, fingers sliding up and down the piano keys. A noisy sound almost ugly yet full of so much beauty at the same time.
Next came “Company In My Back”, powered by synth-like outerspace sounds, clean acoustic guitar picking from Tweedy and some short riffs and soloing from Nels Cline on the electric guitar. After the song Tweedy told the crowd that it was “good to be back”, and while I’m sure he meant it, we all know that this Chicago band’s favorite festival has to be Lollapalooza. Who cares or really knows though…Tweedy immediately began strumming his acoustic, followed by John Stirratt adding some depth with a bass line riff. The song was “Handshake Drugs” and it was amazing. Mostly because Nels Cline is a fucking genius and madman on the electric guitar. Whether he’s playing slow or fast, he knows what he’s doing and he is perfect for this band. After this they went into a new song called “Bull Black Nova”, which starts off with a psychedelic, electronic, trance-like riff, bringing to mind one of those famous ’80s bands like the Talking Heads. But it doesn’t last long, and not even two minutes into it, the song switches to a rock sound when the guitars and drums kick in. And what’s a rock song without a solo? That’s right. Nels Cline comes in and takes over although the song finds its way back to that electro-psychedelic riff, in which Tweedy tries to sing over and Nels tries to play over, but I just can’t help feeling like I’m caught in a trance of “my style” of dancing, which mostly consists of tapping my feet, moving up, down and side to side and bobbing my head.
I won’t bore you to death with a track-by-track analysis, but I will say that these are some of the best versions I’ve heard of most of these songs. These highlights included several songs from the Sky Blue Sky album, like “Impossible Germany”, “Hate It Here” and “Walken”, as well as some older favorites like “Shot in the Arm”, “Jesus, Etc”, “California Stars”, “Misunderstood”, “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, “Hummingbird” and “The Late Greats”, and a little more of a taste of the new album with songs like “One Wing” and “You Never Know.” They finished their set with “Hoodoo Voodoo” from the Billy Bragg collaboration album, Mermaid Avenue.
The Setlist:
Wilco (the Song)
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Company In My Back
Handshake Drugs
Bull Black Nova
You Are My Face
One Wing
Pot Kettle Black
Side with the Seeds
A Shot in the Arm
At Least That’s What You Said
Jesus, Etc.
Impossible Germany
California Stars
Misunderstood
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Hummingbird
You Never Know
The Late Greats
Hate It Here
Walken
I’m the Man Who Loves You
Hoodoo Voodoo