Back on the Blog Horse: Review of Wilco Concert

Time to start blogging again. What do I start with, music of course!

Saw Wilco last week. They were playing in Columbia. I had almost bought the tickets weeks earlier. 25 bucks a piece, plus babysitter, probably over 70 bucks on the whole. I found out that they were playing outside. I wasn’t sure how good that would sound and I also asked myself, “Do I want to pay for a concert that I could hear for free?” Is it cheap of me? Sure. But I also want to see Spoon in a couple of weeks, so I decided to spend my money wisely. Plus, I saw Wilco in Springfield less than a year ago. We decided, however, to grab Maggie and go downtown and listen to a few songs. We missed the first song, from the new cd, “You Are My Face.” We came out of a neat coffee house and they were just starting “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.” I was ready to stay for the evening. They proceeded to play songs from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with one from A Ghost is Born thrown in (Handshake Drugs, my favorite from that cd).

On the whole, they played 6 songs from the new cd (they also played Side with the Seeds, Impossible Germany, Sky Blue Sky, Hate It Here, Walken). They played about that many from what many think is their best release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (they also played I’m the Man Who Loves You, Pot Kettle Black, War on War, Jesus, etc., Heavy Metal Drummer).

We stayed almost to the end. I knew we had to get Maggie home, but to be honest, I thought we were leaving during the last song anyway. The next day I found out through a Wilco message board that they played three songs after we left. I couldn’t leave and I bribed Maggie, if she behaved, she could pick where we ate out that week. She did good. Probably didn’t really enjoy it. And if she did, she wouldn’t admit it.

The thing that made me sad was that these guys are musicians and songwriters at the top of their craft. Yet they were playing to a crowd of probably less than 2000. My daughter wants to go see Hannah Montana. She has sold out the Scotttrade Center (seating 20,000). They are scalping tickets at $200. There is no justice in the world. You can thank Adam for introducing sin into the world and hence, injustice.

The show was over 2 hours and they played 25 songs, true greatness.