Wilco: rock, country, alternative? Yeah not all that clear, and following gig, you'd reckon more rock-country. Blonde and I skipped the opening act having checked her out on myspace we'd decided she was like a whining brooke fraser. Not a good idea. Reviews post gig suggested we were right, the number of the audience who stayed in the bar suggested we weren't alone.
First the rant: the Opera House as a venue sucks the big one. Whats the point of a rock concert when we all sit down, kinda kills the vibe eh? But that's a major problem in Wellington, we've got great small venues (San Fran, Bodega) up to 500 (I think), reasonable large (stadium and Westpact Trust) but nothing in the middle, and that's where Wilco fell.
The concert was good, very good. The first half was pretty much just the songs, no interaction from Jeff Tweedy. Then he started chatting and turned out to be a pretty amusing fella. Pisstaking of the bogun quotient in Wellington following Rock2Wgtn, which was fair enough, it was pretty scary for all of us wandering through town.
The band was very tight, and sounded fantastic. Wilco have a very cool rhythm section, and the use of two keyboards (one of whom doubled guitar on occasion) meant levels of musical complexity not usually heard at gigs. The audience was into them, but obviously vibe was suppressed due to the seated gig. Thoroughly enjoyed the gig, but I felt it was missing something. Sure they sounded great, played a really good selection of new/old stuff. It wasn't just me, blonde also felt the same. It was #3 of the three gigs, the vibe with Immortal was superb, and it will be hard to top Iron and Wine. But I'm glad I saw Wilco, just wish it was at a better venue as it would really have gone off.
B. xx
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