Loneliness Fighter

I find your BBN theory interesting. It just leaves me wondering why so much of The Whole Love is decidedly NOT that. Why not a whole album in the vein of BBN and AOA? It would make me feel so good. I would buy it ten times.

I only caught parts of The Whole Love stream, I was at a cottage in the Kawartha Highlands (Ontario) and it kept cutting out on me, so I can't truly answer to the theme of the album. But to have a contrast between a collection of new songs on a recording and then to take a few of those songs as the basis for a stunning concert- I know that I am going to see them again tonight and it was last night's concert that inspired that decision.

Of course I have to support your road trip to Montreal just to see them. Reminds me too much of my two Solid Sound trips- long drives and border crossings to see Wilco? I would include long treks through deserts, mountain climbs and river crossings as justified journeys....but then again I am Canadian.

Oh and my pet theory about pivotal BBNova was encouraged by the fact that it was the first song following it - She's a Jar- that Jeff forgot the words to. I was saying to my wife later, that She's a Jar was a song that had puzzled me for years. That it was a song of beauty and warm music and soft waves, that it should have been a hit in the conventional sense, the kind of cliche song that people play at weddings and then Jeff sings "she begs me not to hit her". I used to think -why did he do that? He just hijacked his own song, the scene was set and then he just jarred it. I think I get the jar now. I think I understand that WIlco is a band/Jeff is a songwriter that knows where it/he is going. It won't be conventional, but you are invited to travel there. To that place where the unexpected tramples your small comforts. Where an artistic sensibility of what we are living through pushes away the escapist la la las of popular music.

She replied that it was the first Wilco song that she out and out loved. That might explain our marriage right there.

I was amazed and enthralled and surprised last night at Massey Hall. I read someone's observation of the setlist of the first night of the tour that it seemed little was new. That the new tracks start the show and then it was back to the Wilco you know....

No way, this was Wilco rediscovered, Wilco streamlined and snarling, Wilco at the heart of being Wilco and loving it, Wilco brave enough to hammer away at an audience. There was tension and swagger and frenzy popping up and coming at you.

Everything soft and cuddly, introspective, observant and shy has been thrown to the side. Nothing from Woody Guthrie. Also no you and I, hate it here, country disappeared, muzzle of bees, hummingbird... I love those songs - but love the brooding darkness that this Wilco chapter seems to be dominated by.

I have had a pet theory in recent years that Bull Black Nova was a pivotal song in the early section of concerts. That it was a "persona" song, that Jeff was singing from the point of view of a troubled man with his elbows deep in a bad and bloody situation. Jeff will not joke or chat or respond to voices in the crowd until after Bull Black Nova. It is as if he has to keep himself in a dark corner until that song is wrung and thrown out at us. Last night I felt that Art of Almost was an opening song that was taking you on a journey into the land where that evil, distraught guy in BBNova lives. I was caught up right from the start- and fully expected BBNova to be the next song around 6 times. The fact that Wilco has the courage to stay dark and driving for so long and push BBNova so deep into the show was amazing to me.

It is as if they are revealing their core. Saying "see- this is what we have always been about musically , the dance on the edge of chord and discord" Lyrics are servants to our songs, to our sound. If you thought that the strange soundscapes and washes of sound and the feeling that a disembodied voice could break in at any time....Yankee... Hotel...., was a feature of YHF ten years ago, look again-listen again. It has always been lurking offstage. Glenn's drumming in Via Chicago summons up the discord, Nels' guitar playing brings mean bite in more unexpected places. When BBNova was reaching it's peak, so many in the crowd turned to see this big guy in the first balcony, old testament beard and t-shirt and he was up dancing and his arms where snaking and twisting. He was big enough to win a bar fight and yet he was talented and graceful in his motion. I thought "man, this is inspired, that Wilco have been raising the stakes of fury and tension and this guy has responded with dance" He was helping them raise the stakes even higher. I thought that Jeff's final words of BBNova, the "pick-up!!!" did not have to be as heated/screamed as I have heard in other concerts because the music was already there, the crowd was already there, hell our big beard dancer was already there. I hope I never forget the roar of the crowd at the end of that song. Wilco had produced their moment. I thought, hell, if you are not here, experiencing this, feeling this, thinking about where this band wants to take you, where the hell are you??

I must point out that the children in the family van in 99 were 9,7 and 3 years of age. They are now 21, days away from 19 and 15. All three full Wilco fans. They had no choice truly, between environment and dna...

 

http://wilcobase.com...p?event_key=626 It looks like it was in 1999, a few days after my first Wilco show.

Thanks for the Wilcobase link. So happy it was 99. Then it fits into my memory of 99 being my first ever "Wilco" summer.

1. A huge fan of Billy Bragg throughout the 80's and 90's, anything he recorded I had to have. When Mermaid Avenue came out I was thrilled that Bragg had made the connection to the Woody Guthrie lyrics, but it only took one listen to become a huge fan of Wilco. Quickly bought AM and Being There. The summer of 99 will always be the summer that a suburban Toronto dad with three kids always had Summerteeth playing in the family van.

2. First show was as an opening act for REM at the Molson Amphitheatre at Ontario Place. I am going to have to research the date. Guessing 2000 or 01. I remember my wife turning to me at the end of the Wilco set and saying we just have to see them in a better venue one day. Would two Solid Sounds under our belts mean her demand has been met?

He captured the spirit...

http://www.fuelfriendsblog.com/2011/06/29/distance-has-no-way-of-making-love-understandable/

I understand being gutted, it sounds like a great night, but I understand the impact of that storm. I work near Pearson Airport and live in Halton. I had to come home since I had my carpool obligation, yet I dreamed of turning around and driving back down to find a ticket.

The travel time through the snow was than doubled. It was just not a night for a long drive. I too decided to be safe and stay home..... and dream of Solid Sound in June.

My second time seeing Jeff solo (but kind of my first since the previous was Solid Sound last summer). I was

pleasantly surprised with the venue. Lived in Toronto all my life, but never been in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre before. You don't think of the CNE grounds as containing hidden gems, but found one last night.

I thought the audience was respectful and stayed quiet, those talkers mentioned by other must have been far enough away from me.

Multiple highlights in my mind

Future age, You're not alone were great. I thought that ending the set with Poor Places and Hummingbird, especially after commenting and warning that he thought they were songs that were better in a Wilco setting, wwas a little offbeat. Each song was wonderful to hear, but it did not seem that we were building to an ending....

My admiration for 30 Rock just grows and grows- the Wilco line was either too accurate to be funny or too funny because of accuracy. I laughed (and groaned a little). In the long run, just love the music and all else will fall into place.

Made the switch to Clarksburg- so this means that there is now a camping site that I cancelled from Savoy Mountain, an opportunity for somebody else out there...

Ok I am driving down from Ontario and I have booked a tent camping site at Savoy Mountain. I am worried that it is too far out of town, should I change to Clarksburg??