Complex has learned that Kanye West — or Martin Louis The King Jr. as he’s known in some circles — will stage his first ever live television concert on the Fuse Network this Saturday, July 25.
Last month, Kanye performed in front of a hometown crowd at the “Stay In School” Concert . Now fans across [...]
When it comes to taking responsibility for her failures, Sarah Palin is completely unaccountable. Her finger is always pointed at the most convenient scapegoat. Last…
NEW YORK — Frank McCourt, the beloved raconteur and former public school teacher who enjoyed post-retirement fame as the author of “Angela’s Ashes,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning “epic of woe” about his impoverished Irish childhood, died Su…
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Hello, fellow Muggles, and welcome to this week’s edition of your Sunday Morning Liveblog, your weekly, occasionally witty rundown of the week in political monkeyshines and the Hollow Men who rend their garments over it, whilst you sleep off y…
All of us are biased to seek information that fits what we already believe. Confirmatory evidence jumps out at us, and we find it emotionally appealing.
Words by: Kayceman | Images by: Casey Flanigan
Wilco :: 06.27.09 :: Greek Theatre :: Berkeley, CA
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Because we still love rock & roll, that’s why we love Wilco. 15 years of Midwest workingman’s charm and Jeff Tweedy‘s relentless pursuit of songcraft have given us a wealth of pure, deep-hearted, true blue American rock & roll. And on a gorgeous Northern California night at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, a very sold out house gave witness to one of the most consistently impressive bands out there.
Over a marathon 24-song show they touched on all seven of their albums with a bit more emphasis being put on the more recent work. They performed like a band that’s confident, happy and very well rehearsed. But, that’s not to say the show was without surprises. Just because you can depend on Wilco doesn’t mean they won’t throw curveballs your way – in fact, that’s a big reason why you can always count on this six-piece to deliver. It’s all about dynamics and exposing their dualities. The songs are built on Tweedy’s nuanced songwriting, which burrows deep into our experiences, often fixated on relationships, or lack there of, but from these foundations are explosions of noise most often led by gifted guitarist Nels Cline. It’s rock solid songwriting with expansive instrumental searching and at times hugely psychedelic sheets of sound.
Just as they have for the majority of this tour, Wilco began with “Wilco (The Song)” – the first song from their recent release Wilco (The Album) – and not three minutes into the show Cline was on his knees pushing his guitar into the speaker stack, wrestling with the feedback. That set the tone and things didn’t let up as “Muzzle Of Bees” built around a patient mid-tempo section with Tweedy’s acoustic guitar layered brilliantly under Cline’s constant metallic burn. There was a bit of Crazy Horse in the big crunchy hook of “At Least That’s What You Said” and stand out new track “Bull Black Nova” was full of paranoid tension and devastatingly dissonant guitar swells. And to not make mention of drummer Glenn Kotche would be criminal. The guy is amazing, one of the best drummers in the game (and a stellar composer as well), and he showed equal ability slamming the heavy parts as he did executing the delicate accents.
 Jeff Tweedy – Wilco :: 06.27 :: Berkeley, CA |
When Tweedy addressed the crowd, as he did on a number of occasions, even slowing the show way down to ask one dazed fan if he was all right, you could see both sides of the man. He’s the leader of one of the biggest bands of the day and he’s been doing it for two decades (pre-Wilco with Uncle Tupelo), but he’s still nervous, or at least not fully comfortable in the role. Tweedy is more at peace than ever these days and he’s repeatedly praised the affects such stability and lack of dependency have had on his work. He’s a proud father and good husband, dedicating the final song before the encore, “I’m The Man That Loves You,” to his wife and bringing his son Spencer on stage decked out in bright tie-dye, laughing, “See what you’ve done to my son, hippies!” before telling the teenager, “Go take a bath.” But where borderline sappy moments like this could very easily take away from the show, they rarely do (and the tie-dye thing was actually really funny). Even though I’ve heard the same banter at various different shows and just because they pull from the same general pool of songs for most of a tour it never comes off like a shtick. It always feels genuine, even if it’s been said before, and it always feels fresh and inspired even if I heard “Jesus, Etc.,” “Impossible Germany” or “Handshake Drugs” last time as well.
Always aware of the need to finish big, Wilco brought the night to a close with a five song encore that found Cline on the double-neck guitar for “You Never Know” before delivering a haunting “Misunderstood” and a sprawling “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” that got downright demented before erupting into a full crowd clap-along ending that fell right into “Hoodoo Voodoo.” It was a generous cap to a very strong show.
Strolling back down the hill through the beautiful UC Berkeley campus under a picture perfect sky and still softly aglow from the experience, I was brought back to the mid-point of Wilco’s set. Tweedy stepped into the light and before “California Stars” he stared out over his adoring mass of fans and proclaimed, “I think this is our favorite place to play,” and judging by the roar of the crowd it was easy to see why.
Wilco :: 06.27.09 :: Greek Theatre :: Berkeley, CA
Wilco (The Song), Muzzle Of Bees, A Shot In The Arm, At Least That’s What You Said, Bull Black Nova, You Are My Face, Deeper Down, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, One Wing, Radio Cure, Impossible Germany, California Stars, Can’t Stand It, Jesus, Etc., Handshake Drugs, Hate It Here, Walken, I’m The Man Who Loves You
Encore: You Never Know, The Late Greats, Box Full Of Letters, Misunderstood, Spiders (Kidsmoke), Hoodoo Voodoo
Continue reading for a more pics of Wilco in Berkeley…
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Wilco is on tour now, dates available here.
JamBase | California
Go See Live Music!
American singer songwriter Bob Dylan is said to have lost one of his biggest fans, former US President Jimmy Carter, when he converted from Judaism to Christianity, after wallowing in drugs and bed-hopping with female fans, reveals a new book.
Kevin Mattson, the author of “What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?â€, which comes [...]
The hit animated series “Family Guy” scored a major triumph when it became the the first animated series to be nominated for an Emmy (Best Comedy Series) in 48 years. The last animated series to be up for an Emmy was “The Flinstones” in 1961….
Madonna’s toyboy Jesus Luz reportedly feels that the Queen of Pop has not been taking him seriously, after Guy Ritchie is back in picture.
If sources are to be believed, the 22-year-old Brazilian model is feeling intimidated ever since Ritchie and Madonna are back on talking terms.
“Guy is around pretty frequently, and Jesus is becoming resentful,” [...]
Madonna’s toyboy Jesus Luz reportedly feels that the Queen of Pop has not been taking him seriously, after Guy Ritchie is back in picture.
If sources are to be believed, the 22-year-old Brazilian model is feeling intimidated ever since Ritchie and Madonna are back on talking terms.
“Guy is around pretty frequently, and Jesus is becoming resentful,” [...]
The point of putting a ‘racially insensitive’ white man up to question a Latina has nothing to do with bad GOP planning and everything to do with intimidation.
Death. It’s a whole new media strategy for success. The only problem is, you’re not around to enjoy the spoils.
Wilco :: 06.27 :: Berkeley, CA
Happy Maybe Day
Join me in celebrating a day of not being sure about anything. But don’t expect the Certain to thank you for it
Today is Maybe Day, a day inspired by the late writer Robert Anton Wilson. It was his hope that on this day people of all creeds and beliefs would come together and chant, “Jesus is the only son of God, maybe” “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one, maybe” and “There’s no God but Allah, maybe, and maybe Mohammed is his prophet.” At this point the world would suddenly become a far saner place.
Of course, it is not necessary to congregate to celebrate Maybe Day. It is not even necessary to say those words out loud. Simply reading the words in a newspaper or a blog is enough to participate, and in that spirit may I personally thank you for joining in and making Maybe Day 2009 such a success.
But be careful: the Wars of the Certain rage around us. As Wilson pointed out, “certitude is seized by some minds, not because there is any philosophical justification for it, but because such minds have an emotional need for certitude.” By celebrating Maybe Day you risk abuse from those people, the Certain, who object to the unsure, the sceptical or the deeply confused. In The God Delusion, to give one example, Richard Dawkins engages with the monotheistic viewpoint with argument, but he dismisses agnostics with insults. They are, in Dawkins’ view, the theological equivalent of the Lib-Dems, “namby-pamby, mushy pap, weak tea, weedy, pallid fence-sitters.”
To sympathise with the Certain for a moment, they do not have it easy. There are billions of people on this planet and they all have wildly differing ideas about politics, ethics, theology, art and science. It is very hard for the Certain to insist that their own position is the only right, true and undeniable one, especially if they posses a basic knowledge of mathematics and probability. You can rationalise away this problem by deciding that the rest of the world is basically composed of idiots, but it is rarely a good idea to admit this publicly. We live in a culture where megalomania is frowned upon.
Then there was the relentless march against certainty that took place in the 20th century. The work of Einstein, Joyce, Picasso, Heisenberg, Leary, Jung, Lorenz and countless others showed that we do not possess a single model of our universe that can account for all that we find around us. Instead, we have a number of contradictory models, each with their own strengths and flaws, and we must decide which is the most practical to adopt for our current needs. Our task, therefore, is to keep testing those models, to evaluate probabilities and to reject once-treasured ideas when more suitable replacements are found. This is not to say that all models are equally valid; rather, it is to say that all models should be recognised as incomplete, flawed and useful only to a point. To quote Robert Anton Wilson again, “I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicions.”
Maybe Day allows us all to cast off our certainties, if only for one day. It is a day when you are can allow yourself to be sceptical of your favoured models without any danger of damage to your ego. The Certain are invited to climb up on the agnostics’ fence and join them for a cup of their famous weak tea and a plateful of mushy pap. By sitting up on the fence, they’ll be able to see the whole territory. Maybe the Certain will be surprised by this view. Maybe they will see that the important question is not which side of the fence they should defend, but what idiot put the fence there in the first place, and exactly who benefits from leaving it up?