Concert-goers throw caution to the wind for one night with Wilco

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This article was published 12/03/2020 (2365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Festivals and concerts around the world have been postponed due to fear the close proximity those events require could lead to the spread of coronavirus, but Winnipeggers threw caution to the wind Wednesday night just for Wilco.

After all, the last time the Winnipeg Folk Festival (which also presented this concert) hosted the alt-rock band, their headlining set got rained out three songs in. This time, fans were going to get the full deal, come hell or possible quarantine.

“Who knew when I wrote so many lyrics about social distancing they’d come in handy? I’m prepared, if I could just stop touching my face,” joked Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy a few songs into the band’s set at Centennial Concert Hall. “Everyone OK? We’re all in this together.”

The Chicago-based band is on tour supporting their 2019 release, Ode To Joy, and started the night off with the opening two tracks from that record, Bright Leaves and Before Us. A bit of a lumbering start, but things quickly picked up with the peppy Company in My Back from 2004’s A Ghost is Born and the bluesy, two-decade-old fan favourite Can’t Stand It.

Tweedy seemed to take a few songs to relax into his vocals, but when he got there, it was smooth sailing the rest of the night as the six-piece continued to bounce around its 25-year, 11-album discography; from the thorough sulkiness of 2019’s One and a Half Stars, to the indie-rock bop I’m The Man Who Loves You from 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, to the many-minutes long, standing-ovation worthy solo by guitarist Nels Cline during 2007’s Impossible Germany, Wilco covered a lot of ground.

Actually, many songs took a minute to feature a solo or two (or three or four), some more cohesive and well-deserving of the time they took than others. Most in the crowd seemed pretty keen on the jam vibe though, so, to each their own.

As a frontman, Tweedy is hard to beat; he’s quick-witted, kind and funny, and clearly understands how to encourage a crowd but also how to shut them down gently when too many people started shouting for attention and derailing the swift pace of the night.

I’d be remiss not to also highlight the work of multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone as well; he sat quietly on the far right side of the stage surrounded by instruments, often playing two or more at the same time. He straddled his stool between two sets of keys and played them both simultaneously, and then later also cracked out a xylophone, guitars and a banjo. Even when singing back-up vocals, he still had one hand on a keyboard and one hand on a tambourine as well.

Wilco closed out its 105-minute main set with The Late Greats, and returned shortly after for a four-song encore which included California Stars, Red-Eyed and Blue, I Got You (At the End of the Century) and Outtasite (Outta Mind), rounding the set out to a full two hours.

“Wash your hands!” Tweedy yelled, before the band exited the stage for good. Solid advice to end a solid show.

Saskatchewan-based cousin duo Kacy & Clayton (who have worked with Tweedy on their two most recent albums) opened the night with a quick 30-minute set that had as many songs as it did awkward silences.

The music itself was great: catchy, twangy songs with themes and tones rooted in classic country and folk from the ‘50s and ‘60s with lovely vocals and stellar supplementary players. What wasn’t so great was the constant faffing about while endlessly trying to tune guitars which resulted in either radio silence or some pretty painful banter. It’s clear speaking on stage isn’t guitarist and principal vocalist Kacy Anderson’s favourite thing, thankfully her beautiful warble and all the registers it has the capacity to wiggle through were in fine form.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel