Wilco/Califone; February 20, 2010; Overture Center

I’ll admit it, I felt a little bit guilty. I’m sure there were many Wilco fans in the sold out crowd tonight that deserved front row seats more than me, but even though I’m not much of a Wilco fan these days I certainly wasn’t going to trade with any of them. I didn’t even know regular people could actually get these seats, figuring they all went to big wigs or radio stations. But when our Wilco-obsessed friend in Florida logged in for the fan presale she pulled the front row, and not only that, front row center. How about that?

Things certainly look a lot different from that angle. There’s a lot of things I would have missed if I weren’t right there. While lead singer Jeff Tweedy probably wouldn’t have looked as disturbingly homeless from further back, I would have missed the amused look on his face as guitarists Nels Cline and Pat Sansone traded solos. Even though most of the time Tweedy was blocking my view of the perfectly adorable Glenn Kotche, when he wasn’t I could clearly see the sweat dripping off his immediately drenched hair. Of all the band members, he certainly looks like he is having the most fun. Running a close second is Cline. He wiggles and contorts and does a little dance every second he’s playing. I figured for sure we would be able to see his always awesome socks, but were thwarted by his high top shoes and long-enough pants. We did get to see him use the most unlikely of guitar accessories though, a whisk. We had spotted it shortly after sitting down, but had to wait almost the entire set before he utilized it. “Whisk!” Michelle cried, almost knocking me out of my chair.

The set list didn’t seem as solid as one in the St Paul back in October had, relying too heavily on A Ghost is Born and their most recent release Wilco (the Album). Opening track Wilco (the Song) has been the traditional opener for this tour, which is dubbed, you guessed it Wilco (the Tour). While not as tedious live as on record, I could have used more songs from Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (their last great record in my opinion). ‘Teeth’s “Shot in the Arm” came early in the set and kept me going till YHF’s “Jesus Etc.” The latter is my favorite Wilco song, period. Unfortunately though, encouraged by Tweedy, it has become a sing-along on the level of Tom Petty’s “Breakdown.” I hope he realizes he may be creating a monster. “I want to hear you sing Madison,” Tweedy flatly stated before starting the song, “and no mumbling.” He explained that the first time the words were “combine” and the second time “come by,” illustrating the latter by walking his fingers through the air.

I always forget how hilarious Tweedy is; the dude had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. “Is the mayor here tonight?” he inquired, “because last night the mayor of Duluth came out to see us.” “We’ve only played there like twice, and we’ve played here a million times.” After the next song he asked if anyone had gotten hold of the mayor yet. With how fast the band sold out the massive Overture Center, even if Mayor Dave had wanted to come he probably wouldn’t have been able to get tickets. The night ended with a massive six (plus or minus) song encore which may have been the best string of songs of the night, including YHF’s terrific “Heavy Metal Drummer” and Mermaid Avenue’s funky “Hoodoo Voodoo,” which immediately got me on my feet dancing. Their debut album AM has been chronically underrepresented the last several years, so it was especially nice to hear “Casino Queen.” By far, the biggest surprise was Buffalo Springfield’s “Broken Arrow,” an absolutely inspired cover choice. All I could say was “cool.”

Openers Califone were invited back onstage for “California Stars,” another of Mermaid’s Woody Guthrie selections. Since half the band had already headed back to Chicago to catch up on family and sleep time, only guitarist Jim Becker and percussionist Ben Massarella were able to accept the invitation, which increased their time onstage by 20%. While definitely a benefit, opening for Wilco can be a bit merciless- the bands are only given a half hour set and only allowed a fraction of the channels on the sound board. Califone made the most of it, curtailing some of their jammy impulses for an impressively tight, though sadly limited set. It was perhaps the best show I’ve seen them do of the half dozen times I’ve seen them. Though my favorite part wasn’t a song, it was when Becker was plugging in his guitar, he pointed at me and said “ping pong,” leaving the folks around me wondering what that was all about. I beat him three games in a row, apparently immune to his lethal spin.