Wilco!

Catherine saw the first show. Here are my condensed thoughts on last night's show:

• It was really, really wonderful. One of the best shows I've seen. Aside from "Heavy Metal Drummer" an "Muzzle of Bees", they played everything I really wanted to hear. It was a more or less perfect performance.
  
• Two words: second. encore.
  
• Man, that was one stinky crowd. The b.o. at large last night was just... gross.
  
• The crowd was also: rowdier than you'd expect at a Wilco show.
  
• And: I'd estimate about 80% male. From my perch up on the balcony, I spied very few women in the crowd.
  
• Boy, Jeff Tweedy sure did not like the audience, and their constant yammering. Manners, people. Manners.
  
• Nels Cline has clearly been playing Rock Band: he deployed into overdrive a bunch of times.
  
• Man, I really love intense drummers. Glenn Kotche is an animal.
  
• It's a shame Wilco doesn't have more really nice instruments. That's sarcasm, folks. They have the sickest instrument collection I've ever seen.
  
• Where I was standing, we couldn't see what was happening off to the right -- who came in? What were they playing?

I should avoid pre-coffee blogging. Forgot to mention a few things:

• They did some really great arrangements of a few songs -- rocking them up or slowing them down. It wasn't just album reproduction.
  
• I went with the best people! Jenna, Anthony, Janel and the added bonus of Reed & Kelly made for a very positive and wonderful group to be with.
  
• Did you know there's an espresso bar upstairs at 9:30? That serves coffee liquor drinks?
  
• I talked to my friend Scott this morning that watched from the uber-crowded floor downstairs and said it was a nightmare. Hot, and full of angry, dudey guys.
  
• Tweedy's banter was pretty great. His explanations of what was going on for the people listening at home were hilarious -- particularly his description of his hat. He was wearing a nice brown cowboy hat, and somebody in the audience yelled that it was amazing. So he described it for the people not there as something that rivals Carmen Miranda's head gear -- fruit, fire ants, wax drippings, mulch...