Wilco

Man oh man.

Last night me, Cathy, John, Tom, Pierre, and Gerry's brother Adrian made our way to the Paradiso to see Wilco. I knew it'd be great, but I didn't know that it'd be last-night-of-a-world-tour-in-Amsterdam great. Sheezus.

The place was absolutely jammed. We walked into the main room and as soon as we were through the door we met a solid wall of backs. No space whatsoever. We sidestepped up some stairs and toward the bar, on a riser stage right, and somehow finagled a corner spot, against a post, right next to the bar. It was tight, and there was no option of moving around or going to the bathroom, but we could see everything and the sound was outstanding. And jammed though we were, the folks we were jammed against were nothing but polite and friendly at all times.

We missed the first part of the first song, "Far, Far Away" off Being There, but were in place and set when they broke into "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," which blew the roof off the joint. They played loads of new stuff, highlights including "Hummingbird," a long and blazing turn through "Spiders: Kidsmoke," and "Muzzle of Bees" off the new one, and they even dipped back into Being There and Summerteeth, rocking "Misunderstood"for all it was worth, giving new life to "Shot in the Arm,"and making "Via Chicago" into the masterpiece that I always knew it was. They closed with two encores, including a new track and a cover of a Dylan tune that I can't name right off.

The feel for the show was amazing on both sides of the stage, the crowd going nuts at every opportunity, yelling "Ya! Ya!"with all their might. It was guitar tech Frankie's last night with them, too, so that surely added to Tweedy's depth of feeling for this show. He had us chanting "Frankie!"and responding, during the call and response portion of "Kingpin,"with Frankie's name instead of "How Can I!"A great experience, and I'm very glad I got tickets for it before we left the states. I'd have hated to miss this one.