All of Chicago was busy this weekend speculating about whether hometown favorite Wilco would play new material at its performance Sunday evening, and behold! Jeff Tweedy and company played four new songs.
Surprising as it may sound coming from me, though, Wilco wasn't Sunday's best set. That honor goes to the Hold Steady, which is the best thing I saw all weekend. The band was good last year at Bar in New Haven, but the stage is small there and it seemed to cramp a certain theatricality. That wasn't a problem at Lollapalooza, where the Hold Steady was on one of the four big stages, playing to a crowd that knew all the words and wasn't shy about singing (well, bellowing) them along with singer Craig Finn (pictured here).
"This is easily the most fun I've ever had before 3 in the afternoon," Finn said during the set.
He looked keyed up and delighted throughout the band's hour-long show, waving his arms around and repeating lyrics to himself off-microphone between verses, while guitarist Tad Kubler cranked out the group's signature riffs like a machine designed for that purpose. The Hold Steady played a few new songs, as well, and the whole show was spectacular -- one of the best performances I've seen all year.
Wilco was pretty great, too, of course. The band played 14 songs to a gigantic crowd that started gathering hours earlier. "Via Chicago" has been a high point of the band's live shows ever since drummer Glenn Kotche added blasts of percussive noise at points in the middle. This is completely a rock-geek thing to say about it, but the shattering dissonance is unsettling, disturbing and beautiful in the way it contrasts with the dark, simple chords and melody. It has the power to shake something loose inside you, and it seemed to have that effect on at least some of the crowd.
I'll try to track down names for the new songs, but one of them featured a sweet call-and-response between Tweedy and Mikael Jorgensen on piano, and the lyrics seemed to focus on a let's-work-things-out theme.
The Shins played the same stage two hours earlier, and unfortunately, the first third of the band's set was marred by sound difficulties, as if someone forgot to turn on the PA. Once the sound was fixed, though, it was clear why the band is one of the most revered in indie-rock circles. Its songs are as smart as they are catchy, which really carries over to a live setting. The Shins also played a few new songs from an album the band has been working on for eons. The "awwwww" song, though, was "New Slang," which appeared on the "Garden State" soundtrack. The opening chords had people around us dialing their cell phones and holding them up so their friends could play along at home.
The weather looked dodgy to start the day, and it sprinkled throughout an early set by What Made Milwaukee Famous ("from Austin, Texas," as the singer likes to say). But it cleared up and got pretty darn hot by the time Andrew Bird played his mid-afternoon show. He's a tremendous musician, and much of his live set consists of him sampling himself on guitar or violin and then playing and singing along. It's the sort of thing that goes over better in a smaller setting, which was the case for more than one Lolla band this year: Iron & Wine was hard to hear Friday by all accounts, and though Calexico did a fine job amplifying the more delicate moments in its songs Saturday, I'd love to see them in a club again.
At any rate, the second-annual stationary Lollapalooza is over, and I confess, I'm a little glad I don't have to walk back and forth through Grant Park in 90-degree heat today. My favorites from the weekend: The Hold Steady, Wilco, Be Your Own Pet, the Flaming Lips, the Raconteurs and Editors. Hail, hail, rock 'n' roll!
What was with Jeff Tweedy dressing like a leprechaun? I was expecting to hear a little Irish folk music when he came out with the hat, green jacket and beard. Had they not gone over their measley 60 minutes, maybe "Whiskey in the Jar" would have been next on the setlist.
The Hold Steady was definitely the highlight of Sunday. Thanks for the suggestion. Listening to Separation Sunday right now. Bought it this morning.
Posted by: Puma | August 07, 2006 at 02:11 PM
Ah, that's so great to hear. My Hold Steady show attendence has been thwarted by their #2 position on the list of Artists My Wife Can't Stand. They'd be the only one on there if it weren't for the stylings of MC Paul Barman.
A couple of the new songs are on the net:
http://www.bowsplusarrows.com/2006/07/curves-nerves.html
http://www.bowsplusarrows.com/2005/12/new-songs-hold-steady-attn-everyone.html
Posted by: Tom Clancy | August 07, 2006 at 11:24 AM