SOUNDTRACK: WILCO-Tiny Desk Concert #168 (October 17, 2011).
Wilco is virtually the only band to have been asked back for a second Tiny Desk Concert. I’ve listened to this concert a bunch of times but didn’t realize I hadn’t posted about it here.
There is a huge crowd for this show and as it starts, everyone shouts WILCO!
The band sounds great with all the members crowding in behind the Tiny Desk. Tweedy plays his big acoustic guitar, Nels Cline plays all kinds of interesting sounds in the corner. The drummer is on a small computer thing that seems to be made up of all manner of small percussive items. There’s a bassist and keyboardist and a second guitarist all making a great sound.
“Dawned on Me” starts the set and sounds great in this setting—I love the walking bass throughout the song and of course Nels Cline plays a wonderfully insane noisy solo amid this simple and catchy folk song
Before the second song, “Whole Love” Glen’s got to get some things out of his toiletry bag. This is another great song with Nels playing high notes to complement the rumbling bass. No idea what the drummer is playing this time—a book? Tweedy sings in falsetto for much of the song.
Tweedy says “this next song requires a certain amount of tuning—quiet please.”
He asks if anyone has any questions and when Bob says “I’m speechless,” someone on staff says “That’s a first,” which gets everyone laughing. Bob asks if Jeff likes his bag of toys and Jeff says anyone who would make fun of his bag of toys is an idiot. Sadly we never see the bag or the toys.
“Born Alone” has another great bass line that opens the song and the drummer is hitting lord only knows what. This was the song by Wilco that made me really fall in love with the band. Cline’s slide guitar is very cool. But there’s something about the end of the song when the whole band plays a series of chords–the steps keep going lower and lower, and each time you think they’re going to stop, they just keep going. It’s very fun.
After that song Tweedy admits to breaking a sweat–Tiny Sweat!
The final song is “War on War.” He says they played it about ten years ago in the city possibly for the first time. They messed up the ending the other day, but they hope it doesn’t mess them up this time. Cline goes berserk on his guitar. The whole band rocks this song. There’s some really cool harmonies on this track, too. The keyboardist even has a little cow sound maker (that you can just barely hear, until the very end). They get the ending right and Tweedy shouts “Nailed It!”
There is much applause as Bob asks, “Pretty good for a Saturday, huh?” And as the applause dies down, someone yells, “Now lets trash this dump!”
It’s a great set.
[READ: March 25, 2016] “Hallelujah!”
I wanted to finish up all of the Harper’s pieces by Rivkla Galchen. I had no idea what to expect from this piece.
It is one of those pieces in Harper’s that has images in the background–in this case musical notes and a portrait of Handel–to go with the story. And it is broken up into many little sections labelled 1. Sinfonia (Overture) 2. Accompagnato. 3. Air, etc up through 53 (!).
So this is obviously about Handel’s Messiah and the Hallelujah Chorus. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 