Wilco played the first show in its sold-out, three-night residency at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles last night. The Hollywood Reporter sums it up as "transcending Americana for searches of the heart and soul," full of "musical riches" in a set that "truly was as far-ranging as rock can get." Saturday's set in nearby Pomona was a "superb show," says the Orange County Register, that "ranks among its best," with the band at its most content yet its music now elevated "to a whole new level of complexity and emotional richness." The Los Angeles Times would agree, insisting that "a more comfortable Wilco isn't a less daring one."
Wilco played the first show in its sold-out, three-night residency at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles last night. The Hollywood Reporter sums it up as "transcending Americana for searches of the heart and soul." In his concert review, writer Darryl Morden said the band offered a bevy of "musical riches" in a set that "truly was as far-ranging as rock can get." He calls particular attention to guitarist Nels Cline, crediting him "for sinewy and spiraling leads that fueled the fire as the band built to crashing crescendos." Read the concert review at hollywoodreporter.com.
This past weekend, Wilco gave nearby Pomona, California, what the Orange County Register said was a "superb show" and, at the recently refurbished Fox Theatre, a Saturday-night prelude to the Wiltern shows that "ranks among its best." The Register's Ben Wener sees the band's current line-up—Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgensen, Pat Sansone, and Glenn Kotche—as "the most powerful (and at-peace) incarnation of Wilco by far."
Wener too credits "the mighty Nels Cline" for having "elevated Wilco's music to a whole new level of complexity and emotional richness" and goes on to call the sextet "arguably the best live band around." As he sees it:
Springsteen and U2 can (when they really try) be more rousing, Coldplay and Green Day more embracing of every kinda rocker, Pearl Jam more inspirational (most nights), Radiohead more rewardingly challenging. But Wilco is the best parts of all of those acts combined, and with a chemistry all its own.
With its forthcoming album, due out on Nonesuch next week, the band has put that chemistry to good use. "They've never sounded so contented," Wener concludes, "yet that hasn't bred complacency."
Read the concert and album review at ocregister.com.
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Los Angeles Times music critic Todd Martens echoes Wener's sentiment when he writes of the Pomona show, "a more comfortable Wilco isn't a less daring one." While the group made sure to take time from Saturday's set to celebrate Sansone's 40th birthday ("an end of an era"), it would soon return to the business at hand, making music. "Returning to business as usual," Martens concluded, "it was clear that Wilco is the rarest of bands—one that's turned adventurousness into a routine." Read the review at latimesblogs.latimes.com.
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Last night's opener, Jonathan Wilson, returns for tonight's show. Okkervil River plays the first of six tour stops opening for the band in Thursday night's third and final night at the Wiltern. For more tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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