Wilco at the Civic Opera
Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Nick Lowe joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples joins Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe join Wilco on stage as they perform at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
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Wilco performs at the Civic Opera House Monday, December 12, 2011.
Photo: Will Rice
12/13/2011
First, some perspective. Wilco has been around now since 1994. But Wilco, in its current lineup, is a slightly younger group, stabilizing only in 2004. While by then the band had vaulted through the ceiling that had previously held it back, topping year-end lists as it sold out larger venues, there was nonetheless a sense its members were still trying to find the right orbit around Jeff Tweedy’s creative epicenter. That’s partly what made both Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (The Album) so compelling, despite their preference for smooth over skronk.
At the Civic Opera House Monday night, the first of the band’s five-night homecoming and its first local show in support of The Whole Love, Wilco—tight as ever—sometimes had an awkward time negotiating the tension between those two extremes. Focusing a good deal on the new record, the band began somewhat audaciously with the wistful epic “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” before shifting to the more dynamic “Poor Places” (with its noise coda) and “Art of Almost,” a menacing assemblage that underscored once again the group’s regular dedication to ideas as much as melodies (and Nels Cline’s dedication to avant-shredding).
But it also proved a somewhat heavy start to the night that didn’t quite lighten up until the band had made it through the ever-cathartic “Misunderstood” and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” to the brighter noodling of “Impossible Germany” and the folky strum of “What Light.” Things took a turn for the goofy with “Capitol City” before finding a comfort zone in crowd-pleasers such as “War on War,” “Box Full of Letters,” “Pot Kettle Black” and an ever-raucous “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” which featured Tweedy enlisting a fan’s Missouri “WILCO” license plate for a metallic solo.
Certainly once the group loosened up it offered all its usual pleasures, from watching players as formidable and creative as Cline and Glenn Kotche cut loose gleefully on some of the band’s less rigorous compositions, or watching John Stirratt and Pat Sansone step up and show off their harmonies, even if in service of piffle like “Candyfloss” and the kitschily sunny “Outta Mind (Outta Sight),” "Outtasite (Outta Mind)," the latter an excuse for some wonderfully corny fake snow to fall. Yet while Wilco can go deep with its setlists, it’d be remiss if it avoided the beauty of “Jesus, Etc.” or the reliable power of the set-closing “A Shot in the Arm,” both of which have retained their respective strengths after years in rotation.
If the evening was ultimately an exercise in precision over spontaneity, a showcase for this lineup’s impressive abilities but also (for better or for worse) its restraint, you could sense the group loosening up as the night went on, peaking with a fun run backing opener Nick Lowe on “Cruel to be Kind.” You got the feeling, with the formalities of its first hometown gig in ages behind it and the joy of compatriot Lowe and special guest Mavis Staples closing the night by sharing verses on “The Weight,” that Wilco was adequately limbered up for the sequentially smaller (and one suspects, more surprise-packed) gigs in store.
More tickets for tonight's previously sold-out Riviera show have just been released.
