Wilco
Academy,

Manchester
26/10/2011

They’re an oddity, Wilco. Having taken a gang of shit-kickin’ country players into more experimental realms with ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’, Jeff Tweedy replaced departing band members with avant-garde-minded souls… and then almost immediately re-embraced the sound of classic

Americana. With the line-up stable for three consecutive albums,
Chicago’s finest seem to be in adventurous mood again, determined to prove that they’re still one of the most forward-thinking rock bands in

America right now. Tonight reminds us all that they’re kinda special live too.

New cut ‘Art Of Almost’ is a bold opener, all pulsating krautrock grooves and typically face-melting fingerwork from Nels Cline. If that solo sounds delightfully psychedelic on record, it’s positively metal tonight, hurling us forcefully into cacophonic splendour. The relatively poppier ‘I Might’ bounces along like Spoon hepped up on Mountain Dew, before familiar favourites set the atmosphere alight. Those oldies serve as an illustration of Tweedy’s lyrical evolution, from the uncertain narrator of ‘Box Full Of Letters’ (“I just can’t find the time / To write my mind / The way I want it to read”), through ‘A Shot In The Arm’’s cryptic poetry, and back out to ‘One Wing’’s comparative directness. As ever, Jeff’s red-raw sincerity is entrancing.

There are more newbies, and tri-guitar workout ‘Impossible

Germany’ warms all present when that Television-play-The-Eagles coda cuts loose. One particular song stands out, however. Hard to believe, but ‘I Am Trying To Break Your Heart’ was released nine years ago. Its cut-up clatter hovers between the rabble-rousing shonky-tonk of the band’s early years and the bold future they were about to embark on, retaining that plaintive sorrow through obscure metaphor and deft collage. And that’s Wilco in 2011: still a mess of contradictions. Still inspired by the myriad possibilities of rock’n’roll. Still trying to break your heart.

Will Fitzpatrick