WILCO : LOS ANGELES THEATRE 2012

 

Disc One (62:33)

  1. Less Than You Think
  2. Art of Almost
  3. I Might
  4. Black Moon
  5. Side With the Seeds
  6. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
  7. Born Alone
  8. Radio Cure
  9. Impossible Germany
  10. Shouldn't Be Ashamed
  11. Open Mind
  12. Whole Love

Disc Two (54:43)

  1. Hate It Here
  2. Can't Stand It
  3. The Late Greats
  4. Heavy Metal Drummer
  5. Dawned On Me
  6. A Shot in the Arm
  7. Reservations
  8. Handshake Drugs
  9. You Never Know
  10. Walken
  11. Red-Eyed and Blue
  12. I Got You (At the End of the Century)
  13. I'm a Wheel

Label : no label

Venue : Los Angeles Theatre, Los Angeles, California, USA

Recording Date : January 27, 2012

Quality : Soundboard recording (A+)

Review : Fantastic soundboard recording of Wilco's show at The Los Angeles Theatre in 2012.

Concert Review (The Orange County Register) : I took my father to his first Wilco show Friday night, at the Los Angeles Theater in downtown L.A. - a rarely used, gorgeous edifice of a time gone by, with gold-tipped floral ceilings, a majestic staircase and dangling chandeliers in the opulent lobby, giving way to a wide-beamed theater space, massively tall and regal. It's the kind of place that frankly just isn't built any more, anywhere. I took my dad not just because I thought he'd like the show, but because, in our family, the Los Angeles Theater holds a certain amount of history: my great grandfather, S. Charles Lee, designed the place, and I've been hearing about it since I was a kid. His legacy is now matriarchal, but my mother's not much of a music fan; my dad, on the other hand, introduced me to the Who and the Police and Bruce Springsteen. That end of the family is where music (rather than architecture) comes from, so it wasn't a surprise that - after meeting about 15 friends and acquaintances in the lobby before the show, all of whom asked, nearly in disbelief, if it was really my father's first show - he turned to me and said: "It seems to me like Wilco are the new Phish!" Not quite, but they're getting close. Like that legendary jam band, Wilco's setlists are becoming increasingly unpredictable, and their fans - many of whom went to many or maybe all of their four SoCal shows this past week (and will likely trek to Santa Barbara's Arlington Theatre to see them again on Feb. 10) - hang on every note, with every twist duly noted and applauded. So when they opened this final show of the local run with the slow-burning "Less Than You Think," which meanders into a gorgeous white-noise collage at its climax, the audience was along for a slow start to the ride. When "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" was transformed from a krautrock smash-along into an acoustic pontification, hinting at the end that the band was ready to make it explode without actually getting there, people went nutso. And when unhinged superhero guitarist Nels Cline unleashed during "Impossible Germany," each ecstatically expressed, quick-hit guitar burst was acknowledged with gasps and adoration. Even if, like my father, you'd never seen Wilco before, this was clearly a remarkable show for a remarkable venue. But longtime fans gained the most from a nearly nonstop barrage of the band's most upbeat, dance-happy songs - once they'd decided to stand up. "It's like red state/blue state out there," frontman Jeff Tweedy exclaimed, describing the audience as having a two-sided debate about whether to sit or stand. Staples and personal favorites came one after another: the pseudo-single "Can't Stand It," the talent-hungry speculation of "The Late Greats," the nostalgia-driven "Heavy Metal Drummer," the rifftacular "Dawned on Me," a thumping "Shot In the Arm." It was a one-two-three-four-five attack to close the main set, which, with this sort of band, meant the encore began with the plaintive, soft-spoken "Reservations," a true testament to their nearly unparalelled range. As I watched the lights coalesce on the ceiling of this old, gorgeous building, I started thinking - kind of seriously - about seeing them again Saturday night in San Jose. Clearly, it would have been special, no matter how few songs wound up being different. With this band right now, every night is unique.