Wilco in Savannah

This show got off to an alarmingly slow start, for a lot of reasons. First, the Johnny Mercer Theatre is an awfully staid venue for a rock concert. Second, the Savannah Music Festival is not at all a rock-heavy programme, and the fact that Wilco was playing on it meant that something like a solid quarter of the audience (by my estimation) was elderly patrons and subscribers who were there as part of the Festival more than for the purpose of seeing Wilco. Literally the entire row in front of me was filled with such people. They never stood up, and cleared out pretty quickly, after only half-a-dozen songs at most. Then, the closest thing to an opening act was an elderly woman reading Savannah Music Festival committee announcements and thanking patrons. Ouch! I felt bad for the band through the first few songs--there seemed to be so little energy from the audience to feed off of. Then again, those songs were drawn from Wilco's most recent albums, which have earned the cringe-inducing characterization of "dad rock" for their bland, domesticated sound; which is to say, they wouldn't have peeled the paint off the walls in any case.

Fortunately, as the evening commenced, the oldsters went home to their warm milk while the rest of us warmed up and Wilco reached further and further back through their discography. The change of energy struck me hardest when they hit us with a double-shot of Summerteeth: "Via Chicago" immediately followed by a blistering "Shot in the Arm." At that point, it was nothing but real fans, on their feet and maximally receptive. (Also from that album, Tweedy broke out the harmonica for "She's a Jar," and they later did a raucous "Always in Love.")

This reviewer says he "never caught a whiff of the chronic" at the show (neither did I), but he must have been smoking something if he thinks "the setlist avoided overindulgence in the band's most well-known but perhaps weakest effort, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." Setting aside the ridiculous claim that YHF is even "perhaps" their "weakest effort," the setlist included:

• I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
• War on War
• Jesus, Etc.
• Ashes of American Flags
• Heavy Metal Drummer
• I'm the Man Who Loves You
• Pot Kettle Black
• and Poor Places.

(That's their order on the album, not the order they were played in; those of you who understand twitter can probably find a zillion tweeted setlists--I know the guy right next to me was doing that all night.) That's a pretty damn lot of YHF. I was glad, though, and didn't consider it an "overindulgence," because some of these are among my favorites of their songs.

My biggest disappointment was that they never got around to "Theologians," which, for some reason I can't put my finger on, actually does happen to be my favorite of their songs. Ultimately, though, I came away quite happy and satisfied with the evening. Once it got rolling, it turned into a whole lot of fun and awesome.