Jul
2
2006
Handshake Drugs
Went to see Wilco last week at The Jube and WOW. What an amazing live band. Not ones to simply cover their own material, they are truly interpreters of their work. A truly unclassifiable band, Wilco veered from country slantings to Neil Young-esque guitar feedback with nary a blink. They were deafening one minute and gently sublime the next. A true delight for any serious rock and roll fan.
At one point in the show, frontman Jeff Tweedy urged the audience to engage in that timeless rock and roll behaviour: screaming on command. As a guy who has attended hundreds of rock concerts, I've done my share of screaming on command. Tweedy referred to the act as "tradition". For some reason, I never thought of the rock and roll scream/sing-along as a tradition. Can rock and roll, a musical form barely a half-century old, have real traditions?
I don't know if it can, but it felt right to scream when commanded to. It put everyone on the same page. At that moment, we were experiencing a great rock and roll show as one mass. I don't know if that's important or just pretentious babble, but it felt good to be amongst other lovers of rock and roll, feeling the vibe.
Thanks, Tweedy and company, for putting on one helluva rock show.
