"This world of words and meanings makes you feel outside something that you feel already deep inside." *

Wilco was incredible.

We were in the fifth row – I could pretend the whole time that Jeff was looking at ME. In fact, when he scolded a woman in the third row for sitting down, and she retorted, “I’m PREGNANT,” most of the other people we knew at the show, who weren’t actually sitting with us, thought he was talking to me.

He played a two-and-a-half-hour set, a nice mix of all his stuff, including big hits, and most of the new album.

Highlights for me: “On and On and On,” “Impossible Germany,” “Hate It Here,” and “Heavy Metal Drummer.”
He did not play “California Stars;” he DID play “Kidsmoke,” which is the only Wilco song I actively dislike. Oh well.

Jeff’s put on a bit of weight, and was dressed in his usual frumpy attire complete with hat, and resembled no one so much as Bilbo Baggins. But he was in a very good mood, and his guitar players were awesome (is Pat Sansone like what? Twelve? Thirteen?), and my God, he played for TWO AND A HALF HOURS.

After the show, everyone else was heading out for more drinks; I could not have kept up with these people when I was in prime drinking trim (college), let alone now. But we are old and boring, so H and I headed home, for a cup of tea, an apricot hamantaschen, and a chapter of Maisie Dobbs (for me) and Terry Pratchett (for him).

What a great night.


*
"On and On and On," Wilco, from Sky Blue Sky