Wilco

At LiveCity Yaletown on Saturday, February 13

As fantastically cinematic as the setting was, Yaletown’s LiveCity site initially looked like the last place that long-time fans would want to see Wilco.

That’s no knock on Vancouver’s newest—albeit temporary—concert venue. On Saturday, the vibe couldn’t have been more brilliant, and not just because everyone in the downtown core seemed primed to party.

What’s cool about LiveCity Yaletown is that it seems like something straight out of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, this effect heightened by the steady buzz of air traffic overhead; mammoth, omnipresent television screens; towering glass high-rises on all sides; and old-Hollywood klieg lights.

But it was the nonstop rain that really made the picture complete. If you closed your eyes—or, actually, if you kept them open and soaked it all up—it was more than a little like Scott’s vision of how Los Angeles is supposed to look circa 2019. All that was missing was Daryl Hannah, Harrison Ford, and flying cop cars.

There was a time—say, around 1996’s Being There—when Wilco would have seemed entirely out of place in such a setting. Back then, Jeff Tweedy’s post–Uncle Tupelo project was basically an Americana-tinted rock band, one that played it straight-up enough for the frat boys, yet rootsy enough for No Depression subscribers. Forget futuristic stages in the middle of modern cities: Wilco was the kind of band best experienced in a more down-home setting. Like, say, Vancouver’s long-gone and much-missed Town Pump.

Based on Saturday’s often-transcendent performance, that’s all changed.

For those who’ve followed the group since the start, Wilco stopped mattering right when the rest of the world discovered the band, namely 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Hands up if you know the words to every song on A.M. and Summerteeth, but can’t name even a single track off Sky Blue Sky or last year’s Wilco (The Album)?

On this night, Tweedy and company disappointed fans hoping to hear “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” but made up for it with a forward-thinking, sprawling hour-and-a-half set with something for everyone. Making the trek to Bonnaroo on the list of things to do before you die? Then here’s betting you were one of the many who chose to fire up a bomber during the loose-limbed “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”.

Own six pairs of Tony Lamas, a black Stetson, and a pickup truck with a Don’t Mess With Texas bumper sticker? The roadhouse-ready, retro honky-tonker “Hate It Here” no doubt had you wishing you’d smuggled in that bottle of Jack. Still in mourning—all these years later—over the early and untimely death of Uncle Tupelo? The rough-hewn alt-country of “A Shot in the Arm” should have made you feel better, if only for three minutes.

From the golden Laurel Canyon jam “California Stars” to a feedback-splattered noise-rock reading of “Misunderstood”, the goodness never stopped.

Because Wilco is indisputably his band—and his alone—Tweedy was technically the main attraction. Visually he was captivating enough, if only because the ski-jacket-clad singer was rocking a look that was a cross between a Main Street baby-beardo and a Downtown Eastside dumpster diver. Even if he’s still not going to make anyone forget Iggy Pop as far as putting on a show, Tweedy has evolved into an engaging frontman; his between-songs banter covered everything from the torrential downpour to his Olympic plans for the next two weeks. Hell, he even invited himself to dinner, promising to visit the houses of everyone in the audience.

The unofficial star of the show, though, was six-string wizard Nels Cline, who put on a display that was nothing short of jaw-dropping. One of the most technically accomplished and relentlessly inventive players ever to come out of the American underground, the former Geraldine Fibbers guitarist was given free rein to work his magic. And that’s exactly what he did, whether he was turning the lap steel into a weapon of mass destruction for “Walken” or setting his effects pedals for overdrive on, well, every song in the set.

Cline’s work was so epic, it lifted Wilco to a level no one would have thought possible back in the Being There years. How great was he? Let’s just say that he made a good show as great as the setting it took place in.

And if you’ve seen Blade Runner, you know that’s saying something.