“summerteeth” & “spiders (kidsmoke)” – wilco

“Summerteeth” – Wilco (download)
“Spiders (Kidsmoke)” – Wilco (download)
recorded 19 February 2008, Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL

(files expire March 1st)

It was a pleasure to arrive home the past two nights to discover Wilco webcasting from Chicago. Their five-night stand at the Riviera, during which they attempted to play every song from their primary albums, seems to mark a new phase for the band. By forcing that many songs back into the repertoire, many of which were probably dropped initially for some practical reason, some quite necessarily were a bit looser than others, like “Summerteeth.” Where Wilco’s sets at least once played at stateliness, there is now a Dead-like comfort, especially taking into account the two-set format of the shows. It works both ways, though, and the nooks have never been more detailed, like the 10-minute Neu-groove of “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” in which the band pushes decidedly out from Glenn Kotche’s elastic/metronomic krautrock.