If Wilco has clearly transcended its origins as an alternative country band, that's probably due in no small part to the fact that the band that took the stage at the Wang Center on Friday night is fundamentally different from the one that released "A.M." almost a decade ago. For all the gnashing of teeth that accompanied guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennetts ouster during the "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" sessions, it was simply business as usual for a band that has featured a different lineup for each of their five albums, with bandleader Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt as the only constants.
Wilco gives `Ghost' show some spirit
Friday's show continued a related trend, with a different lineup promoting the record on tour than the one that actually recorded it. Pat Sansone, from Stirratt's side project the Autumn Defense, sat in for now-departed keyboardist Leroy Bach, with Nels Cline picking up extra guitar duties. They were faced with the unenviable task of turning Wilco's latest album, the abstruse and largely dynamic-free "A Ghost Is Born," into viable concert material.
They largely succeeded but ironically also kept many of the songs earthbound by hewing closely to the album versions. There were times when Wilco seemed to be playing the arrangements more than the songs, with "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" featuring the same preprogrammed extended noise intro as on the album and "Poor Places" reaching its climax by using the same trick. Some of the performances seemed a little perfunctory as a result, with "Handshake Drugs" coming off as low-key even amidst three frenzied guitars soloing at once.
There were still plenty of signs of life, though, and a number of them sprung promisingly from "Ghost" numbers. The Neil Young-ish electric guitars that drove the second half of "At Least That's What You Said" seemed to bring out the Tweedy of old, a guy who appeared to be controlled by the music rather than the other way around, while "Hell Is Chrome" came off like a slow '70s soul number. The electric groove of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," strengthened by the live setting, brought the first set to a blazing conclusion, with terrific guitar interplay between Tweedy and Cline that turned the song into a post-rock "Marquee Moon."
Despite a few ultramodern squiggles injected into their spirited art-punk, openers the Fiery Furnaces seemed as if they would have been more at home on the stage of a cramped LA club circa 1980. Lead singer Eleanor Friedberger came off like an unperturbable cross between Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, and Debbie Harry, while it was clear that drummer Andy Knowles has studied his Keith Moon videos. Anybody who wasn't watching him missed quite a show.
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