S. and I went to the Lakewood Civic Auditorium last night to see Wilco. This was the first time I saw Wilco and in the words of Jesse Ventura, "I'm impressed and I don't impress that easily, McMahon." This sorta kicked off the tour for Wilco, as they just got done playing a week of shows in their hometown of Chicago.

The Venue: The Lakewood Civic Auditorium is a pretty nice facility, seating about 2,000 and built next to the high school. I had not been there in years. I actually had my high school commencement there and I believe I saw a rendition of "Hamlet" there once. They do not serve alcohol. Wilco's frontman, Jeff Tweedy mentioned, "They don't serve alcohol here, do they? You guys look painfully alert."

Being a bit late seeing Wilco live, the audience has many devotees. There are people who know virtually every song. Let's not get carried away, this isn't like a Springsteen or U2, but it is noticeable.

Jeff Tweedy: The leader of Wilco surprised me on two fronts. His voice is really good live. Can do the rock screaming, sound real bluesy and I thought, channeled Van Morrison on their last number.

And, he's really funny. I have mentioned before that when the harmonica makes an appearance at a show, there is a a certain faction of the audience that goes crazy. Before one tune, Tweedy put that harmonica apparatus on and when he played, it happened again last night. After the song, Tweedy said, "I was wearing this around the school today. Then they put me in a special needs class."

Plus, they did not do the encore in the truest sense. Tweedy basically said they were gonna dispose of that, continue playing, and when they were done, hopefully you could beg or plead with them honestly to call them back. And the crowd did just that. Breaking the curfew in the process.

The Tickets: We were in the upper section (Section 2), maybe five rows from the top, but not a bad view at all. Actually quite good. Empty seats on either side provided the coveted coat chair. And being in the uppers there was no need to stand, so it was just sit back and enjoy the show.

The Sound: I dare say, this was the best sound at a concert I have heard in a long time. And with Wilco up there, you know the sound system is going to be tested for some unusual tones. Absolutely gorgeous sound.

The opening act was John Doe from X. Or "John F*cking Doe" as the t-shirt read. Unfortunately, we didn't see the beginning of his act. His band had three different members in the roles of Bonebrake, Zoom and Exene. We arrived four songs from the end of his act, in time to hear him say, "Don't forget to vote." And went into an awesome version of "The New World" which had a couple of verses of "Revolution" in it. Very cool.

The Stage: The setup was old school for Doe. Drummer with no riser and all four of them packed closely.

The setup for Wilco was fairly basic, Back row was drummer on a riser, flanked by two keyboards on either side at stage level. Up front were the three guitars with Tweedy in the middle, Nels Cline (who plays a mean slide, in addition to kickass electric guitar) on the left, John Stirratt on bass on the right.

Sparse lighting, nothing too obnoxious and the latter half of the show was played with normal lighting turned on.

The Music:: An unbelievable show. Wilco has this unusual ability to have you sucked into the melody of a song. Then, without any warning, you may end up careening into some of the harshest sounds you'll hear. Trust me, it works. And they played for at least two hours. Hands down, it was one of the best concerts I've seen.

Setlist:

I could not find one, although I know they played my favorite song "Heavy Metal Drummer".

All in all, it was great to see Wilco for the first time. I'll definitely look them up in the future and keep the Civic Auditorium in mind for future shows, as well.

The Plain Dealer review. You can hear them on NPR on Wednesday.

Meal of Links

After the CSU game, Jeff and I headed over to Bricco for some post-game chow. It's in the old Hickerson's space. They profess to be "upscale casual" as so many places claim these days. The space looks upscale, but the bar had NASCAR on, go figure. The bar area seemed to seat about 10-12 at the bar with a few other tables around. The dining area was pretty big and like most Downtown spaces, they are going to have to figure out how to maximize occupancy. At the very least,it offers more choices to Playhouse Square and CSU attendees. Not many people there around 8:30 on a Saturday, because the shows at Playhouse Square have already begun. The food was pretty good. Jeff liked the Garlic Bread and had Penne with Italian Sausage, and I had kind of a half meal. I had a half Mixed Greens Salad and a Blackened Chicken Pizza. Boxed up half for later consumption. Washed that down with a couple of Pacificos from a pretty good beer list with reasonable prices for imports. Those ran at $3.50. I liked it.

Bon Scott gets a bronze statue. Let's say, Cleveland decided to do this. Who would it be? Trent Reznor? Drew Carey (who, for one fleeting moment, I thought was the truck driver in that Serpentini ad)? Ghoulardi? I dunno, maybe no one.

Looks like "Flight of the Conchords" is a strike casualty and won't return until next year. So, I will occupy my summer of 2008 campaigning with Dave Grohl for President. I love smoky barbecues, too. Plus, he'll rock the fuckin' house, as he says.

Exercise Yard

















The ESPN Bracketbuster was tonight. My brother and I were in attendance to see CSU take on the Red Foxes of Marist. No, not the Redd Foxxes, but I was really hoping to see him as their logo. I swear they had Champipple instead of Gatorade on the bench.

Another one of those grind-it-out games. Both teams had a horrid first half on Senior Night. In the second half, Marist hung around by hitting the three ball at opportune times. CSU finally pulled away in the last 5 minutes and won, 59-44.

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