Over and out...

A double dose of the Chicagoan alt country genius of Wilco this week. Firstly at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Sunday followed by a visit to the Later With Jools studios last night to see the programme being made. Sunday's show was simply mind-bogglingly good. I've rambled on before about how much I love this current line-up with free-jazz geetar wrangler Nels Cline (unbelievably tall) and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (unbelievably pretty) but even their awesome Kicking Television album didn't really prepare me for the intensity of it all. This is a band at the top of their game - having toured their asses off for the last two years.
Cline comes across as a kindly older brother to Jeff Tweedy, goading him on to wreak sonic mayhem. It's a lovely thing to watch. VCDH sez that the new twin/triple guitar attack reminds him of Steely Dan. What better compliment could you pay?
Tweedy was strangely truculent for the first half, but he was just messing with the crowd. London crowds do have a real reputation for being difficult to please, apparently.
Other highlights were the guest appearance (the first in over 30 years) of the legendary Bill Fay for the last number, and a special mention to Glen Kotche who's a really fine drummer who can go from soft to bombastic in the blink of an eye. But top marks all round for the simple fact that the sound was possibly the best I've ever heard at a full-on rock gig. One minute you were bathing in the aural assault of "Via Chicago', the next getting up close and cozxy on "Sky Blue Sky". Quite a trick...
For Later...the band played it down and were obviously tired, bless 'em. Other guests were the totally self-obsessed Bloc Party who would be a truly great band if they lost their hopeless lead singer, and LCD Soundsystem who, despite my utter hatred of their faux-80s disco/punk nonsense, kinda won me over because James Murphy is a total non-star and obviously quite a nice chap.
Jools Holland though did nothing to increase his standing at Garuda Towers. After a billion years 'presenting' live music shows you'd think he'd have improved his interview technique a little. But no. His 'chat' with Alex james was unbelievably awful. But what can you expect from the man who once interviewed Andy Summers and, after being told that Summers liked Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, said: 'so what about Jazz? Do you like any jazz musicians?' Moron...