Wilco - The Release Party Show

The Whole Love was released on Tuesday, 27 September. iTunes promptly delivered it when I logged on in the morning. But I did not have the time to get my head around the record. One quick and distracted listening in the car was the best I could do on day one, and that doesn't begin to do this work justice. Once again Wilco goes on a sonic Easter egg hunt with this record and issues the kind of aural challenge that cannot be answered when one is in the car and on the phone. It is a record that demands your full attention. Sadly, when it comes to listening to music, the older I get, the lazier I get. So it just may be that The Whole Love won't achieve staple status in my cue over the next months.

But it sure made for a great Wilco show in Raleigh. Of course, I was fortunate. Thanks to pre-sale, I had a seat on the 3rd row just to Nels's right. Without question Wilco is all about Jeff, but Nels is a manic virtuoso and to be able to watch him so closely was … disturbing. It is easy to tune out the greater sonic world and get stuck in how'd-he-do-that mode. However, despite Nels's antics and their unfamiliarity, The Whole Love songs came across very well. The melodies are catchy and the atmospheres are beguiling. Not sure about the lyrics yet -- need a little time on that one. But from the opening with "Art Of Almost", the band's energy and joy sold every one of the new tunes, all 9 of them that were played.

However, the highlight of the show was "Impossible Germany". I admit I am severely prejudiced toward this song. Every version I've heard has been mesmerizing. Raleigh was no different. It launched a killer second half of the first set - "Say You Miss Me" into "Whole Love" into "Pot Kettle Black" into "Handshake Drugs". Of course, "Impossible" alone was worth the price of admission. But top to bottom, the set list was strong. Naysayers would point out that the Summerteeth, Ghost, Sky periods were underrepresented, but the highlights from each made the set. Honestly, who would drop "Red-Eyed And Blue" from AM to add another Ghost song. At this point the only problem with a Wilco set is that the canon is now too big to accommodate the traditional two-hour show. I come from the days of the 3:30 hour Springsteen shows. Wilco could now, at last, put the kibosh on the opener and do two full sets and still leave fans wishing they had played this-or-that.

But not on this leg of the tour. As an opening act, Nick Lowe is a pure treasure. In Brit-speak, he's bloody ridiculous. An old guy with hair gone white with mileage, black horn-rimmed glasses and a beautiful thump-plucked Gibson acoustic, Lowe strummed and sang through a catalog familiar pop tunes he has penned for himself and others. This is a man who once titled a record Jesus Of Cool and, all religion aside, the title just might have been warranted. The only letdown, if any, was that he included only one song from his new record, The Old Magic, which deserves much more attention. During Wilco's encore he returned for two additional numbers and proved that old guys can rock too. Not your prototypical old English dude, this Nick Lowe.

If you get the chance to catch this show, by all means offer a non-essential limb for a good seat. This music stuff is good for the soul.