Jimmy Buffet - ha, ha
Wilco performance lacks passion
By John Lovell / Managing Editor
Published: Monday, February 21, 2005
The moment I stepped out of my car, I couldn't help but think I had mistaken the Wilco concert I had driven to for the Jimmy Buffett show later that weekend. Fat, middle-aged men flashed me drunk, dirty looks while tail-gating at the back of their SUVs with coolers of cheap beer - I couldn't resist pointing out the stereotype. I was struck with more disbelief as I watched an older crowd outnumber the younger one.
When Jeff Tweedy and company finally took the stage and broke out into their first song, I started to think I really was at the Jimmy Buffett concert.
The tail-gaters were now sloppy; they were in the aisles yelling with all the might and power their beer bellies could muster. Some of them even wielded flaming lighters over their heads.
Where the hell was I?
I was at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater, and I like to say it's the place in South Florida where old bands go to die. When it's not being used for summer pop-punk festivals, it's where soggy '70s and '80s rock stars wash up.
How inappropriate for a band like Wilco, who has made quite a name for itself in the college music arena for several years now with the albums Summer Teeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (Let's just forget about A Ghost is Born.)
Tweedy knew exactly what I was thinking after he encouraged the crowd to rush the stage. He even made a comment about the Jimmy Buffett atmosphere - damn, I love it when I'm right!
The evening went on, and the band changed pace shortly after Tweedy invited the crowd to come closer. After a slow start, this was most welcome. I can't complain about the band's execution, which was just as crisp as its studio recordings. The song selection was a democratic mix of the greatest releases; it even included a couple of songs off the Mermaid Avenue Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie projects : "California Stars" and "Somebody Some Morning Sometime."
I have a rather large dilemma about the concert. All the songs were memorable, clean and well rehearsed. There was something amiss however, and I think it was Tweedy. I felt that the set was passionless and could have used more sincerity.
The bittersweet songs like "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" and "A Shot In the Arm" lacked the heartfelt melancholy I'm used to hearing on the albums. The same goes for the band's faster and harder rock tunes like "I Am the Man Who Loves You" and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," which is the only song worth listening to on A Ghost is Born.
I think they were afraid to be dangerous and ended up being too polite. As nice as it was to see a chummier, chattier, plumper Tweedy, I would have preferred a more aggressive approach to the show.
The finale was also rather uncharismatic. I would have been content walking away from the concert with some of their more endearing songs, like "How to Fight Loneliness" or "Ashes of American Flags" ringing in my ears. Instead, they encored with a few dull songs for which I could not have cared less.
I was a little disappointed, but it wasn't a terrible performance. Wilco should reevaluate itself and its attitude toward the music it plays live before the band ends up actually belonging in such a deplorable place as Pompano Beach.
