Wilco came nearly full circle Thursday at the first of its three-show stand at Riviera Theatre. With one exception, the Chicago-based band ignored all the material it made after the release of “A Ghost Is Born” (2004) and before “Cruel Country” (2022). Promising not to repeat any songs over the course of the residency, Wilco crafted a two-hour set largely steeped in the country strains that both inform its earliest works and fuel the latter album, its finest effort in 15 years. All that seemed missing were the Nudie suits the band wore at Lollapalooza in 2008.
It’s been a minute since Wilco played newer music that stood up with its strongest fare and earned its place on future tours. During the past decade, the sextet — which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year — has followed a pattern familiar to many bands of its vintage: longer gaps between albums and more attention shifted to the road.
The group performed a total of 103 concerts during 2021-22, including a trio of gigs last April at the Auditorium Theatre dedicated to the 20th anniversary of its seminal “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” album. Several months later, it staged three surprise shows at the beloved local dive bar, Carol’s Pub, to commemorate the release of “Cruel Country.” The current residency commences a spring U.S. tour scheduled to be followed by a European jaunt in the summer. In December, Wilco will host another Sky Blue Sky “concert vacation” in Mexico.
Though Wilco’s studio output has slowed, a few members continue to explore related pursuits. In addition to producing albums for fellow Chicagoan Mavis Staples, singer-guitarist Jeff Tweedy has authored two books (a third arrives this fall) and released four solo records. Guitarist Nels Cline keeps adding to his lengthy resume via avant-garde and jazz excursions. The extracurricular activities have served them well.
Cline’s versatile lines augmented and added new dimensions to a host of songs, particularly those Wilco created before Cline joined in 2004. Switching between electric, slide and pedal-steel guitars, the lanky musician exhibited a brilliant combination of finesse, control, force and concision. His notes and solos didn’t merely fill spaces or bridge verses, they illustrated images and actions cited in lyrics. A car navigating the headaches of city traffic and scraping against guardrails in a rush to reach a destination (“Handshake Drugs”); a nimble, soft echo that floated in the air before starting to decay (“Hummingbird”); noisy, wind-tunnel transmissions that evoked the thrust of a jet engine and conveyed the turbulence of a fresh breakup (“Cars Can’t Escape”).
Not that Cline needed to shoulder any load alone. This was Wilco reinvigorated, a group whose chemistry loomed larger than the contributions of any individual, a band that approached a majority of songs as pieces of clay that could be remolded. Tweedy and Co. weren’t content to just revisit older favorites such as the gooey “I Must Be High” or dour “How to Fight Loneliness,” they took the opportunity to lean into the angles of chord changes and search for possible trap doors in arrangements.
The excursions almost proved too much on “Theologians.” After unraveling and coming to a halt, a failed initial attempt forced Wilco to discuss the proper key before trying again and completing the song, warts and all. It proved an outlier on an evening where the band sounded steady and focused. Drummer Glenn Kotche kept time and supplied texture with all manner of percussive clangs, rings, stomps and shakes; pianist-keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone bathed some passages in warm soul and threw ominous shade on others. Low-key bassist John Stirratt — a constant presence at Tweedy’s side since Wilco’s genesis — established sturdy rhythmic foundations.
Amid his clever banter with the sold-out crowd, which included the presentation of a trophy to a “best-behaved” concertgoer, the ever-affable Tweedy never mentioned that the band drafted the set list around a specific theme. Still, it was impossible to ignore the country trappings of both unhurried and up-tempo songs, and how Wilco used rustic styles to address issues of identity, communication, despair, death and affection — subjects tied to the genre for roughly a century.
Singing in a slightly weary but resilient voice notched with nasal tones, Tweedy dispensed wit and wisdom (“I Am My Mother”), mixed pride and disgust (“Cruel Country”), and expressed sadness and humor, occasionally in the same tune (“Forget the Flowers”). His flinty acoustic guitar served as an encampment around which his mates’ instruments circled. Wilco turned up the twang, latched onto the high lonesome sound and played up tension with simple structures that said more with less. Hushed renditions of “She’s a Jar” and “Pot Kettle Black” were invitations to listen in on private conversations.
Even on the few occasions Wilco allowed itself to drift — the liquid jam at the heart of “Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull,” the pulsing atmospheric coda to “Less Than You Think” — the band never lost sight of its rootsy core. That approach made the encore feel like a huge release, with the group going full-bore power-pop on explosive selections that hearkened back to a far more innocent era where concerns were limited to obsessive romances and cutting class.
“When we came here today, we all felt something true,” sang Tweedy on “Red-Eyed and Blue.” More apt words have seldom been uttered on the Riviera stage.
Through March 26 at the Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine Ave.; tickets $65-$125 (ages 18+) at jamusa.com
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.
Set list from the Riviera Theatre in Chicago March 23
“Less Than You Think”
“I Am My Mother”
“Cruel Country”
“Handshake Drugs”
“Say You Miss Me”
“I Must Be High”
“Hummingbird”
“Cars Can’t Escape”
“Love Is Everywhere (Beware)”
“Pot Kettle Black”
“Bird Without a Tail / Base of My Skull”
“She’s a Jar”
“Forget the Flowers”
“Theologians”
“Ashes of American Flags”
“The Lonely 1?
“How to Fight Loneliness”
“A Lifetime to Find”
“California Stars”
Encore
“I’m Always in Love”
“Red-Eyed and Blue”
“I Got You (At the End of the Century)”
“Monday”
