Wilco

Wilco

Kicking Television: Live in Chicago (Nonesuch)

There's no misunderstanding Jeff Tweedy. "I like to thank you all" – and here's where the shouting commences – "for nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! ..." Thirty-six nothings! Late in the first disc, the hangdog Wilco frontman passes up a chance to reprise the pounding opener "Misunderstood" in "I'm the Man Who Loves You," but then he's made his point. Tweedy's Kicking Television in spite of us, not for us. Soon, he's kicking Kansas City, which someone shouts from the audience. "Thanks for coming from Kansas City. Now be quiet. How dignified is it to come from Kansas City to Chicago to see Wilco?" The crowd cheers, of course. Wilco needs no rationalization. Nor does Ghost Is Born material "Handshake Drugs" and "Hell Is Chrome," which are noticeably more lucid than "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," on which Tweedy's blurred delivery sounds like it's pleasing the audience but not necessarily its author. A run of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot kicks disc two, an exquisite "Ashes of American Flags" and "Heavy Metal Drummer" up against the Allman Brothers-esque treatment of Woody Guthrie's "Airline to Heaven" and 11-minute guitar squeegee "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." Closing cover "Comment" bookends on a note of brotherhood. Thanks Jeff, for everything.