I Am Trying To Break Your Heart...

Wilco
Greek Theatre
Berkeley, CA
August 24, 2007

Setlist:
Sunken Treasure
You Are My Face
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart*
Either Way
Handshake Drugs
Pot Kettle Black
War On War
Shake It Off*
Side With The Seeds
A Shot In The Arm
Impossible Germany*
Sky Blue Sky
Too Far Apart
Via Chicago
Jesus, etc.*
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm The Man Who Loves You*

Encore 1:
Misunderstood*
California Stars*
Hummingbird*
On and On and On

Encore 2:
I'm Always In Love*
Outtasite (Outta Mind)*
In A Future Age
Spiders (Kidsmoke)*

I loves me some Wilco (sorry Jeff, but it's true...) and last Friday night, eight thousand souls here in Berkeley couldn't agree more, even if Mr. Tweedy told me not to ever say that under any circumstances. But after watching this show (from the second row, stage left) I can't help saying it over and over. I loves me some Wilco.

I loves me some Nels Cline guitar solos, also. During Wilco's newer tunes Nels' prowess was fully unmasked, I don't know how this guy doesn't break strings (or explode his own head!). Not to take away from Wilco's older stuff, I became a fan of Wilco rather late in the game, sometime right before Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and I guess you can factor in my love for both Americana and Prog-Rock. And with the recent addition of Nels Cline, Wilco is free to get proggier and noisier. Which are both good things...

Anyway; let me reiterate that The Greek is the best venue, music-wise, I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing shows at. Now the ink in the gin so to speak (or doublespeak, thank you George Orwell's 1984) is the "line" situation: only two bathrooms? Only two beer lines? Uh, be prepared to wait. Then I can wait some more, causing me to miss the first two verses of Sunken Treasure. No kudos to the architects of The Greek.

Then again, it was built in 1903 and has withstood countless earthquakes and the infamous 1922 Berkeley Hills fire. Okay, a half a kudo. Jerks...

Highlights:
-The new songs are very lovely, I was impressed with how well they go over live, being that I think most of the new album is stripped down compared to both A Ghost Is Born and their magnum opus YHF.

-Jeff imploring the crowd that "it's okay to sing along to this one..." and playing a rousing rendition (I always wanted to say that!) of Jesus, etc.

-Actually, all of Jeff's banter was both incisive and witty. Telling the crowd "you guys smell high" but warning us that "we had a long way to go to beat Portland". Later on he passed the torch (metaphorically speaking) to the Berkeley crowd.

-An 8-song double encore? It was basically like a second set of greatest hits. I kept hoping they'd play all night, but they have many more gigs after this one, so...

-During the extended middle part of Spiders, Jeff made us clap in unison, keeping the beat going for a good minute until they came back in to end the song. He also told us how the Belgians were the best at this.

-I could be a douche and say, "well, they didn't play some of my favorites, like Kingpin, Heavy Metal Drummer, or Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again), but it was still an awesome show nonetheless." Wait, I guess I did just say that...

Obligatory crappy cell phone pics: