Exactly what do you want me to be?

I went to see Wilco perform this past Saturday at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. I've never seen them perform live before, but have heard good things about their shows. In any event, I went in with medium expectations. I forgot how much fun it is to see a show at the Greek. I saw Jack Johnson there in 2002 on a sunny late-October Sunday afternoon and haven't been back since. It's a super old outdoor amphitheater nestled up in the hills of Cal's campus. Wilco didn't go on until about 8:15pm, so we were treated to a great sunset which gave way to a clear night sky filled with tons of stars and a little sliver of the moon. Vintage Bay Area night. Jeff Tweedy was an incredibly engaging frontman. It's rare these days - at least in my experience - that bands have anything to say to the crowd apart from the generic "It's great to be back in San Francisco" and "I'd like to introduce the band". Tweedy was pretty damn comical and had some great observations about the crowd, the area and so forth. He was commenting on how Berkeley hippies aren't as friendly as they once were. Him and his wife were walking on Telegraph Ave. before the show and the first hippie they saw had a sign around his neck that read, "Fuck you, give me a dollar!". Yep, that's Berkeley for you these days, I guess. Classy bastion of liberalism at its finest. Anyhow, back to the action. The band played a lonnng show. 2.5 hrs, I think, including 2 lengthy encores climaxing with the crowd favorite "Heavy Metal Drummer". Here's a link to that evening's set list. They sounded really, really tight. Probably one of those nights where they could do no wrong ... or perhaps the fact that they've been playing together for years :) While the range that they exhibit appears to be an amalgamation of that of several bands, the overall music that they generate is still incredibly unique and exciting. Simply put, it was just a great rock n' roll show. (Btw, big ups to the "driver" for getting us home in one piece. Aww yeah!)