In recent months since scoring concert tickets I've been boning up on Wilco - Googling "Best Wilco Album" and finding most people agree on 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (Sneer ye longtime-fans at this Johnny-come-lately).
My favourite track from that album - I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - didn't appear on the setlist they'd posted on Tumblr from Wellington the previous night.
Not realising the extent the band change up their set list on tour I wasn't expecting to hear the song - but it made a noisy entrance just three songs in followed by one of the most intriguing opening lines in music: "I am an American aquarium drinker, I assassin down the avenue ...".
In fact, most of the album's highlights made an appearance - notable exceptions being the Beatlesque I'm the Man Who Loves You and War on War.
But this wasn't a YHF tour and tbh I was happy to hear a whole lot of tracks from The Whole Love, which in a few short days has become my favourite Wilco album.
This is due, in great part, to the cheerful track Born Alone - which starts out all Flying Nun gloriousness and rocks out at the finish - making for a great live show.
As did Sky Blue Sky's Impossible Germany, its opening bars prompting a huge response from the audience. The reason isn't immediately clear unless you're familiar with the brilliant back half of the song. Lead guitarist Nels Cline ran amok at every opportunity - his fingers blazing over the fretboard at frenetic pace. His performance on Impossible Germany was amazing.
Cline's wasn't the only standout performance: alongside a rock-solid innings from bassist John Stirratt and Jeff Tweedy's superb and cheery fronting of the whole affair, drummer Glenn Kotche was a powerhouse.
One of the night's most memorable moments was the bizarre Via Chicago, in which Tweedy and Stirratt continue to sing a beautiful song, seemingly oblivious to the thunderous maelstrom that sounds like an air raid coming from the drumkit injected into the song at various points and lasting mere moments.
The set could have done without Hummingbird, but the tracks from Wilco's first album, 1995's A.M. were welcome.
The intimate venue - big enough to rock out, small enough you can see the whites of Jeff's eyes and the smoke coming from Nels' fingers - was a bonus.
The night had kicked off with Mavis Staples, whose soul/gospel numbers warmed up the crowd fittingly, considering what was to come was a heavenly experience.
Both acts combined for the closing number - a cover of The Band's The Weight (turns were had at vocals and a big cheer went up when Stirratt claimed a verse).
Like the character in that song Wilco had, with this Auckland gig, come to the end of a long journey, as they wound up their Southern Hemisphere tour.
And even though they played a mammoth 21-song set - it all seemed to come to an end far too quickly.
- Kim Gillespie
Auckland Town Hall: April 6, 2013:
Art of Almost
I Might
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
One Wing
Via Chicago
Spiders (Kidsmoke)
Impossible Germany
Born Alone
At Least That's What You Said
Sky Blue Sky
Handshake Drugs
Shouldn't Be Ashamed
Hummingbird
Jesus, Etc.
Whole Love
Box Full of Letters
Dawned on Me
Heavy Metal Drummer
A Shot in the Arm
Encore:
California Stars
The Weight
