{"id":41239,"date":"2008-11-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/kicking-television-live-in-chicago\/"},"modified":"2008-11-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-27T00:00:00","slug":"kicking-television-live-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/kicking-television-live-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Kicking Television: Live In Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard not to classify Wilco as America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s Radiohead. Both bands started out doing relatively straightforward rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Both released one absolutely killer album that beautifully melded straightforward rock with hints of greatness of things to come (Wilco with Summerteeth<\/i>, Radiohead with The Bends<\/i>). Both followed these albums with a universally lauded masterpiece. And then each band, \u201cwent off the deep end\u201d to a segment of their fans because of their embrace<\/st1:personname> of either electronica or abstract melodies. Finally, both bands proved to naysayers that their more experimental works would work just fine in live settings, despite the rather cold way they may sound on your headphones. <\/p>\n

With 2004\u2019s A Ghost Is Born<\/i>, Wilco definitely challenged listeners. A vast majority of the album was down-tempo. For their most rocking song, \u201cSpiders (Kidsmoke),\u201d listeners had to wade through a dizzying ten-minutes of fuzz and violent musical shifts. And the band came dangerously close to \u201cRevolution #9\u201d territory with \u201cLess Than You Think,\u201d a song Tweedy said was partially written as a simulation of a migraine. Let me state that again: he tried to give his audience a taste of what it feels like to have a migraine with one of the songs on A Ghost is Born<\/i>. <\/p>\n

This album took a long time to grow on me. But after seeing the band live, all of the weirdness, experimentation, and subtleness of suddenly made perfect sense. One of the reasons why was because of the addition of guitarist Nels Cline. Few recent albums have benefited from a live setting as much as A Ghost Is Born <\/i>does. That is one reason Wilco\u2019s double-disc live album, Kicking Television: Live In Chicago<\/i> works so well. True, it is indulgent (what double-disc live album isn\u2019t?), but it\u2019s as essential as Wilco\u2019s best in-studio albums. <\/p>\n

The disc was recorded over four days at the Vic<\/st1:placename> Theatre<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> in the band\u2019s home turf of Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. It\u2019s heavy on the band\u2019s then-most recent albums (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot<\/i>, A Ghost Is Born<\/i>) and the sound is amazing. Tweedy\u2019s voice is warm and inviting, but the real grabber of this album is Cline\u2019s ferocious guitar work and Glenn Kotche\u2019s masterful percussion. <\/p>\n

A few old favorites make their way onto Kicking Television<\/i>. Old-school Wilco fans, possibly alienated at the\u00a0 band\u2019s new direction, get a great compliment here in that the opener of the show is the leadoff track (\u201cMisunderstood\u201d) from their second album, Being There<\/i>. Two songs from the Mermaid Avenue<\/i><\/st1:address><\/st1:street> album are included and \u201cKicking Television,\u201d the closer of A Ghost Is Born<\/i>, is a riotous rocker. <\/p>\n

Like most live albums, Kicking Television<\/i> has a bit of crowd banter thrown in. Normally, this can be annoying, but few artists do banter as well as Tweedy. Listeners can faintly hear a fan saying they came from Kansas City<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> at the end of \u201cHell Is Chrome.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for coming from Kansas City<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>,\u201d Tweedy says. \u201cNow be quiet.\u201d He isn\u2019t finished though. He politely razzes the fan by saying, \u201cHow dignified is it to come from Kansas City<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to see Wilco?\u201d <\/p>\n

Tweedy also jokes about the band\u2019s new direction. \u201cLet\u2019s get this party started!…with some midtempo rock and roll!\u201d <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going by quality, the first disc has far more scratches than the second. Disc one has a more balanced ratio of straightforward rock and midtempo subtleness. But disc two is worth a spin just for the amazing live version of \u201cSpiders (Kidsmoke).\u201d Tweedy and Cline trade riffs with the intensity of a pro tennis match with Kotche and bassist John Stirratt not missing a beat. <\/p>\n

2005 also saw the release of another double-disc live album from another artist that is known for using elements of country in their music and challenging fans. And like Wilco, Lucinda Williams\u2019 Live At The Fillmore<\/i> was a validation that the newer material that may have confounded fans could easily stand beside the more popular (read: older) material. Four discs of live material may seem like a lot to digest in one year, but both Live At The Fillmore<\/i> and Kicking Television<\/i> were great albums that went beyond the \u201cfor fans only\u201d tag that is usually attached to live albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7036],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41239","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-wilco","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41239"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}