Limitless truths

Live: Wilco

Big Cat, Osaka, Japan

In a  stunning performance which effortlessly blended post-rock stylings with experimental  alt.country-rock, Chicago’s celebrated alternative rockers last night played one of the greatest shows I’ve seen.

As he takes to the stage, band leader  Jeff Tweedy seems delighted to be in the company of a fiercely partisan audience.

The band cover the breadth of their impressive discography, including their greatest album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The soulful I Am Trying To Break Your Heart plumbs incredible depths of dissonance and expression, and their rendering of Impossible Germany is nothing short of transcendent.

There’s a quasi-religious atmosphere in the house as throughout the show the adoring crowd urge their heroes on to greater and greater feats of musical brilliance.

On the contemplative Jesus, Etc., Tweedy hands over vocal duties to the audience. Their emotive rendition is moving and heartfelt. I’m standing there thinking to myself, “This is why I love music.”

Even more impressive is the way Wilco take their rootsy rock into unexpected corners through the use of audacious experimentation.  Guitarist Nels Cline was recently voted one of rock's top players, and his approach to his instrument is unique and inspiring. One moment he's reeling off emotive lap steel solos, the next he’s assaulting our senses with a mesmerizing multiplicity of soaring sound effects. 

Drummer Glenn Kotche gets experimental, too. Solid and consistently musical, at one point he applies a delay effect to his high hat while at the same time running a pitch shifter on the tom toms. It adds yet another dizzy ingredient to the intoxicating brew.

Underpinning this diverse, beautiful playing is Jeff Tweedy’s superb songwriting. Alongside established classics like the hypnotic Handshake Drugs, there are impressive new numbers like Bull Black Nova, switching from edgy paranoia to tranquility before it ends in a psychotic explosion of fear and resignation.  Deeper Down goes through some astonishing transitions as its textures evolve and coalesce.

Such music - at once beautiful, ambiguous and disturbing - reminds us there are limitless truths to be  unveiled in the universal language that is music. You don’t need to be a Wilco fan to recognize that, just someone who recognizes the healing power of great art.