at Paramount Theater

Last night's performance by Wilco at the Paramount was just a few strokes short of phenomenal. And those few strokes, mind you, were negligible at best. The set had that bright, perfect, let-your-love-light-shine kind of feeling, coupled with a stunning amount of... well, shredding, really, is the only way to put it. Hella shredding, even! Lovelight and shredding, with lots of emphasis on the new album, select tracks from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and a perfect integration of the rest of the band's catalog. Lines like what was I thinking / when I said hello {I Am Trying To Break Your Heart}, with no larger problems / that need to be erased {Impossible Germany} and you love her / but you don't know why {Born Alone} were delivered with the intimacy and care as if they were being played for a few hundred close friends at a venue the size of Neumos. Connecting with a room the size of the Paramount is no small task, and Wilco seemed to pull this off effortlessly, much to the crowd's delight.

On top of all the sonic bliss, fans seated up in the balcony were able to take in the show the full view of the stage and the incredulous setup of hundreds of rag-covered lights that hung from the rafters, which reflected an aptly-displayed series of lights and images that changed with the songs during the set -- birds, mountaintops, digital dreamscapes, and open skies. It was reminscent of the thousand-lantern stage setup that Grizzly Bear had at the Moore a few years back, only better. Shreddier, even. And so beautifully Wilco-esque.

{Set list after the jump!}

more...

at WaMu Theatre

On a cool and desolate autumn evening last weekend, Seattle welcomed back Portishead for the first time in fourteen years, the season and the setting perfect for the murky UK act. Their most recent release, 2008’s minimal and stark Third, is already three years old -- this alone made the wait seem like a near eternity before remembering that I last saw the band a few months after I first moved to Seattle, in December of 1997 (and that performance at The Paramount left me thoroughly impressed.) With this in mind, even though over a decade had passed, I still had high expectations... and this time around the band was once again in top form. Time has not aged this group whatsoever, and I was left reeling from their outstanding performance the moment the lights were turned back on in the theater.

more...