Wilco at the Royal Festival Hall

Wilco
Philip Selway
Royal Festival Hall, 14 September 2010
Surprisingly, given Radiohead’s status as one of the biggest and best bands in the world today, when I arrive at the Festival Hall in time to see support act Philip Selway (aka Radiohead’s drummer), there are a worrying amount of empty seats. Maybe it’s because the shows here start early at 7.30pm on the dot and the bar is outside the theatre in the foyer or that Phil Selway isn’t exactly the most famous name in Radiohead (I tend to subscribe to the booze theory though), but for whatever reason those folks who only turned up to see Wilco definitely missed out.
Selway, whose looks and manner remind me of Brian Eno (not just due to his similarly bald head), arrives on stage looking very teacher-like with a backing band, made up of two guys and two girls, all dressed in white. They launch into the lead and most Radiohead-like (in their mellow moments) track from the album, By Some Miracle. There’s no doubting his band are great and there’s moments when the music reminds me of one of the Wilco side project bands, The Autumn Defense featuring Wilco members Pat Sansone and John Stirratt, so it’s no surprise when Selway tells us that Sansone worked on the album with him (along with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche). Selway is also cheerful and friendly with the audience, clearly relishing being in front of the band for once, grinning when he gets a wolf whistle for taking off his jacket and sharing some stories behind the songs. One, The Witching Hour, was apparently inspired by a stag night camping trip with Jonny Greenwood. The best moment of the night though was the closing song which saw Selway take pair of drumsticks and add a beat, then each member of the band joining him and the drummer around the drumkit, producing a fantastic tribal drum sound that increasingly overpowered the music until it was just rhythm in a hugely effective way.
Even though I’ve seen them many times now, apart from the Jeff Tweedy solo show last month, I’ve never been to a seated Wilco show and from the moment they take the stage it all feels quite odd. This is because Wilco really do rock out in concert, they’re not low key and countrified when you see them live, they are a proper rock band, with loud guitars, distortion, feedback and all the trimmings. So while the Royal Festival Hall is one of my favourite London venues I’ve only ever seen acoustic acts play here before and to see a three-guitar based band burst out with the upbeat, power pop of Wilco (The Song) admittedly feels strange. The matter isn’t helped by an audience who seem a little too comfortable in their seats: I actually see heads on shoulders, people leaning back with crossed arms and little movement at all. In fact, like the Dylan show at the O2 last year, a lot of the crowd seem more interested in keeping their beer supply topped up with many around me actually disappearing for several songs at a time in order to go to the bar in the foyer and bring back drinks for themselves and their mates. It’s both disruptive (particularly since we’re sitting) and slightly disappointing. The band, at first, seem oblivious to this, and carry on rocking with a pretty typical set to begin with, running through all the faves: You Are My Face, Via Chicago, Handshake Drugs, War On War, Impossible Germany, California Stars as well as newer songs such as One Wing, I’ll Fight and Black Bull Nova, which as good as it is, disappointingly seems to have taken the place of the similar but superior Spiders (Kidsmoke).
I realise having seen them play so much in the last few years I’m at the disadvantage of having seen some of these songs too many times live, so they aren’t as fresh and exciting to me as to some of the crowd, but thankfully there are a few nice surprises in the set too: How To Fight Loneliness from Summerteeth, Laminated Cat from Tweedy’s side project Loose Fur and the Mermaid Avenue Vol II song, Someday, Some Morning, Sometime (which sees a mass exodus for beer for some reason), which actually sounds great. Amusingly at the end of the song Tweedy breaks a guitar string and has to end the song early but once a new, fully stringed guitar is put back in his hands, re-starts the ending for the sake of the bootleggers out there, he jokes.
All this was nice, enjoyable stuff, but perhaps sensing the lack of atmosphere and energy in the place (and how disturbing it is when you can see every single person going in and out), Tweedy urges and then laughingly orders us all to stand up, which I admit I do reluctantly fearing I wouldn’t be able to see as well. And it’s true that suddenly I was looking over the shoulders of the tall people in front of me but the concert also bucked up tremendously once people were on their feet and moving around. And in reward the band treated us with the best moments of the night with a handful of the best pop songs from Summerteeth and Being There, including I’m Always In Love, I Got You (The End Of The Century) and A Shot In The Arm. There’s also a rare outing (for me at least, I’ve never heard them perform it live anyway) of Red-Eyed And Blue.
The encore was less celebratory for me, aside from a building Misunderstood, coming off like a best of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, ending with Heavy Metal Drummer and I’m The Man Who Loves You. The band looks like they are enjoying themselves and I can’t deny musically they are flawless but there’s a definitive lack of tension and edge to this show, it feels too light-hearted and friendly. There was a time Tweedy was said to have hated the lippy London audiences and would often response with angry renditions of their songs, attitude-filled come-backs to the jeers and even moodily walking off stage. I’m not asking for a return to this (Tweedy even remarks about this saying “this is fifth time we’ve been here in just under a year, people can’t say we hate London anymore!”) and last year’s show at the Forum proved the band can still pull off a riveting show without all the attitude, but a rock band needs a rock venue and, for me at least, the Royal Festival Hall just wasn’t made for rocking.