Kicking Television: Live In Chicago
Nonesuch, 2005
REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/27/2008
It’s hard not to classify Wilco as
With 2004’s A Ghost Is Born, Wilco definitely challenged listeners. A vast majority of the album was down-tempo. For their most rocking song, “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” listeners had to wade through a dizzying ten-minutes of fuzz and violent musical shifts. And the band came dangerously close to “Revolution #9” territory with “Less Than You Think,” 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.
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 does. That is one reason Wilco’s double-disc live album, Kicking Television: Live In Chicago works so well. True, it is indulgent (what double-disc live album isn’t?), but it’s as essential as Wilco’s best in-studio albums.
The disc was recorded over four days at the
A few old favorites make their way onto Kicking Television. Old-school Wilco fans, possibly alienated at the band’s new direction, get a great compliment here in that the opener of the show is the leadoff track (“Misunderstood”) from their second album, Being There. Two songs from the
Like most live albums, Kicking Television 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
“Thanks for coming from
Tweedy also jokes about the band’s new direction. “Let’s get this party started!...with some midtempo rock and roll!”
If you’re 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 “Spiders (Kidsmoke).” Tweedy and Cline trade riffs with the intensity of a pro tennis match with Kotche and bassist John Stirratt not missing a beat.
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’ Live At The Fillmore 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 and Kicking Television were great albums that went beyond the “for fans only” tag that is usually attached to live albums.