Wilco goes for new sound

As Wilco closed its set at Axis Thursday night, singer and songwriter Jeff Tweedy ambled toward the microphone and announced to the capacity crowd, "We have a lot of new sounds up here, some intentional and some unintentional." \nWilco's regular set was clearly defined by this statement. It opened with the hushed-groove of the unreleased song "On A Private Beach In Michigan." From there on the band almost exclusively played songs from its upcoming album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. \nThe show was the unveiling of Wilco's new lineup to most of the crowd, and there was an air of reservation and disbelief to the band's sound. Gone were the consistent rock elements that clubbing drummer Ken Coomer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett had brought to the group. The fact that Wilco's new mentor is noted noise-pop artist Jim O'Rourke is well evident in the band's new sound. \nBut it was Wilco's new drummer, Glen Kotche, who really stole the show at Axis. He had a palpable energy and displayed amazing ability to really roll the drum set and play with the delicate touches of a symphonic drummer when each was called for (which was often at the same time). \nLeroy Bach, a frequent contributor to the band who only recently was asked to join full-time, played the keyboards, guitars and an array of electronic gadgets. He was instrumental to the band trying to recreate the sound of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which at times is a complex tapestry of sound. \nThe band as a unit sounded a little foiled by the music from the new album. Not that it sounded unrehearsed, but only as if it had not yet found the "live" sound for these songs. This flaw was made apparent when the band played "She's A Jar" and "Shot In The Arm," from 1999's Summerteeth, a very complex album in its own right. The toss-off approach was a revealing divergence from the careful construction of newer material. \n"The Unified Theory of Everything," another unreleased song, was the shoe-gazing pinnacle of the show. It combined a heart-stopping lyric that incorporated the four seasons ("Autumn comes you sit in your chair and stare at the TV square, hiding all your feelings weeding out the weekends") with searing guitar send-ups and drawn-out improvisation. \nWilco was coaxed by the audience into three encores -- the first two obviously aimed at crowd pleasing. \nThe second encore displayed the heavy-rock side of Wilco, or the alternative aspect of its much-maligned alt-country label. The band played three of the more raucous tunes from 1996's Being There. \n"Misunderstood," another song from Being There, perfectly summed up Wilco's new direction in the final encore. It had been the band's first foray into the clamorous pop field that it is mining these days -- a song about bitter nostalgia. As the song rambled toward the climax, Tweedy stared blankly into the crowd with a coy smile as he screamed out the mantra, "I'd like to thank you all for nothing, for nothing. Nothing! Nothing at all." \nTweedy's expressions hinted at his famously unsettled attitude. Clearly he was tickled by the great reception, but perhaps he was also a little annoyed that it was the obvious approach that inspired it.