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Wilco’s pleasing politics
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Also by Drew Goldblatt:
- Strange Boys CD strips down rock (March 26, 2009)
- Mike Droho: Unsigned Madison-based artist (January 18, 2009)
- Wilco's pleasing politics (November 3, 2008)
- No 'Dawg' food at new eatery (October 28, 2008)
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At Saturday’s midday “Concert for Change,” Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign opened the doors of the University of Wisconsin’s Union Theater to help promote early voting and to please the audience with a short concert by the band Wilco.
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., spoke before the band took stage and was welcomed with a standing ovation. His opening remarks were short but powerful. He asked to not just witness history on Nov. 4 but for everyone to make history by voting early.
Wilco’s set up and overall attitude was analogous to the Obama campaign due to the band’s shared sense of simplicity — only three out of the six members performed. John Stirrat thumped his bass ever so smoothly, Pat Sansone, a multi-instrumentalist, focused mostly on the piano but dabbled in some guitar strumming and Jeff Tweedy comfortably controlled the vocals and his acoustic guitar.
Wilco’s aura as a band seems to be a counterintuitive voice for a hope-charged campaign such as Barack Obama’s, but, although “there’s a hope gap” within the band’s songs as Tweedy pointed out, he still managed to humor the crowd by finding creative ways to make the songs applicable. In one of Wilco’s newly debuted songs, “Wilco the Song,” Tweedy won laughs for his stab at Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign by changing the name of the song to “Joe the Plumber” specifically for this concert. Furthermore within this song, Tweedy’s lyrics were changed from “Wilco will love you baby” to “Feingold will love you baby.” Tweedy’s play on words may seem weak on paper, but his delivery was spot on, and the crowd’s response was proof that the humor was appreciated.
Besides Tweedy’s comfortable stage presence and humor, Tweedy and company had no problem pleasing the audience through classic songs such as “Jesus, Etc.,” “Passenger Side” and “The Late Greats.” “Jesus, Etc.” was performed to perfection and proved to be the backbone of the relaxed and chill vibe of the concert. The band also performed “I Shall Be Released,” a Bob Dylan cover, allowing for Tweedy to show off his falsetto, which received applause and cheers. A live version of the song with The Fleet Foxes can be found for free on Wilco’s website as long as you pledge to vote.
The mere fact that Wilco’s songs are so pleasing to hear, even at the most basic of settings, proves their mature understanding of timeless songwriting. The audience’s true intentions, however, became clear once Wilco finished their set and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, took the stage only to watch the crowd slowly begin to trickle out. Her motivating calls for early voting mimicked Feingold’s and were of equal importance and weight, but getting through to a crowd of Wilco fans is no easy task. Only a small portion of the 800 audience members joined the march to the City-County Building.
Although the march’s turnout was slightly weak, the Obama campaign’s ability to get such quality music involved with their pursuit of change and hope was impressive.
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Earth to Drew—
The fact that Wilco couldn’t even fill a relatively small venue in ultraliberal Madison with politicians present says something.
Nobody cares about your political bent.
“The fact that Wilco couldn’t even fill a relatively small venue in ultraliberal Madison with politicians present says something.
Nobody cares about your political bent.”
Ummm….I think you might want to read more carefully in the future.
“…Only a small portion of the 800 audience members joined the march to the City-County Building.”
Wilco filled the place just fine. The problem is that most of the selfish little twits who went to the show didn’t follow through with the most important part of the message of the show. It’s not that they didn’t care about Wilco…No one cares about politics…and that’s just sad and will be the demise of our country. I bet it was a bunch of hipsters and future republican wastes of space college kids who think they’re “cool” for knowing who Wilco is.
Earth to the first anonymous….why don’t you take the time to write an article for the paper and share your so called knowledge about what to be reading more carefully!
Earth to 3rd anonymous. What you said doesn’t really make sense…you garbled together the first and second comments into one. Would you really want to hear what that first poster has to say about any topic? They don’t even read something thoroughly before spouting off. That’s like actually listening to Sarah Palin for relevant information.