My first car was a big green Buick LeSabre, and my only options then for music were Extendo-Ride, who were awesome, and a mix tape my older sister had made, full of Wilco songs off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002, Nonesuch). That was how I got to know Wilco, and also at the same time into the local music scene. When Wilco played at the Maine State Pier on Saturday, their set — which spanned three encores — covered every song I hoped to hear. The set was remarkably tight, and fun to watch.
The high point for me was "California Stars" off Mermaid Avenue, their 1997 collaboration with Billy Bragg (sans Billy, sadly). When the noisy intro to "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" began, I flashed back to my old Buick. I thought about how much the local music scene has changed over the course of Wilco's career. So many bands have come and gone, and few have ever been on the same professional level as Wilco.
There is no reason why Portland cannot generate its own such band. Fifteen years on the road, playing many of the same songs, and still with an energy and professionalism rare to our city, Wilco must have offered Portland's local musicians a lesson in having a band and making it work out, on stage and off.
Related:
Wilco | Wilco (The Album), Wow, are we jealous, Ghost stories, More 
- Wilco | Wilco (The Album)
The cover photo of a camel wearing a party hat on a terrace is a clue: after nearly a decade of fighting Jeff Tweedy and Wilco have lightened up.
- Wow, are we jealous
From the minute Wilco announced their Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA, we’ve wanted to go in the worst way.
- Ghost stories
For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.
- Into the weird
No, it's not your imagination: things are getting smaller. Or at least, it seems that way in the funhouse-mirror world of modern music, where the semi-demise of the major-label factory has colluded with the anti-star obsession of the underground to produce a chasing of microgenres into mazes of musical self-selection.
- Solid Sound Festival, Aug 13-15, Mass MoCA
Even if you don't love Wilco (anymore), it's hard to imagine a festival being much more pleasant and casually engaging than their inaugural event in North Adams.
- From solid to standout
Maybe the most surprising thing about Portland indie band Brenda’s set at the Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival on the Mass MoCA campus in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday was that people were actually there to see it. Lots of them.
- The Big Hurt: Brand new Dio; same old Yoko; auguries of Creed
In the process of writing last week's column about hidden Satanic messages in pop music, I listened to a bunch of shit backward and discovered that the track "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga is much, much better that way.
- Photos: Wilco at the Orpheum
Photos from Wilco's Boston stop on his 2010 tour
- Tower of Song Festival, Eric Bettencourt, and the Outsiders
This is shaping up to be one of the best summers in a long time when it comes to outdoor and festival-type shows.
- Photos: Bonnaroo 2009
Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Elvis Costello, and more at Bonnaroo 2009 in Manchester, Tennessee
- Wilco | The Whole Love
Wilco's evolution from Uncle Tupelo detritus to post-Americana thinking-man's jam band goes two steps back on their eighth studio album, and that's a good thing.
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New England Music News
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