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Fleet Boston Pavilion supporting Wilco |
Red Fame and Fortune Dirt The Set-Up The Enthusiast Einstein's Day That's When I Reach For My Revolver |
Fever
Moon What We Really Were This is Not a Photograph That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate Trem Two Learn How Max Ernst Academy Fight Song |
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It was certainly the strangest and in many ways the niftiest chapter yet of Inexplicable. Alt-country / avant-pop giants Wilco are in the midst of playing seven Midwest and East coast dates with Sonic Youth as openers - a double bill seemingly based on mutual respect, and on musical affinities that are real but hardly obvious. A scant 48 hours before their Fleet Pavillion show, Kim Gordon's mom took severely ill, and SY had to cancel. Twenty-four, twenty-four hours to go, and Burma to the rescue (with Bob Weston flying in from Chicago)! Only in the age of e-mail could the faithful be summoned so thoroughly and quickly; Jim Sullivan also got the news into the morning's Globe. Fortunately, the guys have been rehearsing weekly and showed zero signs of rust for their first Boston show since the day the Pats beat the Raiders in the Snow Bowl. An expertly constructed, wonderfully paced set wowed the crowd of 5,000 (those in the cheaper seats watching two large video screens that flank the stage). Boston's first taste of the "Set-Up" was probably the best version they've played yet, with a thrilling guitar-and-loops excursion in the middle. Bob W. threw a big slap-back echo onto Roger's guitar for the "Einstein" solo (going with the flow of the room; how in hell could a tent be so reverberant?) and Roger responded with a jaw-dropping solo that was beautiful not just alone but in harmony with itself half a second in the past. "Revolver" mid-set was a treat, and the segue into the shuffle groove of "Fever Moon" (like "The Enthusiast," another song most of the audience was new to) was a great change of pace. "Photo" and "Fate" earned a standing O before the usual stunning end barrage. In a lot of ways, this gig was a wonderful throwback to '79 and '80, when Burma opened for every big act that came to town (check out the gig list). Differences? Fleet Pavillion is larger than the Underground; Wilco's audience is more mainstream than the Fall's; Burma is even better now than before. -Eric M. Van |
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