The six-piece incarnation of Wilco makes its live recorded debut on the new Nonesuch set “Kicking Television” Live in Chicago,” which chronicles a four-night May stand at the Vic Theatre in the band’s Chicago hometown.
The 23-track double-disc set focuses on material from the group’s acclaimed 2004 album, “A Ghost Is Born,” including “Company in My Back,” “Muzzle of Bees,” “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” “Handshake Drugs,” “Hell Is Chrome” and “At Least That’s What You Said.”
The Jeff Tweedy-led band also reaches back for such oldies as “Misunderstood” and “Via Chicago,” the “A Ghost Is Born” rarity from which the album takes its name and “One by One” and “Airline to Heaven” from its collaborative albums with Billy Bragg. The set closes with a cover of Charles Wright’s “Comment.”
Tweedy admits that while Chicago seemed like a logical place to record, he initially failed to take into consideration that “we’d played a lot of these songs for these people like 7,000 times. How were we going to make this exciting?”
“Luckily it didn’t end up being a problem. But in hindsight, maybe it would have been a good idea to record our first show in Tulsa or something,” he adds with a laugh.
