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Apples in Stereo The
Holmes Brothers |
Wilco
Friend and former college roomate, Dryrum, was visiting from Philly for the first time in five years and he wouldn’t make it further west than Latrobe on Friday as we holed up in some bar on Route 30 with Wifey, Aaron and Chris and fit in as many beers and shots as we could in 90 minutes. Arriving at the expansive St. Vincent campus, we parked and kept the party in the minivan and grabbed what we thought we could sneak in as we started making the long walk to the Carey Center gymnasium. The security presence driving in there and around the lots was strong enough for Aaron to drop his stash of beers when it appeared that one of the guards quickly started tailing us on our walk in. Turns out it was probably an overreaction and I doubt he could have snuck anything past the door security anyways. I was afraid I wasn’t going to get my camera in as they wanded me at the entrance. And really, I can’t think of the last show that I’ve been to where they were wanding people at the entrance. But it was all good. Then there was the worry about the one-hitter pipe in my sock but thankfully the wand didn’t go that far south. We get in and Dryrum is like, “Oh shit, there’s no beers in here?” Um, why do you think we were binging for the last two hours? Believe me, that’s not standard procedure. I like to spread it out. Inside, the scene was one of a large hangar-like structure with the stage on one end and a throng of people fanning across the gymnasium floor before it. Bleacher seating on both sides held the less adventurous. We hung towards the back and within 15 minutes Wilco took the stage, opening with “Hell Is Chrome.” I was concerned about how the sound was going to carry in that building but everything sounded great. By the forth song, “A Shot In The Arm,” we had moved up towards the middle of the crowd and I noticed that the audience tonight seemed much more into the show that the folks down in Morgantown. They followed with the new “Impossible Germany” and my buddies were into it. I think it was after this that Tweedy finally addressed the crowd by acknowledging that he was finally addressing the crowd. Or something like that. Standouts included the not often played “Remember The Mountain Bed” and an always good “Airline To Heaven.” I was hoping for another “Sunken Treasure” and got it on the first encore. They really filled that damn hanger with the craziness of sound that makes this song so rocking. Throw in a “Late Greats,” crowd favorite “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “Hummingbird” and that concluded the first encore. At some point during this Tweedy admonished a guy for repeatedly yelling out the same shit saying, “I want you to stop. Your friends want you to stop.” Well, the guy stopped and even apologized and after the next song was done, I think it was “Greats,” Tweedy said something like, “See how much better this is when we’re all happy.” I was determined to get some good pictures so Wifey and I moved our way up to the very front and I tried my best not to piss off the people who had been standing there the whole night. But you gotta share the love, dudes. Wilco came back out for “Kingpin” and Tweedy started off the crowd response/screaming thing by trying to get the security guard at the base of the stage involved. Cute at first but then it got weird and he pretty much just started insulting the guy. He was explaining the screaming bit and how the guard should participate then started saying things like, “I know, you’re thinking – another hour, $6.50” and “Try it and you'll wake up in the morning and think you’re smarter.” I felt sorry for the guy ‘cause at first he seemed amused but you could slowly see the expression on his face change, realizing he’s being insulted in front of thousands of people. Whatever. “Kingpin” rocked. Tweedy was in a bad mood. We got out of Latrobe, hit some shitty bar on 217 that I’d been driving past all my life but never set foot in, and then moved the party to Blairsville, getting recharged at a friend’s house before moving on to The Italian Club. I think it was 2:30 A.M. when I was still trying to give walking direction to Wifey before I realized it would be best if I called it a night myself and we got out of there, crashing at the parents’ house and praying to God that they would take care of the youngins in the morning. |
