DALLAS -- Wilco provided ample evidence of its new-found calm Friday night.
The seven-member band took the stage to the The Price is Right theme song.
Frontman Jeff Tweedy swapped shirts with a member of the audience, donning a stylish gold lame number. "I feel like I'm in Sha Na Na," he said.
Tweedy even paused, mid-set, to offer his colorful theories on the construction of set lists.
A brooding, troubled artist this was not.
The Palladium Ballroom's sold-out crowd ate it up, roaring after every song, belting out lyrics and enveloping the Chicago-based rockers in a fierce, warm welcome. For more than two hours, Wilco happily rambled through its catalog (the band solicits requests online prior to shows), doling out more than 20 songs.
The septet is touring in support of this year's Wilco (The Album), a sunny, quirky and faintly difficult record that loops in the avant-garde splashes of A Ghost Is Born and the rollicking country sketches of Summerteeth. In the spirit of its latest album, the band delivered controlled chaos with a smile.
Loose almost to the point of shambolic, but razor sharp throughout, Tweedy and company allowed the darkness coloring tunes like Jesus, Etc. or Impossible Germany as shades of nuance, rather than a prevailing mood. Slashes of guitar meshed with rolling splashes of percussion and Tweedy's persistent, pained tenor.
Wilco (The Album) has garnered considerable critical acclaim for bridging the extremes of this wonderfully ambitious group. As Friday's excellent performance demonstrated, letting in a little light -- and calmness -- only cements Wilco's standing as one of America's finest rock bands.
