Jan 12, 2022
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Sleater-Kinney Presents “Path of Wellness”
Wilco, Sleater-Kinney, & NNAMDÏ Live Show Review: 8/28, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago
BY JORDAN MAINZER
Even if you hadn’t seen their recent setlists, you knew that Wilco had to begin their set with a specific song. It was a gimmick, but an undeniable one, that caused an entire crowd to sing back in a sense of cautious relief, “Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm.” Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker--one of their partners in touring--sang harmonies. For the final night of the tour, two out of three bands were coming home, and you couldn’t help but feel a sense of achievement along with all. Wilco, Sleater-Kinney, and NNAMDÏ were able to safely complete a string of dates across the country, weathering storms and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya’s broken wrist, while many audience members returned for the first time to live music, something only shots in arms could have made happen.
I imagine that playing Chicago is different for Wilco, and not just because fans cheer the loudest when Jeff Tweedy sings, “But the wind blew me back via Chicago.” I’ve seen Wilco outside of Chicago and at Chicago festivals, and from my experience, it’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, local shows where folks specifically come to see their hometown heroes that reveal unexpected highlights. Audience members getting pumped up for specific moments of Nels Cline’s legendary guitar solo during “Impossible Germany” rather than just clapping at the end. Tweedy and Cline back-to-back shredding during “Random Name Generator”, Brownstein-Tucker style. Fans of all ages singing along to every word of the oldest song played, A.M.’s “Box Full Of Letters”. Almost two years removed from their most recent album, 2019′s Ode To Joy, Wilco treated this show as almost a retrospective, a setlist comprised of songs they love to play live, scattered throughout their vast and consistent discography. “That’s on it’s way to becoming a really good song,” Tweedy quipped after playing, “I’m The Man Who Loves You”. I laughed especially at that bit: Everyone knows Wilco could play the same set every night for years to come and we’d be satisfied. We’re lucky that they choose to loosen up and add flourishes along the way.
Sleater-Kinney had their fair share of die-hards at the show; Brownstein called them to the front in between “High in the Grass” and “Hurry on Home”, and from a distance, you could see them bouncing up and down during The Woods hits like “Jumpers”. For Wilco fans who simply like Sleater-Kinney or people at the show who didn’t know their material as well, S-K had a taller task, to keep the crowd energized during the hottest part of the day while playing from their newer, comparatively tamer material. Path of Wellness, their first album without drummer Janet Weiss, is admirably stylistically varied but nowhere near as upbeat as most of the classics. It was fitting, then, that Sleater-Kinney fully embraced their new material, opting for a large (for S-K standards) touring band to emphasize the slow burns of “Shadow Town” and “Complex Female Characters” and sneaky buoyancy of “High in the Grass”. Best, they were able to get even more beautiful racket in the breakdowns of “Jumpers”, noodling bridge of “What’s Mine Is Yours”, and sunny, fuzzy sway of “Modern Girl”.
As for Ogbonnaya, the number of his pre-concert fans may not have rivaled that of Wilco and Sleater-Kinney, but they were just as passionate, cheering for every band member that walked out on stage. Ogbonnaya’s stage presence was natural, as he and his band seamlessly wove through genres with as much ease as he has when usually bouncing from instrument to instrument. Saturday night, Ogbonnaya was just singing, though his voice can take on a number of different characteristics and pitches. He uses auto-tune to complement the often languid psychedelia and slow-building R&B of the instrumentation on songs like “Glass Casket” and “It’s OK” from his 2020 album BRAT. While tunes like the shredding math rock of “Perfect in My Mind” were faithful to their studio versions, others expanded upon them. Punky love song “ART SCHOOL CRUSH” from 2013′s Bootie Noir was more upbeat live, with its click-clack drums shining through, while “Flowers To My Demons”’ chugging acoustic guitar stylings were ditched for a more electric fluttery pop-R&B hybrid. In a sense, NNAMDÏ was the perfect opener for Wilco and Sleater-Kinney, two bands who have gradually reinvented themselves over a few decades. With Ogbonnaya at the helm, reinvention happens at the drop of a hat; it’s safe to say he had many more fans at the end of his set than at the beginning, more than local pride.
the scent of the wind it is filled with our sins and the ashes of promises never fulfilled
Worry With You
Sleater-Kinney
carrie brownstein, 2021