Wilco

Review: The State Theatre isn't exactly Sydney's most rockingest venue, which fuelled fears that Wilco had transitioned from "rock band" to "sit down recital act". The audience demographic is also that of the group themselves: lots of men approaching middle age – although there were also a few kids in attendance, clearly brought along by mum and dad for an (impressively cool) family night out.

The first hint that perhaps this wasn't going to be a static experience came from support act Liam Finn, who gave a thoroughly energetic solo performance with help from his guitar pedals and, at one point, Mahalia Barnes and Wilco's drummer Glenn Kotche coming onstage for a song. Even his closing number was downright demented – a cover of Devo's ‘Gut Feeling', leaving his loop pedal to do the work while he attacked a handheld theremin.

After the interval the lights went down and a computerised voice explained that Wilco like certain things - recordings, requests (this may have been unwise), singing along and so forth - and dislike certain other things (photography, mainly), and then the sextet took the stage for a one-two-three punch of an opening: ‘Wilco (The Song)', ‘I Am Trying To Break Your Heart', and ‘One Wing'. But despite the band sounding great, the audience being enthusiastic and the songs being extraordinary (‘Passenger Side', ‘Handshake Drugs', ‘Via Chicago', ‘Deeper Down', ‘Hummingbird', ‘Impossible Germany'...') the venue was working against getting a vibe up. Until about an hour in, when Jeff Tweedy decided to take matters in his own hands, engaging the audience (and receiving countless shouted song requests in the bargain) and leading to an audience sung version of ‘Jesus Etc' before getting the crowd on their feet with spirited versions of ‘You Never Know', ‘Hate it Here' and ‘Heavy Metal Drummer' (explaining to a kid at the front of the stage that he'd play his request next year - "...but this one's fun too!"). If that's a promise, Jeff, here's hoping you're at a venue that allows a bit more audience spirit. Andrew P Street