(photos and words by Keith Klenowski)

Driving the back roads to Bloomington gives one a lot of time to think. Most of the time my mind goes to imaginary scenarios where I am having the most interesting conversations with my favorite performers. This time I couldn’t help question my motives for wanting to go to the Wilco show almost 3 hours from Cincinnati. Why am I driving by myself to Bloomington Indiana! Don’t get me wrong it is a gorgeous and interesting drive. Gnaw Bone Indiana might be my new favorite place in the world. It has a flea market about every 200 yards. But I just put in a full day at work and probably wouldn’t get home until 1 am. This starts to take it’s toll on a man over 30. Why would one want to do this for some photos and a concert that will come through Cincinnati in June? The only good reasons that I come up with before reaching the insanity that is Bloomington is 1) I love Wilco! Seeing them is like going to church for me. 2) Maybe this will be my chance to take the picture that captures the essence of the band. These shots will somehow get back to the band and they will just have to bring me on tour. Perhaps if I use the The Secret enough, this will come true.

After a 20 minute fiasco of trying to find a parking spot, I finally make my way to the IU Auditorium. I am already late for the opening act of A Hawk, and A Hacksaw. I am fine with this since I recently caught them opening for Andrew Bird. I won’t say that they are bad by any means, but as a friend pointed out recently, “How do you start a band like that?” They just remind me of a really boring version of Gogol Bordello. It makes me think of Russian immigrants standing in line for soup. So I take some time to check out the merch table and the architecture of the auditorium. I thought I had seen some impressive venues before, but this place looks amazing. Makes the Aronoff Center here in Cincinnati look like a community theater.

The lights in the lobby finally dimmed and I find my way to the 10th row where I am told that I can shoot from during the show This of course makes me very upset. Fine that I have to shoot from the wings of the stage, but 10th ROW?? This is a rule so we don’t disturb the audience. Who the hell is looking to the sides of the stage when a performance is going on? I just drove 3 hours to shoot the best pictures of Wilco ever and they tell me to not to even think about moving an inch past the 10th row!! At least they didn’t grab my camera and break my film like they did to a group that was supposed to shoot some video. This is not how I wanted to start my evening. Luckily Wilco gave me “You Are My Face” and “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.” Long songs that gave me some time to scoot from side to side and find a “better” angle.

As I made my way up to the last row of the balcony, the band pulled out “Company in My Back” and “Handshake Drugs.” I think to myself that this is a very slow start to the show and very similar to the last few shows I have seen. Please don’t tell me that Wilco is phoning in this performance!! Luckily a rousing performance of “Impossible Germany” brought me to my senses. It was just this weird photography rule that put me in bad spirits. But thank God for Nels Cline. I personally think that Nels brings life to this band. He looks like a man possessed on stage, jumping and dancing across the stage. He owns this song. How could this band have existed before him? I guess I owe him a huge thanks as well for bringing me out of my funk and saving what could have been an awful night. It makes me really take stock in how great this band really is. This is why I would drive 3 hours to see them. They can really do no wrong.

Jeff is overly chatty with the audience. He dances around, puts flowers in his hair, and cracks jokes about not using daisies as guitar picks. Just an exceptional front man. He was bothered by an ingrown fingernail this evening but the performance didn’t suffer because of the injury. The band whips out obscure songs like “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard” and “Can’t Stand It.” The band comes out for 2 very full encores and end the show with a high energy performance of “I’m A Wheel.”

As I make my way back to the car and prepare for the long dark drive on the back roads, I can’t help but think how lucky I am that I just got to see this band live. Maybe I didn’t take the earth shattering pictures of the band that I had wanted, but I did witness one of my favorite bands in the prime of their career. I would travel across the country for this band. Why would ever doubt that??

(full setlist for the show here)
(Wilco will be in Cincinnati on June 12th at the Aronoff Center and the pre-sale begins this Wednesday. For some more of Keith’s photos, click the link below)