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Artists in residence

In a move that calls to mind Buddy Guy’s January homestand, Wilco has staked out five nights in mid-February at Chicago’s Riviera Theater for a winter residency. I was lucky enough to attend Saturday night, show two of five.

The format for the shows seems to be a full set, an intermission, another full set, and an encore. But the encore the band played Friday night seems to have been more intentional than the one I witnessed on Saturday. According Greg Kot’s account, Wilco’s Friday-night encore was a six-song mini-set. On Saturday, Jeff Tweedy and company said their goodnights at the end of the second set, and it looked like they really meant them. The house lights went up. Three roadies hit the stage. Even the black backdrop screen was lifted, revealing the unadorned boxes the roadies would use for load-out. But the crowd stood and cheered for minutes, finally coaxing the band out for two more songs and one final ovation.

Every encore I’ve ever seen has felt perfunctory—the band members ave their goodbyes knowing full well that they’ll be back on stage in the time it takes to smoke half a cigarette. I think Wilco’s was the first true encore I’d ever seen. Or maybe, given the new smoking laws in Illinois, the Wilco guys had to smoke their half-cigarette outside instead of just off-stage.

Thanks to Wilcoworld for the photo.