Issue date: 2/10/05 Section: The Verge

Wilco played Fat Tuesday night in Champaign. The band or publicist also canceled their photo passes, resulting in this submitted photo.

Fat Tuesday found Champaign's Foellinger Auditorium awash in the ghost of Wilco. But it was a friendly ghost. The sold out show marked the regional popularity of a Belleville-based band relocated to Chicago. Ten years after forming, Wilco's latest release, "A Ghost is Born," is up for a Grammy after the band's transition from country to a modern rolling rock sound.

As frontman Jeff Tweedy gingerly approached his microphone, the crowd held its breath for fear of missing a syllable or interrupting a note. His voice, caught midway between a whisper and cracking, gently embraced the first lines of "Hell is Chrome." By the time Tweedy reached the more durable chorus, "Come with me," the audience was already there.

Wilco then embarked on a string of songs from their two latest and most-heralded records. Vying for best alternative album of the year against Bjork, PJ Harvey, Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand, Wilco proves to be the definition, or anti-definition, if you will, of the alternative category. By coupling lilting county-rooted melodies with sporadic outbursts of abrasive solos, and cadent piano and organ with string-scratching guitar, they amazingly reproduce in concert what they painstakingly perfect in the studio.

After the gentle build up to a jet takeoff of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's" "I am Trying to Break Your Heart," Wilco sounded like they could play steadily through a hurricane. The drums and piano erupted into a spurt of chaos tantamount to the instruments cascading down endless flights of stairs, before falling back into evenhanded rhythm for a bar, and then back out again just as easily.

Throughout the set, Tweedy joked with the college crowd about inciting a riot and his recently-purchased, black sport coat.

"I just got a position on junior faculty, that's why I'm wearing this jacket," said Tweedy.

Within gut-wrenching songs of heartbreak ("At Least that's What You Said"), unabashed apathy ("Handshake Drugs"), and childish giddiness ("Always in Love"), Wilco displayed that a song with few words and extended interludes can emote bounties more feeling than any lyrics.

Wilco has undergone several lineup changes since its inception in 1995. The only remaining original members are Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt. Multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennet left the band and drummer Glen Kotche was replaced by Ken Coomer. Leroy Bach, who joined Wilco before "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was recorded, was exchanged for programmer and keyboardist Mikael Jorgenson. Pat Sansone, a keyboardist/guitarist who also plays in The Autumn Defense, exercised Peter Frampton-style windmills in his latter role during the show. Touring guitarist Nels Cline traded solos with Tweedy that sounded like a siren and a banshee in a screaming contest. He also sat with the slide guitar for "Jesus, Etc." and got down to a shimmy-provoking rendition of "I'm the Man Who Loves You."

Throughout the first set and subsequent pair of encores, Wilco played like no honky-tonker every imagined, as masters of feedback and distortion manipulation, coaxing every sound imaginable from their instruments. During encores, Tweedy broke out the harmonica and then came back with a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper."

The chemistry between Wilco is a balanced equation correlating musicianship to art. The set was devoid of songs from their debut release "A.M." and follow-ups "Being There." Wilco marked their departure from a rock-based country roll to a more pedigreed fusion of indiscernible elements that meld into an orbit-altering impact on today's musical landscape.

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