Translating remarkably true from disc to stage, Wilco’s recreation of the sonic fringe is sometimes subtle (Spanish horns passing through “Ashes of American Flags”) and other times blatant (radio wave disintegration still finishes off “Poor Places”). This doesn’t always work – transitioning into the tempo change that is the latter half of “Radio Cure” is clunky, although the item by item cataloguing of every twitter and tink of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” is ambitious.

There’s a logarithm buried somewhere within the Beatles’ catalog and Tweedy and Wilco have it decrypted. There’s no other explanation as to how they can piece together moment-by-moment breakdowns of the pop structure from the fractured elements, minds and concepts that make up the band. That they’re humble enough to not abuse the structure by reigning it in on occasion and pinning it against a unique verbal psyche-stream or stringing it alongside a sonic freak-out, makes it all the more fulfilling. Take a look at three different examples from Kicking Television (all three from their last studio album, A Ghost is Born – this live set is heavy on the Nonesuch releases): “At Least That’s What You Said” opens somber, shy and vocal-heavy before dropping into two minutes of vocal-less patterned guitar noise; “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” plays like a heart monitor – a slow, meandering drone broken up by a jarring guitar riff that excites everyone in the room except Tweedy; and oh yeah they can do this too – “The Late Greats” is a simple, straight-forward chorus and guitar-driven pop melody. Whatever it is, they got it figured out.

There’s not a lot in the line of rarities, but the poetic “One by One” (Mermaid Ave. Vol. 1) and alt-country rocker “Airline to Heaven” (Vol. II) remind us that there was no better idea in the late ‘90s than for the Woody Guthrie estate to grant Wilco and Billy Bragg access to Guthrie’s vault of unscripted words. A Charles Wright cover, “Comment” closes out the set (a bit disappointingly), although A Ghost is Born cast-off “Kicking Television” is consumer-bashing blues rock and worth a listen if just to hear Tweedy sing “I’ve been working on my abs” – as if he’s concerned with the physicality of anything that exists outside his head.

If you’re a fan of the band from a pop deconstructionist standpoint, as opposed to the safer alt-country of their early releases, you’ll have a hard time dreaming up a better set list… but honestly, is it even a legitimate stance anymore to prefer their early work? Radio wannabes will paw at this with jealous fingers, but don’t blame Wilco. They’re Wilco and they make better pop music than you.

Sound
Mixed and engineered by Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers), Kicking Television captures the closeness of the private venue. There’s nothing raw or grainy about the recording, although this could be due to the tightness of the band. If it weren’t for the crowd, there’d be times when you couldn’t tell it’s a live album.