The trip down to Coney Island, where Wilco played with Yo La Tengo on Tuesday, didn't take as long as I thought but I still managed to get there a song and a half late. The show was set up at Keyspan Park, where the New York minor league team The Cyclones play. Sporting the blue Cubs hat to ensure some Chicago representation, I walked in during the final minute of Shot in the Arm so fired up and genuinly happy to be there (first time I've seen them live in almost two years) I didn't even think to grab a beer.
They nailed the set list (with the exception of Deeper Down which I don't think I'll ever warm up to), finally getting the at-first unenthusiastic crowd to respond during the sing-along melodies of Jesus, etc. Tweedy for some reason seemed to love the fact that they were playing in a hoaky minor league baseball stadium, even inspiring an all-crowd crooning of Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
Lesley Feist gracefully appeared on stage for "You and I" and showed some great chemistry with the band, air-strumming the song's chords with Jeff. They even introduced Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste (who got a huge response from the Brooklynite-laden crowd, shocker), for a fantastic rendition of California Stars, a perfect song for a warm summer evening by the ocean.
They topped things off by playing a suped-up version of Hoodoo Voodoo, a song that would have been a pretty random closer in any other venue, especially in a double encore. Considering the stage is about a five-iron away from the song's birthplace on Mermaid Avenue, it could not have been a more fitting ending.
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