Wilco (The Metro/Palace, March 26th)

I thought it would be difficult for Wilco to top their show from last year. I thought I'd hate seeing them play in a venue where I had to stand up. I thought I'd never hear Misunderstood or Passenger Side played live. And I was wrong on all counts.

The Metro, now known as the Palace but still really the Metro to everyone in Melbourne, was packed with rabid Wilco fans, all of whom had made requests for songs as allowable on the Wilco web site. (I was hoping to hear four songs and was pleased when all of them were played). This wasn't, as the t-shirts misleadingly suggested, a Sky Blue Sky tour. It was a chance for Australian fans to hear tracks from older Wilco albums, to hear old and new favourites and for two and a half hours of Jeff Tweedy magic.

We positioned ourselves eagerly in front of the stage and were thrilled when the opening bars of Misunderstood were the first to emerge from the band's instruments. I've been waiting to hear this song live since Kicking Television was released in 2006. The crowd cheered at the line 'you still love rock and roll' and repeated 'nothing' along with Jeff, just as they do on the album version. This was followed by Reservations, the closing track from Yankee and then Company In My Back, a great track from A Ghost is Born which sounds great live apart from the piano riff being drowned out by the guitars. After two of our four requests already played, we knew were in for a great night.

The band played for two and a half hours and the set list was peppered with songs from all of Wilco's six albums. We heard Should've Been In Love, Sunken Treasure, You Are My Face, Shot in the Arm, Impossible Germany, Handshake Drugs, Side With the Seeds, Pot Kettle Black, Jesus Etc, Summerteeth, She's a Jar (because Australia never got to hear much from Summerteeth), Via Chicago and Spiders all in the main set.

The encore opened with California Stars, followed by Walken, Passenger Side, I'm the Man Who Loves You (dedicated to Jeff's son who was offstage), I Got You (At the end of the century), Red Eyed and Blue, Hate It Here, Casino Queen, Outtasite (Outtamind), I'm A Wheel. And finally the band came out again for one more song, The Lonely 1.

It was a great show, with only a few favorite songs absent (and those were ones I'd heard before such as The Late Greats, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and Poor Places). The whole band performs together really well and enjoys themselves. Great to be standing so close to them, so I could see John Stiratt and Nels Cline in action. A great pity they don't come to Australia more often... they are definitely my favorite band at the moment and have played the top two gigs of all time on my list.