Jackson, Medina, Kelly and I went to see Wilco last night at the gloriously re-vamped Iroquois Amphitheatre here in Louisville. I had never seen Wilco live, though I really fell in love with them on our honeymoon back in 2002, shortly after their now-classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released. I was extremely excited to see them, as was Kelly. Together, we are big fans.

The Iroquois Amphitheatre is located in the South End of Louisville. In a classic display of just how little Louisville hipsters have reason to visit the South End, Jackson and Medina met Kelly and I at one of the few reasons to venture south – the incredible edible Vietnam Kitchen – and it was packed to the rafters with hipsters! You’d be hard-pressed for a ‘Ville indie dude to give you the name of another restaurant in the ZIP code, so I guess it was only natural for the Wilco crowd to flashmob the joint.

We finished up there and headed down to the venue, which is just inside of Iroquois Park, the “Yellowstone of Louisville”. The amphitheatre was recently renovated, and I had never been inside of it before or after the renovation. It is just absolutely magnificent, and judging by the oohs-and-ahhs heard from the crowd as they entered, I’d assume that the local rock crowd will be clamoring for more shows to be held here. Call in your Vietnam Kitchen reservations now, scenesters!

The Early Day Miners opened for Wilco with no less than 5 guitarists and two drum kits and proceeded to blast out some AYWKUBTTOD / Explosions in the Sky-esque instrumental jams that came to an absolutely crushing end. Must be something about that Texas/Louisiana area that makes people want to elevate their rock to orchestral heights!

Wilco was excellent, and Jeff Tweedy was a jubilant and engaging frontman. At one point during “Hummingbird” he had panties thrown at him while he was hamming it up at the lip of the stage. Later, he would claim to wish that he was David Lee Roth, which was immediately followed by a qualification of “David Lee Roth from, like, 30 years ago”. Wilco’s music and lineup over the years has evolved in any number of different ways, but at the very core of it has always been Tweedy with his lyrical and rhythmic ventures, which have never strayed too far into the bizarre. Undoubtedly catchy hooks in his songs linger on my mind for days at a time, like a pop song, but with a lyrical depth that somehow strikes deeper.

The crowd was intense, with Wilco coming back for 2 encores. I overheard a photographer (whom I assume to be travelling with the band) remark that “these last two crowds were really great” (the other being a show at Michigan State) and I can’t argue with that. Wilco is one of few bands with a decade’s worth of work that is equally adored by fans – and judging by the wide, wide age range in the audience, they are at once retaining old fans and making new ones as they continue.

After the show wrapped, we walked back to the cars and I saw a sign that said “HONG KONG FAST FOOD”. Thanks to the curvature of the window on Jackson’s car, I managed to read that as “HONK HONK FAST POODLE” instead. That, Kelly decided, would be the name of her production company. Mine? Well, it would clearly be “Ferret with a Hat“.