Tracks

1. Misunderstood

2. Company In My Back

3. The Late Greats

4. Hell Is Chrome

5. Handshake Drugs

6. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

7. Shot In The Arm

8. At Least That's What You Said

9. Wishful Thinking

10. Jesus, Etc.

11. I'm The Man Who Loves You

12. Kicking Television

13. Via Chicago

14. Hummingbird

15. Muzzle Of Bees

16. One By One

17. Airline To Heaven

18. Radio Cure

19. Ashes Of American Flags

20. Heavy Metal Drummer

21. Poor Places

22. Spiders (Kidsmoke)

23. Comment

Performer Notes

Personnel: Pat Sansone (vocals, guitar, guitars, keyboards); Jeff Tweedy (vocals, guitar); John Stirratt (vocals, bass instrument); Rich Parenti (baritone, saxophone, baritone saxophone); Nels Cline (guitar, guitars, lap steel guitar); Patrick Newbery (trumpet, flugelhorn); Nick Broste (trombone); Mike Jorgensen (piano, keyboards); Glenn Kotche (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Jim Scott ; Stan Doty.
Recording information: Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL (05/04/2005-05/07/2005).
Photographers: Mike Segal; Zoran Orlic.
While Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born established Wilco's reputation as one of America's most interesting and imaginative rock bands, both albums were the product of a band in flux, and this was particularly evident to those who saw the group on-stage after the release of YHF. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot may have blazed new sonic trails for Wilco, but the departure of Jay Bennett in the latter stages of its production left the band with an audible hole when they played the new material on-stage, and while multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach may have been a technically skilled player, he looked and sounded like a cold fish in concert, unwittingly emphasizing the cooler surfaces of Wilco's new music and negating much of the passion of Jeff Tweedy's songs. However, by the time Wilco hit the road following the release of A Ghost Is Born, the group's latest round of personnel shakeups had the unexpected but welcome effect of spawning one of the group's best lineups to date; after Bach amicably left Wilco, the addition of keyboard and guitar man Pat Sansone and especially visionary guitarist Nels Cline gave the band players whose energy and passion matched their technical skill, and suddenly the band was playing its challenging new material with the same sweaty force Tweedy and company conjured up in the band's earlier days. Thankfully, Tweedy had the good sense to document the prowess of Wilco's latest incarnation on-stage, and Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, recorded during four shows at the Windy City's Vic Theater, offers a welcome second perspective on the band's more recent work. With the exception of two numbers from Wilco's collaborative albums with Billy Bragg (in which they set Woody Guthrie's poems to music), Kicking Television focuses exclusively on their "post-alt-country" work, but while many of the songs featured here sounded cool and mannered in the studio, here they gain new muscle and force, not to mention a great deal of enthusiasm, and while tunes like "Ashes of American Flags" and "Handshake Drugs" are never going to be crowd-pleasers in the manner of "Casino Queen," the ‚lan of this band in full flight shows that the fun has been put back in Wilco, albeit in a different and more angular form. Nels Cline's guitar is especially bracing in this context, and his marriage of melodic weight and joyous dissonance fits these songs while expanding on their strengths at the same time. And the title cut thankfully proves that Wilco still can (and still does) rock on out. Kicking Television is the best sort of live album -- a recording that doesn't merely retread a band's back catalog, but puts their songs in a new perspective, and in this case these performances reveal that one great band has actually been getting better. ~ Mark Deming

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (No. 986, p.88) - 3.5 out of 5 stars - "...[A] love letter to Wilco's dedicated fans and a definitive live statement from America's foremost rock impressionists...."

Spin (p.107) - "Wilco turn a rock club into a living room into a heavy-metal parking lot into a laser-light show on a lost highway overpass." -- Grade: A

Magnet (p.103) - "[A] double album recorded at four shows in 2005, amps up the jam factor just long enough for some unobtrusive guitar solos and builds up the fuzz on quieter songs so they're more effective in front of 1,000 people."

The Wire (p.69) - "A cover of Chris Wright's 'Comment' closes the set....It's an appropriate high point on which to conclude, as it captures Wilco at the height of their powers."

Down Beat (p.75) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Whether it's that the band has had time to become comfortable with the recent material, or that the tunes themselves are more conducive to this format, new feels at home next to old, and conveys a warmth that's missing from the studio takes."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[T]he whole band's command of noise captures the fractured, fragile emotions of the singer. A worthy snapshot of a band at its peak."

Album: Kicking Television: Live In Chicago
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Misunderstood	More Info...	0:06
2)	Company in My Back	More Info...	0:03
3)	The Late Greats	More Info...	0:02
4)	Hell Is Chrome	More Info...	0:05
5)	Handshake Drugs	More Info...	0:06
6)	I Am Trying to Break Your Heart	More Info...	0:06
7)	Shot in the Arm	More Info...	0:05
8)	At Least That's What You Said	More Info...	0:05
9)	Wishful Thinking	More Info...	0:04
10)	Jesus, Etc.	More Info...	0:04
11)	I'm the Man Who Loves You	More Info...	0:04
12)	Kicking Television	More Info...	0:03
13)	Via Chicago	More Info...	0:05
14)	Hummingbird	More Info...	0:03
15)	Muzzle of Bees	More Info...	0:04
16)	One By One	More Info...	0:03
17)	Airline to Heaven	More Info...	0:04
18)	Radio Cure	More Info...	0:04
19)	Ashes of American Flags	More Info...	0:06
20)	Heavy Metal Drummer	More Info...	0:03
21)	Poor Places	More Info...	0:05
22)	Spiders (Kidsmoke)	More Info...	0:11
23)	Comment	More Info...	0:06

Album: Kicking Television: Live In Chicago
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Misunderstood	More Info...	0:06
2)	Company in My Back	More Info...	0:03
3)	The Late Greats	More Info...	0:02
4)	Hell Is Chrome	More Info...	0:05
5)	Handshake Drugs	More Info...	0:06
6)	I Am Trying to Break Your Heart	More Info...	0:06
7)	Shot in the Arm	More Info...	0:05
8)	At Least That's What You Said	More Info...	0:05
9)	Wishful Thinking	More Info...	0:04
10)	Jesus, Etc.	More Info...	0:04
11)	I'm the Man Who Loves You	More Info...	0:04
12)	Kicking Television	More Info...	0:03
13)	Via Chicago	More Info...	0:05
14)	Hummingbird	More Info...	0:03
15)	Muzzle of Bees	More Info...	0:04
16)	One By One	More Info...	0:03
17)	Airline to Heaven	More Info...	0:04
18)	Radio Cure	More Info...	0:04
19)	Ashes of American Flags	More Info...	0:06
20)	Heavy Metal Drummer	More Info...	0:03
21)	Poor Places	More Info...	0:05
22)	Spiders (Kidsmoke)	More Info...	0:11
23)	Comment	More Info...	0:06