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TORONTO - They walked on stage to The Price Is Right theme yet for most of the night it seemed as if Wilco was playing Beat The Clock.
Led by Jeff Tweedy - who had a legitimate beef with fans filming shows on their cameras and cell phones recently (and ironically now on YouTube) - the group's slightly curtailed but still strong two-hour show Wednesday night at Toronto's sold-out Massey Hall had its desired effect.
Even Tweedy mentioned how they were up against the clock early on, stating they weren't used to an imposed curfew and later joked how the catchy, crowd-pleaser Handshake Drugs would be the band's final tune just an hour into their set.
One main difference on this current tour in support of, er, Wilco (The Album) is that the sextet isn't serving up lengthy, adventurous tunes like the 10-minute Spiders (Kidsmoke). Rather, there is a bevy of shorter, crisper tunes such as I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, Either Way and I'll Fight.
But regardless of which Wilco numbers turn your proverbial crank, what is certain is the band's effortless ability to mix folk, roots, rock, country, soul and pop into enticing and endearing ear candy.
After opening with, er, Wilco (The Song), the band truly hit paydirt with Bull Black Nova off the new album which allowed Tweedy and the terribly underrated axeman Nels Cline to go off into some spacey rock realm before reining things back in.
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With seven studio albums to cull material from, Wilco fared quite well with the new tracks such as One Wing, the '60s pop feel to I'll Fight and You Never Know - a musical twin of Tom Petty's Jammin' Me - which featured opener Liam Finn joining Wilco onstage.
The only snag might have been the brief problem with keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen's gear following the delightful A Shot In The Arm off the band's 1999 Summerteeth album. "We have a long history of technical glitches in this venue," Tweedy said before the problem was fixed.
Following the melodic yet melancholic How To Fight Loneliness, Tweedy asked the fans to provide lead vocals for Jesus, etc. which they eagerly obliged. Singing off microphone at the lip of the stage, Tweedy said the effort was "really, really, good" before diving into Hate It Here.
Supported by the rock steady rhythm section of drummer Glenn Kotche and bassist John Stirratt, Wilco rounded out the main 16-song set with the soul-rock ditty Theologians before I'm The Man Who Loves You had Cline again joyously lost in his own little feedback world while Tweedy did a few spins.
The lengthy encore featured some more gems off Summerteeth such as Can't Stand It while 1996's Being There album wasn't forgotten with the infectious, Stones-y tune Monday and Outtamind (Outta Site).
A second show was scheduled for the same venue Thursday night, but non-Torontonians who didn't see these shows shouldn't fret. Wilco is mounting a "Trans Canada" tour for February and March, starting in Vancouver and culminating in Halifax.