Wilco - 'Kicking Television - Live In Chicago' (Nonesuch) Released 14/11/05

With most bands, sitting through a two-hour live album would amount to a cruel and unusual punishment. Wilco, thankfully, are not an average band, and Kicking Television, recorded during a four-night stint at Chicago's Vic Theatre in May, is more than a mere memento useful only for those lucky enough to have been at the band's hometown gigs. Pulled mostly from 2002's radical reinvention Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and last year's equally experimental A Ghost Is Born, the 23 songs on Kicking Television provide the first recorded document of Wilco's new expanded line-up. The usually grumpy songwriter Jeff Tweedy has been Uncharacteristically upbeat when describing the prowess of this latest edition of the band, and his good mood is robust enough to survive the odd technical glitch. "Alright, so it works in the end!" Tweedy guffaws at the tail end of 'Heavy Metal Drummer' when the drum machine meant to propel the track to funkier heights finally stirs awake.

Although dramatic departures from recorded versions are thin on the ground, the finest moments during this generous 2-CD serving - an epic, soaring 'Via Chicago', a sizzling guitar duel on 'At Least That's What You Said', the sparkling pop coda to 'Radio Cure', a drone-drenched, drawn-out 'Handshake Drugs' - prove beyond doubt that there's been a method to Tweedy's hiring and firing in the last couple of years. Equally at home with hushed intimacy and explosive cacophony, and capable of switching seamlessly from one extreme to the other in the blink of an eye, this multi-instrumentalist six-piece must be one of the finest - if not the best - rock bands plying their trade at the moment. Obviously equipped with considerable chops but never sacrificing spontaneity and verve for tiresome muso bullshit, the new Wilco is more than capable of following Tweedy's increasingly experimental vision.

The new art-rocking outfit is also several thousand miles removed from the pedal-steel brandishing alt. county Wilco of yore, which might explain the presence of only one measly song, 'Misunderstood', from 1996's brilliant Being There, although two strong selections from the Mermaid Avenue projects compensate somewhat by packing the ultimate accessories in roots credentials, lyrics by Woody Guthrie. 

First enigmatic backwoods bard Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with the surprisingly sprightly Summer In The Southeast and now Wilco, the final months of 2005 are turning out to be a fertile era for highly palatable live platters from US cult heroes. Kicking Television is an absolute must for fans and a decent point of entry for the uninitiated.