Don't Fear The Reaper

So I spent NYE in the 24th row of the Wilco, Flaming Lips, Sleater Kinney show at Madison Square Garden... It was Fan-Freakin-Tastic. Best New Year's Eve EVER. Period. Here's the recap:

Sleater Kinney started the night out kind of slow. Carrie, Corin, and Janet only played songs from their upcoming album (May 2005?) and so I wasn't able to sing along to anything. The ladies were in a great mood, too; unlike when they played Detroit in 2003 when Carrie chastised us for not being a good crowd. Despite the fact that I didn't know any of the songs, they totally rocked out. It sounds like it is going to be another strong album.

In contrast, The Flaming Lips brought the party. There were the standard animal costumes, fake blood, and mostly naked dancers, but they really stepped it up by starting with Race for The Prize and launching a ton of giant balloons into the crowd for everyone to bat around. (Have they done that before?) I've been trying to find pictures so that I could show you just how cool it looked to see Madison Square Garden filled with these massive balloons and 11,000+ people laughing and knocking the balloons around. So much fun. Corin Tucker (Sleater Kinney) came out to duet in War Pigs. Later they led sing-a-longs to Yoshimi and She Don't Use Jelly. The only person who didn't seem to enjoy it was the crabby, white turtleneck/ tan leather jacket wearing, bald man next to me who kept yelling "Wilco" before finally just sitting down - I almost gave him ten bucks to go get a beer so that maybe he'd lighten up. That was the first time I've seen The Flaming Lips live and I must see them again. I don't know how to describe their performance, other than to say it was joyful.

...Last up was Wilco. Tweedy came out in his pajamas and started out quietly with Less Than You Think and then progressed into a few songs off of A Ghost Is Born. Their performance gained more and more and more momentum as it went along to the point where, at midnight everyone just went totally ape-shit (the only way to describe it) when they did covers of Judas Priest's Living After Midnight, The Captain and Tennille's Love Will Keep Us Together , Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper, and some others that I can't remember who sang them (Randy Newman?). There was even a Flying-V on the stage at one point during the covers. Tweedy joked about paying $50 to see a bar band. Oh, and we even sang Happy Birthday to Glenn Kotche. Wilco played straight through until they were required to get off the stage because Tweedy said that he didn't want to waste our time with leaving and coming back for encores... He knew that we loved them. True, true, true. I don't think that I have ever screamed so much during a show. I love Wilco. Oh, and I think that the set list is as follows:
1. Less Than You Think
2. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
3. Hummingbird
4. Handshake Drugs
5. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
6. A Shot In The Arm
7. At Least That's What You Said
8. Jesus, Etc.
9. Theologians
10. Poor Places
11. 12 midnight countdown and balloon drop and Auld Lang Syne and Happy Birthday
12. Livin' After Midnight
13. Love Will Keep Us Together
14. Political Science
15. I Shall Be Released
16. Something In The Air
17. Heavy Metal Drummer
18. Kingpin
19. I'm The Man Who Loves You
20. The Late Greats
21. I'm A Wheel
22. Don't Fear The Reaper
23. Gut Feeling
24. Comment
Definitely one of my top five favorite shows of all time...

The rest of the weekend was awesome. We just walked around a lot. The second best part of the trip (after Wilco) was that I took the advice of the DJ in the Michael K store in Soho, who implored us to "get your shop on;" I came out of there with a brand new pair of purple Pumas. Yeah!

I hope that you had a great NYE and that you have a great 2005!

Hugs and Kisses...