WIL COme together

Preface: I think i'm cool. Now, this is not true, but none-the-less i continue to think it's true.

I went to see WILCO and the Fleet Foxes a couple nights ago. The Fleet Foxes were money. I think these 5 dudes grew up in the foot hills of the Appalachians with only one guitar. Because they only had one guitar they all learned to sing really, really well and make sweet, sweet harmonies. Somehow they found a Rhodes and a mandolin along side of the road and turned up the reverb way too much. I love it.
Wilco was magical. I haven't been the biggest Wilco fan, despite Andy and Nard's best efforts, but recently have been getting into them more and more. Alt/Country/Noise/Funk/Folk/Rock = awesome. But That's just the music. I think there was something a whole lot bigger going on... These dudes are not cool. They're all middle aged or older, they don't dress cool, they were kinda funny, but like nerdy funny. I thought, maybe the drummer was cool, but then I realized his drum set was made of clear plastic- clearly uncool.
Between acts, i was chatting with Tricia who is quite a people watcher. We were noticing how many different styles of people were there, in addition to the fact that we never thought there'd be that many people in Boise who would come out to a Wilco concert. This group was so diverse. There was the guy wearing a sarong with a flower behind his ear, there was the bro (aka- short spikey hair and abercrombie t-shirt), there was the guy from the Record Exchange with the grandiose mustache, and a drove of normalish, unoriginal, rather uncool looking people of all ages, literally 5 to 75. I said to Tricia, "Well, I guess the lesson tonight is- Wilco brings people together." I said this kind of jokingly, but as the night went I realized how true it was.
After the sun went down in our beautiful (aka- dusty) southern Idaho sky and things cooled off a bit, the band got into it a little more and so did the crowd. The back lights on stage were overthrowing enough to put light on the faces around me. Every head was bobbing and most singing along. Those that weren't singing were smiling wide. Somehow 5 uncool dudes armed with instruments and songs brought together a most unlikely and uncool group of people. There might have been someone there that was cool, but no one knew it. If no one recognizes that you're cool, are you? All cool powers were lost that night because people weren't surrounded by others like them that thought they were cool. Everyone was uncool together....Which i think, then, makes everyone cool. All I know is I was pumped that the guy next to me, who was bobbing his head so hard that his whole body was shaking, was having a great time.
Bravo Wilco! I think redemption is afoot here. I probably need to do a little more investigation in Wilco's tunes. Maybe in 15 years i'll be uncool enough to have a really cool band.

Sorry this is so long. I leave you with this: