The Chicago indie-rockers Wilco blasted through the Burton Cummings Theatre last night on their Kicking Television Tour 2006. About 1100 fans showed up.

When leader/frontman Jeff Tweedy was finished singing and playing his acoustic guitar he would swap it for an electric guitar and coax out some interesting harmonics, adding an extra dimension of atmosphere to the songs. The band are rounded out by lead guitarist Nels Cline, bassist John Stiratt, drummer Glen Kotche, programmer/keyboardist Mikael Jorgenson and Pat Sansone on both electric guitar and keyboards. If you watch the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, which follows the band as they record their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, while going through line-up changes that almost killed off the band, you get see that only Tweedy, Kotche and Stiratt remain from those days.

Wilco's songs run the gamut from quiet, bitter-sweet songs to all out balls-to-the wall rock with the ferocity of raging punk music. Drummer Glen Kotche lashed away at his cymbals while bouncing up and down on the stool and gritting his teeth to show the intensity of his playing.

Keyboardist/guitarist Pat Sansone was quite energetic, striking some good rock star poses and whipping his hands around for some Pete Townsend trademark windmills. Guitarist Nels Cline didn't move around as much but he twisted and contorted his body as the notes flew off his axe. Beared and scruffy looking Jeff Tweedy made several references to Canada Day and talked about how they wished they were Canadian.

I have no idea how Cline managed to play the entire show in a sports jacket, given how hot it was inside. He also sported an injury and he was wearing a leg brace but despite requests from the audience, he never explained what happened to him.

I met a few fans who I totally enjoyed chatting with. Some of these people were way more fanatical about the band than I was. Many having travelled to different cities to see them. As I leaned on the stage, a couple of fans tapped the back of my shirt to point out the Winnipeg tour date and we ended up having a fun conversation about how it's been a great year for shows in Winnipeg.

They also sang many of the songs out loud several of which I knew but not well enough to sing along to. Every time the band played the opening notes to a song they liked, they would exclaim, "Here we go!"