Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER It has often been said that Wilco is the American Radiohead — an edgy 21st Century rock band whose audience only seems to grow the more they challenge it. But less remarked upon is the more obvious fact that they are also the new Grateful Dead — populist guarantors of the heartland verities of cosmic Americana. So it makes perfect sense that Wilco should headline the second night of the XPoNential Music Festival, curated by WXPN, a radio station that has astutely bridged the divide between edgy and crunchy and, like both Wilco and Radiohead, commands a mass audience that is more of a community than a crowd. A big chunk of that mass audience was on hand — upwards of 20,000, by my reckoning — at the Susquehanna Bank Center and Wilco rose to the occasion. In short, they were on fire. When you factor in rowdy, celebratory opening sets from The Avett Brothers and locals-boys made-good Dr. Dog, cold beer and a dry summer breeze, the whole evening was pretty much perfect. MORE
WILCO @ XPONENTIAL FEST: The Late Greats