Fans of the American rock band Wilco have had a luxury problem for a long time.

The formation from Chicago has released fourteen albums since the mid-1990s, two of them together with the British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg exclusively with Woody Guthrie compositions.

His own work is stylistically adventurous and heterogeneous, sometimes with a focus on country and folk rock, especially in the middle creative phase Kraut, Prog and Classic Rock as well as "Adult Pop" are added.

At the same time, her oeuvre is qualitatively so homogeneous that an extensive repertoire has emerged over a quarter of a century.

The band draws from this at will and makes every concert evening unique.

Philip Krohn

Editor in business, responsible for "People and Business".

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In an enchanting performance in Frankfurt's Alter Oper, classics such as "Theologians" or "One Wing", from "How to Fight Loneliness" or "One Sunday Morning" or "Ashes of American Flags" are missing.

As is usually the case on their German tour, they completely skip their early masterpiece “Being There”.

But that doesn't bother you at all, because songwriter and singer Jeff Tweedy has contributed as much to the Great American Songbook since the band was founded as Mark Oliver Everett of the Eels.

Only 23 songs fit into the two hours.

Almost half comes from their new album "Cruel Country", the first since the late 1990s, on which they live out their country roots intensively.

Perfectly shaped on Persian carpets

And so the listeners in Frankfurt's finest concert hall are also lucky.

The sextet is performing the opener "A Shot in the Arm" and the classic "Hummingbird" for the first time on the current tour.

The Guthrie song "California Stars", refined with a banjo solo, also has its premiere.

The musicians have made themselves perfectly comfortable on three Persian carpets.

Since the quarreling nineties with the ambitious second songwriter Jay Bennett, since Tweedy has overcome alcohol, cannabis and pill addiction one after the other, harmony and interaction count for a lot in this band.

And that carries over.

The interplay of these six individualists, who have grown into a fantastic collective, is breathtaking.

The rhythm group from John Stirratt on bass and Glenn Kotche, one of the most imaginative rock drummers of his time, lays the solid and sometimes nervous foundation.

In the end, the song wins

The two keyboard players Mikael Jorgensen and Pat Sansone (often also on all kinds of stringed instruments) give Wilco a very down-to-earth sound with their old instruments.

Tweedy's rhythm guitar and his crystal clear yet touching vocals make the band unmistakable.

And guitar virtuoso Nels Cline gets plenty of opportunities for his bulky solos.

The collective rattles the hardest when the band allows themselves the fun of repeatedly attacking a sing-along anthem with guitar fireworks in “Handshake Drugs”, only to let the song win in the end.

Or in the new double song "Bird Without a Tail/Base of my Skull", in which three guitars meander so beautifully that one has to think of the playfulness of the Grateful Dead, but combined with the directness of Neil Young's Crazy Horse.

Or in "Impossible Germany", in which Kotche shows that dynamic drumming not only includes banging on, but also letting go and driving the band.

Or in "Via Chicago", which they merge into a medley with the new song "Many Worlds".

It remains irritating how a band with such a remarkable output regularly tempts critics to praise them, but the audience's response does not correspond to their work.

One by one, at their most creative, they left lasting legacy: Being There is the best country rock album since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

"Summerteeth" sounds like a lost Brian Wilson recording right after "Surf's Up".

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot could be the Beatles record they made after Abbey Road.

And "A Ghost Is Born" connects Randy Newman with Neu!

ribbon for lovers

But the Alte Oper is only two-thirds full.

Except for one enthusiastic fan with a cowboy hat in the front row, it also takes a while for the audience to warm up.

But many of them are allowed to play instruments themselves and enjoy watching these virtuosos at work.

Another reason for the reserved audience response might be the stylistic eclecticism: the band demands some tolerance (and rewards those who own it).

And then there's another essential component: the missing hits.

Compared to some contemporaries, Wilco never paid attention to radio, streaming or disco suitability.

In his few personal announcements, Tweedy flirts with this by announcing the vaudeville-like hit "Hummingbird" as the song with which the band would probably compete in a song contest.

And even "Jesus, etc.", albeit a catchy, wonderful composition, isn't a smash hit either.

Wilco remains a band for lovers who love a torn prog anthem like "I Am Trying to Break You Heart" as much as they love the sarcasm in the title track of their current record "Cruel Country" ("I love my country like a little child - Red, white, and blue").

And when the band performs “The Late Greats” as the last encore after exactly two hours, you also have to think a little bit about Wilco himself: “The best songs will never get sung.

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– You can't hear it on the radio."