Wilco
The Lawn at White River State Park
Aug. 4

Frenetic, off-tempo drum fills dropped into the midst of folk rock opener “Via Chicago” suggested that Wilco was ready for a more radical and potentially difficult re-imagining of their body of work. But the band never strayed any further off-course than those experimental flourishes, playing a two-hour concert Monday night at the Lawn that faithfully reproduced the spirit and approach of each album, trimming and expanding with the benefit of hindsight, and allowing for solos and ensemble improvisations when fitting. Staged against the White River before a supportive and respectful crowd, Wilco was a welcome and easygoing guest, obliging energetically with hits, touching briefly on new material, toting along a horn section to kick up the encores and judiciously reproducing electronic textures prominent on their work in the early ’90s.

Nels Cline and Pat Sansone, both somewhat recent additions to Wilco, allow the band easy facility with materials from different periods. Cline can take a turn on slide guitar — a must for tunes from “Being There” and “A.M.” — and then slide just as comfortably into acid rock, laying off nimble-fingered solos with occasional lyricism. Sansone, perhaps the most demonstrative guy on stage, not only supplies second keyboard parts, but is also a talented third guitar. Cline and Sansone traded licks on the Woody Guthrie nonsense song “Hoodoo Voodoo” to close the first encore, with Cline playing straight man to Sansone’s antics. Sansone edged across the stage throughout the duet, acting out every whine, moan and scale, moving towards a confrontation while Cline remained stolid.

The set started off somewhat slow though energetic, not really picking up until Jeff Tweedy chatted with the audience and kicked into “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s” “Handshake Drugs.” Things remained a little more varied from there, moving through more up-tempo, radio-ready rockers — a sped-up “I’m The Man Who Loves You,” “Heavy Metal Drummer,” “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” — and material equally well-known to fans but a bit more challenging, including a tremendous take on the electronics-driven, Krautrock-esque “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” that lasted a bit longer than the 10 minutes the song takes on the album. Bass, drums and keyboards generally anchored improvisational work on more open tunes like “Spiders,” though the close of that song allowed for full ensemble improvisation.

Two new tunes still needed some work, though “One Wing,” a mid-tempo rocker with some clever bird imagery, seemed promising. “One Wing” sounded most similar to another Guthrie tune in the set, “Remember the Mountain Bed,” which, treated as a folk ballad, was the most stripped-down song in the set, wedding depictions of foliage and the countryside with that of the body and family.