Music Post 3: E Hearts Wilco (I Heart E)

If you were at the Wilco concert in the park, I was the woman in the far right corner, before the show, with the little girl in the red, pink, and white Cakewalk dress (details for Dawn) attempting cartwheels and rolling down the hill. Later I was the woman on her feet for most of the show, holding the little girl, her cheek pressed tight against mine, her free arm waving along with the drums. Later still, when it got dark, I was the woman standing behind the little girl waving the blue glow stick that the nice people in front gave us, along with an orange one for her cousin.

The definitive Wilco post has already been written (and it includes M's Wilco encounter with a glow stick, and also makes me marvel again at the consistency of my musical references). About this show, I will just say that for the first few songs I thought "eh, maybe I've seen enough Wilco for a while," and then the Wilco-ness kicked in, and they were great.

But what I really want to talk about is E. As you may remember, E was none too impressed with Bruce. But conditions were more favorable for Wilco. The show was at the park, in a lovely venue, with a stone stage just a few feet high backed with tall pines. All the seating was grass: people stood at the front, and perched on a patchwork of blankets and beach chairs in the back. We purposefully sat quite far back, where there was a little dip, perfect for cartwheels and rolling, until it too filled with blankets and beach chairs. And Cousin L was with us (and her mom and dad), so there was company, not to mention a Junie B. Jones book to read during the boring wait for the show to begin. (Bitty Baby was there too, but I'm pretty sure we took Bitty Baby to Bruce as well--she is one musical baby doll!)

Before the show, I took E down to the stage. I showed her the rug and the stool that said Wilco (she read it, actually) and all the guitars. We saw the sound board and talked about who uses it and why and how, and we looked up at the lights. We asked the security guy where Wilco was, and he told us they were probably on the bus, but he pointed out the catering tent which we could see in the trees behind the stage.

When the show started, E insisted on being held as much as I would hold her, so that she could watch Jeff, and she listened, really listened, to the music. We thought we saw Jeff's kids, too, which was pretty cool. I told her that one of the things about Wilco is that they are sometimes soft and sometimes loud, so she informed me whenever they switched from soft to loud, and sometimes she would make a prediction: "They've been soft. I bet they're going to get loud." And she got into the drums as well, especially when Jeff explained the "Pat Boone Debbie Boone" beat (and if I were a better Wilco fan, I'd know which song it was, and you'd get it, but you'll just have to take my word for it that he was right). She danced, too, when I wouldn't hold her, and sometimes lay on the blanket with her head in my lap. By the end she had a problem: her eyes wanted to go to sleep, but she wanted to hear the rest of the show (she managed to stay awake).

I got home from work the other day and I could hear Wilco loud through the open window as I parked my car in the driveway. S couldn't go to the show (for once he wasn't at work, but he had to work that day and the next day, and the drive out to Country Town and back just wasn't worth it, so we went all 21st-century and held up the cell phone so he could hear the music), and I figured he was having a jealous Wilco fix. But no, he'd picked E up at camp and she'd asked for Wilco. And she was listening. And when I came up the stairs, she pointed out the drums to me. And I asked her if she liked Wilco on the CD as well as the concert, and she said yes.

OK, let's face it: this is basically a look-how-cool-my-kid-is post, and those are basically pretty nauseating. Then again, I'm basically a mom blogger, so I might as well fulfill the cliches of the genre.

Hey, y'all, look how cool my kid is! (And can't you see why I'm so madly in love with her?)