Wilco Bring Out Feist, Grizzly Bear, Yo La Tengo at Coney Island Show

Posted on Jul 14th 2009 12:30PM by Mike Ayers
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For Wilco's first time playing Coney Island's Keyspan Park (home to minor league baseball's Brooklyn Cyclones), they came out swinging. The main set was packed with oldies but goodies such as 'Can't Stand It,' 'I'm Always in Love' and 'Jesus, Etc.,' but surprises were abound at that end. First, they brought out Leslie Feist for a duet with lead singer Jeff Tweedy on 'You and I,' reprising the collaboration from the band's recent gem 'Wilco (The Album).' Wearing a short black dress, Feist was quite comfortable and quite animated through the short and sweet ballad. Tweedy seemed to relish in Feist's company, so much so, he asked her to stick around for the following Woody Guthrie-cum-Wilco set staple, 'California Stars.' Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste also joined Feist on backing vocals and maracas.

Yet that wasn't all they had in store, nor was it the highlight. After Feist and Droste left the stage, and a raucous version of 'Misunderstood' balanced out the mellower tone the encore had taken, Yo La Tengo joined the band for a long, fierce version of the epic tune 'Spiders (Kidsmoke).' Yo La Tengo guitarist Ira Kaplan and Wilco's Nels Cline traded guitar licks, sounding like they were mortal enemies but looking like they were long lost brothers (suggestion: seek out the Youtube vids of this one).

Earlier in the evening, Tweedy was quite complimentary of the crowd, dishing out full-on flattery after 'Impossible Germany.' "You look good," he said. "I've never said that before. A really, really attractive audience." After selling 99,000 copies the first week out of the gate, Tweedy and company have reason to be in a great mood. He even rallied the crowd into a version of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' after his barrage of compliments, a feat that sounds cheesy and nearly unfeasible, but any semblance of irony was nil at the ballpark.

Wilco is on tour through July 23 and will take a short break before heading off to Europe for a slew of festival and headlining dates throughout the second half of August.