Author: Scott Weaver

The house at 502 Park Hill St., just north of Downtown, sits up on a hill, sightlines protected by trees. Even if you were to peer around the trees, to really get a good look at the house, you would see a structure that seems to slowly melt into its surroundings. This is not an accident.

Previous coverage: Jeff Scholars ask for $21M loan Need money to renovate old "Beta" house City defers on $21M loan to Jeff Scholars To preserve or not to preserve, that is the question

The house’s architect, Eugene Bradbury, enclosed its first-floor walls with boulders that were taken from the site. He also designed a red terra-cotta roof that takes its hue from the distinct color of Albemarle County red clay. In the words of Daniel Bluestone, a UVA professor of architectural history, Bradbury was "seeking to establish reciprocity between the site and house."

Bluestone is something of an expert on Bradbury, who was working in Charlottesville at the beginning of the last century, and Bluestone says that Charlottesville holds the architect’s largest collection of buildings. One of them, though, might not be around much longer. The Jefferson Scholars Program, a group that has long endowed UVA undergrads and, more recently, grad students, is deciding whether to tear down the Compton House ( a.k.a. the Beta House) to build a center for their graduate fellows program. That decision is worrying members of City Council, not to mention Bluestone.

The Compton House, built in 1913, is one of Charlottesville’s most important examples of Bradbury’s work, says Bluestone. It’s in jeopardy of being torn down for a new building for the Thomas Jefferson Scholars Foundation.

The Compton House, built in 1913, is one of Charlottesville’s most important examples of Bradbury’s work, according to Bluestone. By adding a trellis to one side of the house and a sunroom to the other, Bradbury opened up the house’s design to the surrounding landscape. A person can look at the house and its site in the same view and feel the close relationship between the two. Bluestone says that such a strategy was important to designers at the turn of the century. "It stands in pretty striking contrast to the neoclassical houses that are around," he says, "where it’s much clearer where the house begins and the site ends."

The Trotter House on University Circle shows how early 1900s architect Eugene Bradbury resisted the impulse to impose outside structures or ideas on natural sites, according to Daniel Bluestone, a UVA professor of architectural history.

Bluestone points to another example of Bradbury’s work, the Trotter House on University Circle, in which he resisted the impulse to impose outside structures or ideas on natural sites. "You can see that there are these French double windows that come out of most of the first floor," he says. "The notion is that you can step right from inside the house to the outside of the house into the garden." It also features a red terra-cotta roof like the house on Park Hill.

City Council has expressed concern that the Compton House might be destroyed. After approving an $18 million bond in June to the Jefferson Scholars, councilors balked at approving $3 million more when it became clear that the Foundation was considering demolishing the building. The Foundation has said that it can proceed without the extra $3 million if it chooses to tear down the Compton House.

"In June we just couldn’t imagine that they would want to tear down the building," says Mayor David Brown. "It didn’t cross our radar screen that this would be a possibility. What underlies all this is that the Jefferson Scholars is a great program. so we didn’t imagine that this was in the cards."

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Describing itself as an "innovative source of news dedicated to serving the University community," the Virginia Sentinel launched its online-only news source October 3 with a story about an Honor Committee report that was released two days prior. The Cavalier Daily, the established student-run newspaper, ran nothing on the report.

Starting a newspaper from scratch has become easier with the advent of the Web and blogger-ish tools like Word Press, but it’s still not a task for the faint of heart. After its initial post, the Sentinel, at www.virginiasentinel.com, is humming along, posting University-related content daily. And while Editor Grayson Lambert made it clear in an interview with The Cav Daily that the new site doesn’t consider itself a direct competitor to the daily broadsheet, it does pose as somewhat of a challenger to The Cav Daily and the weekly Declaration.

The cartoons of the Virginia Sentinel act as pretty good litmus tests to show its political tilt.

Compared to The Cav Daily’s website, the Sentinel has a much more open and accessible feel, incorporating blogging features like comments and subject tags instead of news sections. And essentially, that’s what the Sentinel is—a blog, albeit one that is run by a three-person staff and posts contributors’ essays and news stories.

The Sentinel sticks to its professed core values of innovation, utility and professionalism (if not AP style), but after little more than a cursory read it becomes clear that the readership the publication intends to serve is fairly right-wing. Among the police-blotter reposts and news stories straight from press releases are cartoons that act as pretty good political litmus tests.

One is titled "Al Gore and Gold." The cartoon shows a vulture-like Gore clutching an Emmy and Oscar in either hand, Nobel metal hung around his neck. The cutline reads: "Value of gold falls in ’07." In another, a squirrel explains why it’s really dumb for people to feel entitled to health care (it didn’t exist when "rights" were established, or something like that). A third features a trout-like Jimmy Carter and makes a stunningly unfunny joke about torture and his novel.

For a proprietary news source, the Sentinel has got a way to go. For a blog that aggregates news, it’s fairly informative. And one gets the feeling that there are plenty of sympathetic readers lurking around the Grounds to support it.

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Previous Obama coverage: Obama, where art thou? State Democrats eat dinner with the Illinois senator and hope he can make Virginia a Blue state

The John D’earth band had just left the stage as a cadre of volunteers and supporters took their places on the risers behind a banner reading "Change we can believe in." And on an October night when temperatures dropped into the 40s, the bass line and horns from Kanye West’s "Testify" began to pound through the cold air. The man was coming.

Mr. West hails from Chicago, the city the Democratic presidential candidate calls home. In the hip-hop world fueled by hyperbole, nobody has a bigger personality, no rapper embodies the role of rock star more than West. And, four songs later, as the man himself took the stage, worked his way through the volunteers hand by hand, then faced the packed Pavilion audience and took the mic, it was hard to believe that any other candidate—Democrat or Republican—holds more of a rock-star aura than Barack Obama.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama fit the role of rock star during his stop at the Pavilion on Monday.

As his first words make their way through the Pavilion, supporters pressed against the rail barricades, straining to get a closer look. Obama’s October 29 fundraiser in Charlottesville felt more like a concert than simply another opportunity for a stump speech. What Obama delivered was an hour-long speech, with no notes, that touched on what are emerging issues in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"He’s just a real person," says Corey Brickers, who drove from Roanoke to listen to Obama. "He’s coming straight from his heart, and he’s speaking to everybody. I’m a parent. I’ve got two kids. My wife’s an emergency room nurse. So with the health care thing, she sees that everyday."

Obama’s speech was marked with moments of laugher and indignant anger. Using a free-wheeling style that responded to shouts from the audience (all positive), Obama roamed the stage in a dark suit with a bright blue tie, ticking off the issues that he sees as vital to his campaign. He spoke on universal healthcare, promising to make sure every American had healthcare off the same quality that Congress member receive.

"We are going to do it by the end of my first term," Obama shouted over the growing roar from the crowd. He waited until the cheers crested. "The time for waiting is over."

His anger rose when talking about the Iraq war. He blasted the Bush administration for leading the county into a war that he said "fundamentally diminished our standing in the world." Vowing on his first day in office to sit down with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to start bringing troops home from Irag, Obama tapped into the audience’s anger over the current war.

"You are sick of George W. Bush," he said. The crowd confirmed this with another wave of cheers. "Let’s admit it."

While touching on other issues such as minimum wage (he said that it should be raised every year), special-interest money and education, Obama steered clear of one issue that has dogged his campaign in the last weeks.

He has received harsh criticism for his decision to include  gospel singer Donnie McClurkin in some recent appearances. McClurkin is a self-described "ex-gay" singer who has expressed hostile opinions toward homosexuals, claiming that through prayer that he was "cured" of his homosexuality. Much has been made in the press of McClurkin’s appearances with Obama. Some view the move as an attempt to shore up support in the African-American church, though Obama has suffered criticism for McClurkin’s inclusion. Obama’s campaign has tried to frame the controversy in terms of a dialogue between two opposing viewpoints.

Obama made very little mention of any gay issues, and no mention of the recent flap. Some of the language at the beginning of the speech, though, bore hints of inclusive rhetoric. After calling the Charlottesville audience a "cross section of America," Obama pointed out that there were blacks and white in attendance, old and young, men and women.

"You see gay folks and straight folks," he said, then quickly skipped to the next subject. He ended with an anecdote about Republicans whispering to him that they secretly supported him. "It’s O.K.," Obama said with a laugh, the crowd laughing along. "You can come out."

The day before his Charlottesville speech, Obama’s campaign announced that he would start more forcefully confronting Hillary Clinton, who is widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner. The announcement came after Obama suffered criticism that he lacked assertiveness.

While branding himself as a Beltway outsider, Obama didn’t once mention Clinton’s name Monday night. He did, however, direct not-so-veiled jabs at the former First Lady and current New York Senator. He painted Clinton as part of the "game" that his opponents charge he lacks experience at playing.

Obama pointed out that the game hasn’t been working for millions of Americans, and that the country needs "to put an end to the game plan."

"If we’re going to bring about change," said Obama, "we have to change our politics, how we do business in Washington."

UVA student Alex Pope says he came expecting Obama to be a great speaker.

"He exceeded my expectations," Pope says. "They talk a lot about his lack of experience, but he soothed those doubts tonight."

The night lacked any pointed barbs at anyone other than Bush, and Brickers says he’s glad Obama didn’t go on the attack as promised.

"I would hope that’s not the case, because he’s built his whole campaign around being different, so I don’t want to see him going out and doing the same as others," he says.

"He’s saying he’s a Washington outsider. And because he’s not part of the system, the media paint a picture of him that’s really not true. They talk about ‘He’s so cerebral. He’s so aloof.’ And I didn’t get that from him. I got somebody that was really down to earth, somebody that I could really have a conversation with."

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It was a dark and stormy night when Lake Anna residents, staff members from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC) and officials from Dominion Power met to discuss plans for a third nuclear reactor on Lake Anna. And heated-meeting clichés abounded, from groan-inducing activist rants to talking-point softball questions to government officials baffled by the mechanics of using a microphone.

Some members of the public wanted to know how to derail the process—others were more inclined to want it on the fast track.

Previous coverage: North Anna to formally plan third reactor Public meeting addresses federal review process Nuclear plant sparks more debate Neighbors concerned over water-discharge permit renewal Lake Anna’s in hot water Dominion Virginia Power upsets the ecosystem Lake Anna plants set for public input Energy activists face timing issues with next week’s meetings The greening of nuclear power Dominion says new reactors could save us from global warming

Some members of the public wanted to know how to derail the process—others were more inclined to want it on the fast track.

Dominion is expected to apply for a "combination" permit in November, which, if approved, allows for both the construction and operation of a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Station. Marvin Smith, a Dominion project director, sat quietly in the audience throughout the three-hour meeting, but did answer a couple of questions when pressed by other audience members.

"Dominion has not made a decision to build a new plant," Smith said at the meeting. Addressing a concern that Dominion might not stop at three reactors on Lake Anna, he said, "We have no plans at this time for a fourth reactor."

What Dominion does have, at this time, is an early site permit application that is under review by NRC. If that application is approved, Dominion could then begin construction preparation work. With approval, Dominion would be able to reserve the site for 20 years, leaving open the option to build a third reactor. According to the NRC website, there are four nuclear reactors operating in Virginia. Two of those are at Lake Anna, 30 miles from Charlottesville.

On October 25, a day after the meeting, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) reissued a variance to Dominion that allows the utility to continue discharging water used to cool the two existing nuclear reactors into Lake Anna. The variance was reissued despite locals’ concerns that the rising temperatures in Lake Anna are negatively affecting the watershed’s ecology. Dominion has maintained that there is no danger to aquatic life or the general public.

Discharged water flows through a series of cooling lagoons before emptying into Lake Anna proper. A debate continues whether these lagoons should fall under the federal Clear Water Act, which caps water temperatures at 90 degrees. Dominion and VDEQ argue that the lagoons are private and aren’t considered surface waters of the United States. Because they aren’t considered surface waters, the lagoons aren’t regulated by the Clean Water Act, despite the fact that the lagoons are open to the public and are popular spots for fishing and boating.

"No one has ever declared that these are not surface waters of the United States," says Elena Day of the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy. "The Attorney General of Virginia has come in on the side of Dominion and said they can heat the water up to whatever temperature they want because it is a private waste heat treatment facility. Well, is that the right of Virginia to say so, or is that a federal right?"

At the meeting, UVA physics professor and resident Donal Day said that he is concerned about what he called the "renaissance" of nuclear power. He questioned the application process of the combination permit, likening it to giving a 16-year-old a driver’s license without teaching him or her how to drive. "Where," he asked NRC staff members, "is the best point to focus my attention to derail this?"

A common concern voiced at the meeting, and one that Dr. Day echoed, was NRC’s trustworthiness. Resident Barbara Crawford brought up NRC’s role in the 2002 failure of an emergency coolant system at the Davis-Bessie reactor in Ohio. Chuck Ogle of NRC responded that NRC had learned from Davis-Bessie and is better for it.

Not all the questions were accusatory—some where downright neighborly. Easily half of the audience members that were left after two and a half hours sported stickers saying "Nuclear Energy YES!" and "Because we care about the air."

One man stood up to ask if the NRC takes into account the jobs created when conducting its environmental impact study—pointing out that the plants create a good number of jobs. Why, in fact it does, said a NRC official.

Lisa Stiles, who identified herself as a nuclear engineer and spoke favorably of a new reactor at the meeting, said after the meeting that the waste created by nuclear reactors is "hardly a deciding factor."

"We need to evaluate all options with the same criteria," she said. "We need to have a diverse energy portfolio." Stiles said that she is also a member of the International Youth Nuclear Congress and of North American Young Generation in Nuclear.

Stiles is also a former Dominion employee who used to work at its nuclear plant in Surry County, Virginia. The American Nuclear Society’s website identifies her as the Project Leader of Strategic Staffing and Knowledge Management for the unclear business unit of Dominion Generation. According to the website, she worked as a lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute from 2005 to 2007.

If Dominion’s combination permit is approved, the next public meeting will be in February.

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When Kurt Krueger, the president of the Piedmont Family YMCA’s Board of Directors, got up to speak at the October 15 City Council meeting, the first thing he said was that the YMCA and the city have some negotiating to do. The Council is considering a $14 million YMCA facility in McIntire Park, and that afternoon, only hours before their meeting, councilors had received the YMCA’s proposal, the first time specific details about the facility had found their way to paper.

YMCA plans to build a $14 million structure in McIntire Park still need City Council approval. At issue is the size of a pool in the facility and how much the city should pay.

The proposal laid out membership fees and financial assistance, things that most councilors liked. It also dove into the specifics of the aquatic facility and its use. Those specifics gave councilors pause. Councilors declined to close the public hearing that night, pushing back any action to its next meeting.

Previous coverage: Without facility, local YMCA cramped Staff have high hopes new home will connect community Council asks for draft lease for YMCA Wendel not alone—anti-YMCA arguments connected to national organization Whom would YMCA serve? ACAC questions whether a Charlottesville Y would serve its mission City must decide on YMCA Councilors debate implications for Parks and Rec

As the city faces the problem of what to do with its aging indoor pools, residents have grown increasingly vocal in their concern that city swimmers will lose lap lanes, even now a precious commodity. In the proposal, the YMCA said that a larger 10-lane pool with a one-meter diving board is contingent upon the city contributing $1.25 million to a facility, for which the city has already agreed to lease park land.

"It’s gotten very wobbly," says Councilor Kendra Hamilton of the proposal. "It was always supposed to be a competition-level pool, because that’s what the need is in the area." She says the $1.25 million contribution was "absolutely not" an expectation prior to the city’s request of lease proposals. Earlier discussions between the city and the YMCA had raised the idea of the city matching the county’s $1.25 million contribution, though a commitment wasn’t reached.

"We’ve always been firm that with the value of the land we’re contributing that it should take the place of any monetary contribution," says Hamilton.

Councilor Dave Norris agrees. "Their original proposal was to have city funding in addition to the land," he says. "But the city’s never committed to providing funding. Our sentiment was that the contribution of the land was a pretty hefty value."

Councilors did generally like the fee structure set forth in the proposal. City and county residents would pay a monthly family fee of $72, an individual monthly fee of $48, or reduced rates for anyone under 23 years old. The YMCA’s proposal also specified that no resident would be denied access for financial reasons, going as far as to waive any fee for residents living at or below the national poverty level, which is currently $20,650 for a family of four. It also proposed a graded scale of financial assistance for those above the poverty level.

Norris says that the level of financial assistance proposed by the YMCA represents a strong commitment on its part to serve all of the community. He points out the free membership for the roughly 25 percent of the city’s population that lives below the poverty line. "That’s very emblematic of their commitment to not being an exclusive organization," says Norris.

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If vandalism, drug dealing/using or late-night anonymous public sex is your thing, you’re going to want to listen up: Public park hours are changing. City Council just passed an amendment that will close Bailey and Starr Hill parks at 9pm, and close McIntire, Pen, Tonsler and Washington parks, along with the Downtown Pavilion, at 10pm. Jackson Park will close at 11pm.

Late night Downtown dog walkers can cheer City Council’s decision to change enforcement—not hours—of Lee Park.

Lee Park will continue to be open until 11pm, but the city is also using a debarment strategy at that park, the impetus for all these crackdowns. If you’re caught doing something criminal in the park—and you know who you are—you’ll be barred from all public parks. Only private parks for you.

"With Lee Park, they’ve got this new debarment strategy they’re using for people committing crimes in the park, and we’re taking a wait-and-see approach to see if that has the same effect that we were looking to get out of an earlier closing," says City Councilor Dave Norris.

City officials originally considered closing Lee Park at 9pm, but law-abiding citizens expressed concern that such an action would inhibit late-night walks and legal dog- pooping jaunts.

"So far, anecdotally, it’s helped in Lee Park," says Norris. "Now, it doesn’t solve any of the problems. It just transfers the problems. But it does return the parks to their proper use."

So late-night park abuser, you’ve been warned. It’s a misdemeanor if you’re caught in most parks after hours, or permanent debarment if you’re nabbed in Lee Park—unless you have the express written permission of the director of Parks and Recs, and then, well, it’s O.K.

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Last year, the city gave the developer of a 101′, 100-unit luxury condo building on Avon Street 365 days to submit finalized site plans for the project. Randolph Croxton, the building’s architect, used them all.

More than a year after the City Council and the Planning Commission approved a special-use permit for the project, known as 201 Avon Street, developers submitted finalized site plans on October 10, the last day before the city’s approval expired. So the nine-story building, which includes condos and a six-room boutique hotel with spa, remains on track.

This earlier rendering shows how the 201 Avon building would change the south Downtown landscape.

Previous coverage: Time running out for 201 Avon St. Nine-story luxury condo project’s site still on market BAR relents on nine-storey building Hundred luxury condos heading to south Downtown City Planners accept nine-storey building Downtown luxury condo project moves forward Nine-storey, south Downtown development deferred Planning Commission fears not enough commercial space

Brian Haluska of Neighborhood Development Services says that it’s uncommon for city staff to receive materials on the last day possible. "We do have projects that get to a certain stage and then stop," he says. "That happens a lot. But it’s not terribly common to have someone wait an entire year. But also projects of this size aren’t terribly common either."

The 201 Avon building is one of six current projects that top out at 101′, projects which came after a 2003 rezoning that encouraged high density development. But the project’s green features set it apart from the pack. Croxton has said that he is striving for the building to be platinum-certified for Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED). That level is something only a handful of buildings in the country can boast.

While it’s unclear whether the building project’s high environmental standards contributed to the delay in submitting finalized site plans, Haluska says those concerns pertain more to the building documents. "There were some considerations that had to be made during the site-plan process in order for them to set things up so that they could do that," he says.

City staff is currently reviewing the submitted plan and will likely give the developer comments in the coming two or three weeks. After that, the developer will have to resubmit a revised site plan.

Croxton could not be reached for comment.

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music

There is something in the band Wilco that just begs an argument. It helps that its music derives from tension: melody versus noise, simple country versus free jazz, order versus chaos. On Saturday night, Wilco ripped through 27 songs and three encores on the last night of their stateside tour (frontman Jeff Tweedy confirmed from the stage that festivals don’t count, so there’s one less argument).

Wherever the band goes, some kind of controversy follows, from the head-to-head battle with Son Volt on Wilco’s first record, to the battle with Time Warner over Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to its newest critical accusation, the band’s decline into "Dad Rock." So let’s continue the kerfuffle. Here are four arguments about Wilco’s October 20 performance at the Pavilion.

All "Dad Rock" and Volkswagens? Wilco proved anything but during a 27-song set that rewarded the patience and enthusiasm of fans at the Charlottesville Pavilion.

Everything before the first encore is warm-up

This is, of course, a nearly absurd argument, especially when you consider the range of the 18 songs that constituted Wilco’s set proper. But, to a large degree, it’s true. Saturday night’s show opened with "Sunken Treasure," where band frontman and musical center Jeff Tweedy sang "Music is my savior" and promptly followed the line up with "I was maimed by rock ‘n’ roll."

It’s a disparate universe that Wilco creates, and forming it takes time. Working through 12 years of music in a set isn’t all that hard if you tend to play from basically the same model, which Wilco doesn’t, so a walk through the band’s past bobs and weaves. The first hour of Wilco sometimes feels like learning to speak a new language.

From the scattershot rhythms of "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" to the fuzzy shuffle of "Handshake Drugs," Wilco is a band on the move, shuttling between straight-forwardness and building layers of sound only to take them apart again. At the risk of blowing up this argument, one of the night’s most impressive moments came eight songs in. Easing into the rising-then-descending notes of "Impossible Germany," their best song from the latest record, guitarist Nels Cline managed to squeeze notes in uncomfortable-yet-pleasing spaces between beats in his solos. The sweetness of this tension, along with the tension between the sound of one of Wilco’s more musically accessible songs and Tweedy’s opaque lyrics, is what makes Wilco great.

And here’s the meat of this argument: That tension is more starkly and fully on display in Wilco’s three encores. There’s just no way around it. Even the mellower Tweedy of Saturday night’s Pavilion, when screaming "…for nothing" on the heels of "I’d like to thank you all…" for nearly a minute, creates the anxious build-up and cathartic release that fuel the band’s moments that are closest to sublime.

And, sure, maybe it wasn’t a full minute. That’s the point. It felt like 10. That’s why Wilco is at its best in the last 45-minutes of shows, as they proved in songs like "Outtasite (Outta Mind) and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." The tension, thanks to an hour and a half of build-up, is exquisite.

It also helps that they seem to save their most rocking songs for last, too.

Nels Cline is the rock ‘n’ roll Frankenstein’s monster

Aside from his physique and head, which you have to agree reminds one of ol’ Boris, Cline, who handles the majority of leads and solos, is the almost-perfect musical equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster. Just as the animated corpse, pieced together from disparate parts, showed a tenderness when confronted with softness, so does Cline when the song calls for it.

And just as the monster gently plays with a small girl, Cline melts runs and riffs into the melody of "Impossible Germany," smooths over the shuffle of "Walken" while playing a lap slide guitar and stuffs solo notes into small pockets of time until they feel like they’re about to burst. But once incited by Glenn Kotche’s drums, Cline goes mad, lurching and jerking his guitar toward his amp, trampling through songs like "A Shot in the Arm" with furious abandon. The girl is down the well.

Cline’s switch from gentle melody to madness came at surprising moments, but each time the snap into fury felt exactly right moments into it. Cline provided much of the wall of noise that Tweedy played against, walking through a sonic apocalypse each time bent over, loping along, bouncing at the knees as Wilco’s music crashed around him. And there was Tweedy in a nutshell Saturday night, shambling through the sweet musical chaos he’s created.

Wilco isn’t quite "Dad Rock" (yet)

Tweedy took what can only be construed as a shot at some recent critics after the band’s full-force run through "War on War." During the previous song, "Hummingbird," he brought up a small girl who helped him round out the last chorus before the two danced joyfully at center stage as Wilco yet again assembled all the disparate parts of the song at its conclusion. Afterwards, Tweedy threw an off-handed remark at the crowd, saying how nice it was to see children at the show. "All of our fans are getting old and dying," he said, smirk firmly in place.

In May, when Sky Blue Sky was released, mainstream critics praised its maturity. But there were grumblings from the critical sideline that Wilco had drifted into something dubbed "Dad Rock." Online critics lamented the aggression that, they claimed, the band had lost. From the seven songs the band played from "Sky Blue Sky" Saturday, it’s easy to see where those critics get their fodder. But the band’s performance of those seven songs, including "You are my Face," "Shake it Off" and "Side with Seeds" should stop any "Dad Rock" accusations right in their tracks.

With each album Wilco releases, the period of repeated listening that the new songs demand grows. This is music you must sit with. But seeing the band piece together each song live is an experience that fasttracks the waiting period. Aside from the listening experience, watching Wilco as they seamlessly take a song like "Sky Blue Sky" from a jangle to a foot-stomping screech then back, you discover just how much sonic territory the band is able to cover, seemingly without effort.

If Wilco has lost some straightforward aggression from songs like "Misunderstood" and "Outtasite," that energy has simply been translated into side-to-side movement in tone and subtlety. Tweedy also answered any "Dad Rock" critics in the band’s three encores, charging through A.M. favorite "Casino Queen" and ending the show with "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," a song that wobbles from a drone until you find it screaming in your face.

Wilco is no longer solely a vehicle for Tweedy’s vision

Sure, there was the sixth song into Wilco’s set, "Just that Simple" from A.M., where bassist John Stirratt switched instruments with Tweedy and sang. And there was Tweedy once again, behind the bass, where he began in Uncle Tupelo, gently bouncing along as Stirratt strummed and sang. But that’s not new.

What was new was Cline’s role, serving as the hinge to nearly every song, driving the band’s sound forward with his aggression (see above argument) and tempering that by stretching out melodies in "Muzzle of Bees" and "Walken." And sure, it’s still Tweedy’s band, but Saturday night held the feeling that the songs served two masters, and that Cline was obviously one of those two, and that Wilco’s music stretches and soars and is better because of it.

Even after all of the guitar fireworks on "Muzzle" and "Shake it Off" and "I Got You (At the End of the Century)," Cline’s ownership of the music became most apparent at the end of the set when he stopped jerking and kicking while bouncing notes every which way. When the band slid into "Walken" from Sky Blue Sky, Cline sat down with a slide guitar on his lap and drew out every ounce of energy from the song.

To his left, Tweedy sang a song about a song. And Cline’s sound, tempered just for the moment by the soft edges of the slide, doubled in on itself, went in and came back out. And for those minutes, just before the stage lights went bright and Clines choked the first notes from the raucous "I’m the man who loves you," Wilco was harmonious.