I never thought I’d see Jeff Tweedy standing on a temporary stage in a parking lot, singing “Misunderstood” while looking wistfully off toward the Sears Mall and the BP tower, but there he was, last night, playing the band’s second ever show in Alaska. It has been raining almost continuously the whole weekend, and last night was no exception, but the rain didn’t seem to dampen people’s excitement, at least not the folks around us near the front of the stage. The band played a great show, more than two hours long, hitting most of the songs we wanted to hear. Nels whipped out an electric whisk at one point and played his guitar with it, and I got to hear John sing “It’s Just That Simple” while Jeff played bass, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

We had good parking karma, and had a late lunch at the restaurant before heading out into the parking lot to hear the Whipsaws play their opening set, followed by Wilco, who went on around 7:15. Jeff made some jokes about the weather, a few cracks at the crowd in Fairbanks the night before, who apparently had some difficulty clapping along, and also assured us that they weren’t there just to “check your state off our list.” Well, at least that wasn’t the only reason, he said.



We’ve had a nice, if a little brief, trip, and we’re heading to the airport in a few hours to get back to L.A. We’ll be back in August, with a little more time, and hopefully the rain will have stopped.