{image1}The floor of the Eagles Ballroom was a gradually ebbing ocean Monday night, as the sold out crowd grew increasingly eager.

Then, moments before the stage was filled, silence hit as a Whitman-esque, bearded man appeared on stage and proceeded to recite a barely audible poem. It was Chicago's rock 'n roll poet laureate, Thax Douglas. His poem was simply titled, Wilco.

The subject of his poem met the stage in deliberate stride and the room began to overflow with the buoyancy of "Muzzle of Bees." The group appeared fresh, energized and prepared to do something radically exceptional.

Having originally been booked on the canceled Lollapalooza tour this summer, Wilco was in town as a part of the hodgepodge tour itinerary supporting their stunning new album, "A Ghost Is Born." Needless to say, there was a heavy population of Chicagoans in attendance. For once within the past couple weeks, completely unrelated to the Cubs.

There wasn't a single moment throughout the evening's performance that the members of Wilco didn't seem on the brink. Every second contained the thrill and purity of punk, rock and folk with the intensity and improvisation of avant-guard jazz. "Hell Is Chrome," "At Least That's What You Said" and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" all exhibited fragments of noisy chaos, nearly forcing the organized structures to vanish, only to calmly rise again.

So much of this innovation was clearly the result of the inclusion of avant-jazz/punk guitarist, Nels Cline into Wilco's current touring lineup. Thrashing and flinching stage right, Cline was perfectly in-tune with the program's structure, but giant steps outside the typical rock orthodox. The notable addition of multi-instrumentalist, Pat Sansone completed the group's kinetic unity throughout the evening.

The evening's set was definitely focused on new material, but Wilco did not shy away from some of the fan's favorites from the past. "Passenger Side," "California Stars" and "Via Chicago" were all reinvented and incorporated nicely into the continuum.

Suddenly, what had felt like a brief moment had unfortunately come to an end after nearly two hours had passed. Jeff Tweedy and Co. concluded their second encore of the night with the heartbreaking solitude of "The Lonely 1."