By: Jared Gudnason

On June 22, 2004, Americana band Wilco released their fifth studio album, entitled “A Ghost Is Born”. It is their second album overall to feature percussionist Glenn Kotche, who performed at Minneapolis’ Cyrus Northrop Auditorium Sunday, Nov. 2. It marked my fifth time watching Kotche perform, and the first he arguably performed solo.

The performance began at 4 p.m.; I got a glass of cabernet and found my friend in the eastern seats of the first floor. The evening was presented by Liquid Music, a division of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, now in existence for 13 years. I had not been to Northrop in 10 years, last time around for German legends Kraftwerk.

Kotche entered stage right to a round of applause; it was no secret that he was the de facto headliner. His drum kit was an encircled presentation, and he began playing a variety of bells quite near the front of the stage. His first composition concerned the looping of percussive elements, some of which I had not seen before. Aside from the typical rock and roll drum configuration, Kotche employed the use of crickets, among many, many other sound effects.

They were triggered by him standing up from his drum throne and tapping something out of my vantage point, respectively at the 10 o’clock position of the circular instrumental setup. He also had an instrument that resembled something of a fly-fishing rod, with what resembled a metallic maraca that was swung overhead and seemed to provide a whistling sound, atypical of maracas in general. After at least 12 minutes, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard entered from stage right.

Together, along with absent film director Johan Renck of HBO’s series “Chernobyl”, they presented their second act, “Historia”. Knausgaard began reading what was to be an at least 20-minute short story, while Kotche provided a singular, original soundscape that augmented his fantastic storytelling, while at times the narrative was quite dark. Of course, while drumming is not an English spoken word, the percussive elements in tandem provided an artistic experience I had never borne witness to.

Afterward, they were interviewed by a moderator. Unbeknownst to me, their collaboration was first envisioned at a neighbor’s house, the last time Wilco was in town to play Saint Paul’s Palace Theater over a three-night period. While performing in Wilco, the elements present Sunday at Northrop are maximized by the incorporation of at least seven other musical elements by his bandmates.Aside from a guest drumming credit on Taylor Swift’s 2024 “The Tortured Poets Department”, Kotche is a Grammy recipient for Wilco’s fifth album. Renck’s film was quite breathtaking, all in black and white, but had some highly dramatized elements, typical of “Chernobyl”. There was an encore after the Q&A, and then we made our way out.