page_title: Kicking Television: Live in Chicago
section_title: Release and reception
hierarchical_section_title: Kicking Television: Live in Chicago / Release and reception
caption_attribution_description: Wilco at Austin City Limits Fest Sep 2004
context_page_description: Kicking Television: Live in Chicago is a live album by Chicago alternative rock band Wilco, released on November 15, 2005 by Nonesuch Records. The album consists of material from four live shows at Chicago's Vic Theater recorded May 4, 2005 to May 7, 2005. Although the band filmed the concerts, they decided not to release the footage as a DVD. It was the band's first album with an expanded lineup featuring Nels Cline and Pat Sansone.
  Kicking Television debuted on the Billboard 200 at number forty-seven, and has since sold over 114,000 copies. Critical reception to the album was generally positive. Publications such as The A.V. Club and Pitchfork lauded the band's performance of material from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.
  On April 17, 2010, for Record Store Day Wilco released an audiophile, 180-gram vinyl pressing of Kicking Television. The vinyl pressing, spread across four LP's, included eight previously unreleased tracks recorded in May 2005.
context_section_description: Nonesuch Records released the album on November 15, 2005. The album debuted at number forty-seven on the U.S. Billboard 200 and spent two weeks on the chart. As of April 13, 2007, the album had sold over 114,000 copies.
  Kicking Television was well received by critics; according to Metacritic, it was given a score of 85 out of 100 based on "universal acclaim". Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club called the album "stellar" and expressed surprise over how well the A Ghost Is Born songs sounded live. AllMusic editor Mark Deming lauded the "new muscle and force" of the songs, and commented on "the élan of this band in full flight shows," declaring that "the fun has been put back in Wilco." Marc Hogan of Pitchfork called the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot songs "still awesome" and remarked that "this is what A Ghost Is Born is supposed to sound like." Q said that "Live albums rarely come equipped with such a strong pulse" and later named the album one of the top 20 live albums of all time.
  E! Online said that Wilco "[turn] each song up to 11 and [let their] rabid hometown fans provide thousand-strong backing vocals. It'll make you want to yell 'Woooh!' too." Spin stated: "Not since Grateful Dead's Europe '72 has there been a live double album in which intimacy and expansiveness, guitar mess and piano reflection commingle this sweetly." Billboard said that Wilco had "never sounded better". Ben Gilbert of Yahoo! Music UK stated that the album "documents a band on fire and a frontman in clarion clear voice." Under the Radar said the album "Captures a band at the height of their creative powers." Uncut said, "In this live setting, fascinatingly, the brutality to which the songs are subjected only serves to underscore their poignancy." Blender said it "sounds like a greatest hits set."
  Although most reviews applauded the effort, critics also expressed discontent with elements of the album. Hogan noted in his Pitchfork review that Tweedy's banter was "ho-hum", and stated that "Kicking Television" and "The Late Greats" should have been cut from the album. Andrew Gaering of Stylus Magazine gave the album a B rating, but was disappointed with how the songs "find the band holding serve".
caption: Wilco performing in 2004, shortly before the recording of Kicking Television.
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