Wilco, Chicago’s well-nurtured baby, sparked bouts of air-guitar and emphatic sing-alongs Monday night at Otto’s Niteclub.

The evening started rough with Chicago band the Fruit Bats, as fans continued their waves of conversation during the band’s set. The casual conversation crested as the last lines of the Fruit Bats’ John-Denver-resurrected singer uttered his final words.

The crowd mulled over its plastic cups of beer patiently waiting for Wilco to appear. The feel of the room shifted with sudden tenacity from the casual into fierce shrieks and applause as Wilco mounted the stage and the first strains of a memorable set began.

Bodies shifted as if at sea vying for a glimpse of lead singer Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy pressed his lips against the microphone to breathe out the poetry that the ravenous crowd eagerly consumed.

Tweedy’s expression remained blank for the majority of the set, despite the primal energy being pushed upon him by the ever-anxious crowd. Only once did the stone face of Wilco break, and that was not in response to any amount of cheering the crowd could call up.

Tweedy, looking to his bandmates during the third song into what would be an hour and a half long set, broke the facade and broke loose of whatever constraints had been holding him. This was to be the only hint of energy out of a cigarette-deprived Tweedy.

Wilco, a band that normally plays festivals and large theaters, whipped a largely local crowd into a frothy mess. Tweedy revealed to the crowd that Wilco’s sound man, Stan, had been in charge of sound at Otto’s. It was not the gods smiling down on this privileged audience, but a streak of pure luck that brought Wilco to sleepy little DeKalb.

Wilco’s set could not and would not end if the audience had anything to say about it. After deafening cheers and what stretched into hours of clapping, the band came back out to do encore after encore. After two encores, most of the last album and a rousing sing-along to the old favorite “Misunderstood,” Wilco had to take a stand and leave the Otto’s stage for what could be permanently.