Just when you thought DeKalb was the most boring place on earth (or at least in the Midwest), an event comes along to make you question your opinion of this little city of ours.

The event: Wilco playing Otto’s Niteclub, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, on April 21 with opening band The Fruit Bats.

The show is for those 21 and over and the show is sold out. Tickets went on sale on March 24, at Record Revolution, 817 W. Lincoln Highway. By Friday of the same week the show was sold out. Tickets also were sold on Wilco’s Web site (www.wilcoworld.net), Otto’s General Manager Justin Pierson said.

So what makes Wilco so interesting? Why is their show at Otto’s sold out? Well, for starters, there’s quite a little story behind its last album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” and it goes a little something like this.

-A couple of years ago, when Wilco finished recording the album, it handed it over to its record label at the time, Reprise. In return, Reprise hated it and sent it back to the band. Before you knew it, Wilco had left Reprise and signed with Nonesuch records, which released the album to critical acclaim last year. The only problem was, since so much time had passed between the day the record was finished and the day it actually came out in stores, it leaked online and almost everybody that wanted it got it before it came out in stores.

Could this be why it saw low record sales? Who knows, but at the end of 2002, ‘Foxtrot’ was on numerous critics’ “best of” lists, and fans all over were calling the album the band’s best.

So what kind of music does Wilco play? Some call it alt rock, some call it alt country. In all reality, it combines a little bit of both. While “Yankee hotel Foxtrot” was more country-oriented with its acoustic guitars and southern melodies, the band’s 1996 release, the double album “Being There,” was more rock-oriented with electric guitars and rock ‘n’ roll beats in songs like “Outtasite (Outta Mind).”

Falling right in the middle of those two albums was 1999’s “Summerteeth,” which was a sign of what direction Wilco was heading and where it had come from. Songs like “ELT” and “A Shot in the Arm” combined rock, country and alternative perfectly. The album also was praised by critics. In fact, Wilco has never made an album that fans and critics didn’t like. It’s almost as if they are incapable of making bad music.

Wilco has spent a lot of time touring during the past year; the band has even been to Australia and Japan. Pierson said that a big show at Otto’s would be a great addition to its tour. He also feels lucky to have the band play here.

“We’re smaller than what they usually play, so it’s a privilege,” he said. “We knew it would sell out.”