Not every band needs a hook in their songs, but so far the only hook-like thing I saw from them was our mayor gushing like an 11 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. A chart topping band needs hooks in their music or something in their stage show or overall appearance to be successful; like a gimmick.

There are gimmicks to rock and roll like Hendrix playing with his teeth or behind his back that reeled in people, but he could also write great hooks in his songs too. You can suck the audience in with a gimmick and then write songs with hooks so they buy your album. So far Wilco's gimmick is to be sooo friendly that you could bring your kids to a show in your SUV and they will dance away while our mayor turns all red and gives away the city to them. If I was mayor and into a band I'd probably do the same thing though.

My impression from seeing them for my first time was that Wilco doesn't have hooks in their songs, which is probably why they are what they are and where they are...IMHO.

Do they sell more CDs than posters and shirts at their shows?

Successful musicians or bands, like Badfinger for example, write songs with hooks in them. That is usually what separates a jam from a song.

It is also what may separate Trampled by Turtles from Charlie Parr. Black-eyed Snakes have a gimmick of being possessed by the spirit of the blues, but they have hooks in their songs too. 

"Stairway to Heaven" had a hook and Led Zeppelin had a gimmick of Satan that scared people into going to their shows. Wilco has a gimmick of friendliness, but with few hooks in their songs they become more of a jam band on stage... Not Phish jamming with psychedelics, but fairly sober jamming with the kids near by.  A buzzed jam.

I'm not knocking it, I'm just giving an observation.

Jeff Tweedy comes off as this overly humble guy on stage, but what I saw after the show made me think otherwise. 

There was a meet and greet after the show for about 30 fans with green sticker passes. Wilco's manager came out after the show and told the Bayfront staff that the entire park had to be cleared out before the band would come out of their tour buses for the meet and greet. The extra 10 or so people who were still in the park without green passes had to leave the gates and couldn't even watch from behind a fence. When they didn't leave the entire park fast enough the staff called over police officers to escort the handful of patrons who didn't have a green pass but were hoping for an autograph or just a glimpse of the band. One guy was a bit tipsy and the cops tried to arrest him when he protested leaving the park because a band's management demanded it. Luckily his female friends talked the cop into to letting him go, but are police really needed so a band can come out for a meet and greet? Why not let the 10 or so additional people in? Why not let them catch at least glimpse of their friendliness?

On top of that Tweedy never came out to the meet and greet. Too friendly I guess... Or maybe we didn't give him enough love as a city yet?