What makes a great live album? Improvisation? Memorable between-song banter? Drum solos? Luckily, "Kicking Television: Live in Chicago," Wilco [ tickets ]'s foray into the live-album universe, doesn't feature any drum solos. Instead the group simply concentrates on fierce performances--and, usually, that's enough.

Recorded over a period of four nights last May at Chicago's Vic Theatre, this 23-track double album focuses on the band's two most recent releases, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "A Ghost is Born." Thanks to its recent lineup changes, Wilco has evolved into a great live band, and "Kicking Television" is plenty proof of that.

On disc as onstage, the show's highlight is the epic "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," where Tweedy and company build on the album version with taut, noisy solos. Throughout the disc, fans in the audience can be heard joining in, but because this release was patched together using four performances, the listener is denied a complete concert experience. And that's disappointing.

The last song, however, should be worth the price of admission. That track, a cover of Charles Wright and the Watts Third Street Choir's "Comment," is a song about peace and brotherhood. It is stirring, soulful and easily among the highlights of "Kicking Television"--a good live disc, just not a great one.