Fourteen years had passed since Wilco had played live in Tucson, and their sold-out show Friday at UA’s Centennial Hall made up for the lost time.

Grizzly Bear eased into the night with their trademark harmonies and produced nothing but pretty pop that pulls like taffy.

Performance highlights included “Two Weeks,” found on Grizzly Bear’s most recent release, as well as “Knife” and “On a Neck, On a Spit,” from their second album “Yellow House.”

Good vibes flowed as Grizzly Bear’s Edward Droste gushed about how happy he and the band were to open for Wilco, and he mentioned that it was a one-time incident on Wilco’s current tour. The remaining dates find Jonathan Wilson, Okkervil River, Yo La Tengo and Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band exchanging the opening slot.

The crowd filtered into the nearly 2,500-capacity venue a few minutes before Wilco took the stage. “Hell Is Chrome” came in as an easy appetizer — a direct request from Jeff Tweedy for the audience to “come with me.”

From there on out Wilco banged out tracks new and old. Tweedy stayed silent and focused for a good chunk of the set, opening up by waving to the crowd at the end of the line, “What was I thinking when I said hello?” in “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.”

Tweedy revealed that Wilco had not played a gig in Tucson for 14 years and had been kicked off the stage at that particular show.

Tweedy also announced he had gone to middle school in Tucson, adding that an acquaintance called Boots gave him punk records that changed his life.

“It’s all your fault, Arizona,” Tweedy said, laughing.

The energy harnessed by this band of men who are all hovering around the age of 40 is more fun than forced, and more happy than hopeless.

Glenn Kotche stood atop his drum kit and held his sticks high (not to mention drumming like an ultimate fighter champion), Mikael Jorgensen banged his keys with a pillow and Nels Kline exuberantly heaved his red Jazzmaster toward his amp.

Tweedy’s audience interaction hit its humorous pinnacle when he addressed an apparent heckler.

“Are you serving parole? Are you here doing community service at the Wilco show?” Tweedy acknowledged the troublemaker’s participation via clapping along later in the set.

Springing forth from Wilco’s back catalog were, to mention a few stand-outs, “Kingpin” and “Hotel Arizona,” from “Being There”; “A Shot In The Arm” and “Via Chicago,” from “Summerteeth”; “Handshake Drugs,” and “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” from “A Ghost Is Born;” “I’m The Man Who Loves You” and “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” from “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”; “Impossible Germany” and “Hate It Here” from “Sky Blue Sky.”

Peppered throughout the set were tracks from “Wilco (the album),” set to release June 30.

To begin with a summation: The record sounds like the record was made by a group of guys who are enjoying their lives and the music they are making.

Some might ask: “Have they lost their edge?” Or, the ever-haunting, “Are they just too dad rock now?”

At both counts, the answer “no” is best suited. It’s not “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” and maybe dads will dig it, but ultimately a group of seriously talented musicians have made a record worth at least a few listens all the way through.

“Wilco (the song)” buzzes under crisp vocals from Tweedy, promising that “Wilco will love you, baby.”

“Deeper Down” follows as a concise Dylan-esque tale with poetic flourish and tender backing.

“One Wing” pairs up with “Bull Black Nova,” not as could easily be misheard “Blue Black Nova,” and the two have the potential to be some of Wilco’s most memorable on the record.

The former is a piece of lament, discussing endings, apologies and goodbyes. Kotche’s fills during the bridge punctuate Tweedy’s walk-through lyrics, “This happens to all dead weight eventually.”

The latter is an exercise in repetition and progression in tension that leads to ultimate release. Dissonant guitars with Tweedy’s nervous screams and shaky words are a foil to the rest of the record, which could be listened to rather passively.

Feist brings her versatile alto flourishes backing Tweedy’s vocals on “You And I,” the obligatory, but not excessively mushy, love song.

The guest spot is the perfect addition to the track, and prefaces the synchronized piano and guitar on the quintessentially American “You Never Know.”

“Wilco (the album)” jaunts along with “I’ll Fight” and “Sonny Feeling,” both bright rockers that result from the introspective soul seekers “Solitaire” and “Country Disappeared.”

“Everlasting Everything” brings the record to a close with a melodrama that Wilco, and maybe a couple others, can pull off without seeming silly and pretentious.

Drum crescendo and strings bring the song to a height that does not suffice for the most obvious of endings but makes its mark.

For Wilco fans, this record is another installment in the broad catalog of one of the greatest bands in America, and for new listeners it’s a chance to delve into that band’s catalog.

Recommended If You Dig: Loose Fur, M. Ward, Blitzen Trapper.

Reach the reporter at rebecca.bartkowski@asu.edu