hazel

these 3 songs are at the top of my favorite dylan songs and i think jeff would do great covering them.

abandoned love

percys song

sad eyed lady of the lowlands

this morning at 6:00 i woke up to the beginning of mavis singing 'wrote a song for everyone and after that casino queen! no hitting the snooze 2x like i usually do...yay WXPN!

one other photo from the weekend...the campground i was staying at was east of North Adams, up that steep switch back on rt 2. coming into the town on Friday, the sole hole in the cloud bank had a shaft of bright sun just on the town below. definitely an omen, a good one.

 

Beautiful picture

Masses flock to MOCA

For the love of our wilco

Embraced by the green mounds

-------------

Wilco is my contentment

Happiness, joy and smiling eyes

How to fight loneliness...

-----------

Wilco loves us baby

Friends, strangers, atmosphere

Inside jumps for joy!!

------------

Solo journey to solid sound

Overwhelmed by beauty

Heart on my sleeve, head in the clouds

I wrote this yesterday for you to sing, but haven't had time to go to the shops to get a new present today, so it will have to do. Sing to the tune of ... well you know the tune.

 

"You Are Trying To Dunk My Ass"

 

I am an American MoCa Mass dunkee

I'm a'splashin' down the angled shute

I'm wiping out in the plunge pool blinking

What was I thinking that I decided to do?

 

Let's forget about the sting-eyed chlorine

Let's undress just like drip-dryed stragglers

This is not a joke, so please stop smiling

What was I thinking when I said it wasn't cold?

 

I want to glide through that flume ride dreaming

Pitch it from the near side, baby hit the sight!

You were so right when you said that I'd be drinking

Hot tea from the thermos that you made last night

 

I want to hold you in my shivering puddle

You're a useful helper, towel me down quick

Take out my cell-phone because I do believe its ruined now

What was I thinking when I said I'd go?

 

I'd always thought that if I wore a Nudie

People would love me and let me get off free

Then I fell again and the suit kept shrinking

What was I thinking when I got back on the tee?

 

You are trying to dunk my ass

You are trying to dunk my ass

But still I'd be lying if I said I'd got my trunks on

You are trying to dunk my ass

 

Disposable clothes were an option

But Glenn hid them when I went off to the loo

Periscope up again with more spluttering

What was I thinking that I decided to do?

 

It's been a while and the wind's picking up now

I've got the chills and twenty minutes till I'm free

All this flowing water makes my mind kinda drift now

Think no one will notice if I have a sly pee?

 

Dunk spree

I'm the man on a dunk spree (to fade)

 

 

Chin chin

pretty darn hilarious

And all the best in your day!

 

Thanks for your music.

 

i like your avatar

Dearest Jeff, you have brought so much joy to my life and to so many others and I have to say on your birthday that I love you for it. Thank you for being you and I hope you never stop making music. Have a great day today.

p.s. I missed you at the dunk tank but if I was there I would not have dunked you.

Happy birthday!!!

the more the merrier It was very therapeutic for me creating it. I hope it was to everyone that went to Solid Sound and that viewed it too.

it was for me,..thanks for letting me share

The magic of the Berkshire mountains, the beauty of music and the love of Wilco. All rolled up into one glorious weekend!

 

The pictures are a mix of mine and pit pros and the audio is what i captured with my rig. Put on your headphones and turn it up!

 

enjoy!

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbQh7t8UEwc

i love your slide show! would you mind if i shared it on my facebook?

Here is one I shot. I love the intro Jeff has a great banter.

nice close-up video,..hes the greatest, i love they way he scrunches up his face when he sings, how he smiles so much when he performs because he just loves it so much, his dimples, his chipped front teeth, his voice, banter, i could go on and on and on...yeah, i love him, there i said it.

Is anyone else out there having a hard time "letting go" of this experience? I spent all summer looking forward to it, absolutely revelled in the experience during, felt immensely sad when it was over, and haven't stopped hearing Wilco songs in my head during every waking moment since. I'd sort of hoped this would get some of the Wilco out of my system, as I'm a bit obsessive about this band. But, even a week later, there's "something in my veins, bloodier than blood." It's Wilco.

i feel the exact same way..only i didn't think i was gonna go until the last minute (day before) and i'm so glad i did. i too was really sad when it was over. when i try to explain the experience to people i can tell they really don't give a shit so i just stop explaining.

From a "how did the festival do financially" perspective, here's an encouraging article from the Berkshire Eagle, http://www.berkshire...com/ci_15846411

 

 

Economic impact significant

By Jennifer Huberdeau, New England NewspapersUpdated: 08/21/2010 10:24:14 AM EDT

Saturday August 21, 2010 NORTH ADAMS -- The three-day Wilco Solid Sound Festival pumped about $1 million to $1.5 million into the local economy last weekend, according to early estimates from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

"We ran our preliminary numbers through the Center for Creative Community Development's formula for measuring the economic impact of the arts," Joseph Thompson, museum director, said Friday. "C3D's statistical formula, which was based on national averages, says that the average person spends $40 when attending a single event at a museum or performing arts venue. Of the visitors from that weekend, only 10 percent were from our region, with 90 percent from the outside -- traveling, spending the night and eating locally. We know the spent much well over $40 a day."

 

He said the museum estimates that at $40 a day, the local economic impact was about $1 million, but figuring that at least half of the visitors spent at least $80 to $90 a day on lodging and food, the impact shoots up to about $1.5 million. The festival sold "just north of 5,000 tickets," with pre-sale prices of $78 and regular prices of $91 for the three-day event.

 

"That's still a very conservative estimate, knowing that many of these visitors were staying in very nice hotels, driving Volvos and eating out for every meal, which would make the impact significantly higher," Thompson said. "We know that we had 2,000 ticket-holders arrive on Friday; over 5,000 at the museum on Saturday and that 4,000 remained for Sunday's shows.

 

"What interesting to us is the museum draws those types of crowds during busy weekends, but usually over a three to four week period. So, Mass MoCA is churning out an economic impact similar to that weekend on a regular basis, only its far more invisible spread out over several weeks, as opposed to having all those people here over a three-day weekend." He also noted that both the local communities and the state would see a boon from the hotel/motel tax, which was not part of tax-free weekend.

 

"We actually encountered a problem with potential visitors having trouble finding a place to stay," Thompson said. "I know that most of the campgrounds had waiting lists that were 300 to 350 people long and that the hotels were booked. There were a few rooms left at some venues, but those were really expensive rooms around $400 a night."

However, there's still a question if the festival was profitable for its three partners -- the museum, Wilco and Higher Ground, the promotion company out of Burlington, Vt., which was in charge of booking the acts and other festival related details.

 

"It's fair to say that this being the first year, we all had extraordinarily high first time expenses and that we've just squeaked by," he said. "Certainly for Mass MoCA were with hailing distance of breaking even. If we treat many of our first-time expenses as capital improvements and amortize those expense over a period of time, we've kept our head above water. It's very expensive to host these types of events."

 

In preparation for the festival, the museum had to improve fencing along its new field for public safety purposes, build several elaborate ramps for improved accessibility and had its building and grounds crews spend numerous hours grooming the field -- cutting bushes and trees, planting grass and cleaning up junk that had accumulated there since 1962, when it was owned by the Sprague Electric Co.

 

"We also had a lot of other preparatory expenses like the shuttle buses and public safety expenses," Thompson said. "The museum also paid for the overtime and extra shifts for the police and emergency medical technicians. The taxpayers not only paid for nothing, but with out a doubt, the local communities and state made out just fine from an increase in hotel/motel room tax revenues."

 

He added, "I know the band put a lot of time and energy into their installations and gathering their future musicians. The promoter also spent a lot of money advertising with radio campaigns all over the Northeast and had a banner, saying with the message Wilco and North Adams, flying all up and down the Cape."

 

The museum also was able to save money on staffing through a team of some 200 local volunteers.

 

"It takes a lot of people to take care of a lot of people," Thompson said. "If it had not been for the amazingly generous volunteers who helped us out, we would be deeply underwater. I thank them heartily."

 

About the only thing the museum wasn't prepared for last weekend was the large number of baby strollers.

 

"We had stroller gridlock in the galleries," he joked. "We had about 400 wide-body baby strollers. It really was a family event. At one point during the Wilco concert, Jeff Tweedy joked the band could play another song, since the parents didn't have to worry about their baby-sitters."

 

The festival may be seen as profitable by the standards of long-standing summer venues, such as the Gathering of the Vibes or Bonaroo, because the ticket prices were kept low, but the museum director believes it was also successful because of the value.

 

"There are huge benefits for the town, the region and for Mass MoCA too," he said. "We received an avalanche of national publicity because of this festival. We're still doing the final accounting, but we're thinking we'll be within hailing distance because of our ancillary incomes. We receive a small percentage of the vendor sales, sales in our gift shop and from the sales of lemonade-type drinks, soft drinks and beer, which we sold a lot of. We intentionally kept the prices down by festival standards, so that it was not only affordable but people didn't feel like they got soaked when the got here. We didn't want to nickel and dime them, so they'd come back."

 

While Thompson is hesitant to say if there's another Solid Sound Festival in the city's future, he did say call the weekend "a learning experience for the museum."

 

"This was the first rain or shine event we've had," he said. "In the past, we've scheduled all of our venues so they can be brought inside the Hunter Center, which limits us to about 1,200 people. We've learned that concert-goers are willing to buy tickets for rain or shine events. They're willing to be rained on. It definitely opens a new venue for us [in the field] and changes the economics of things for us. We can bring in larger acts and jump from 1,200 tickets to 5,000 or 6,000 tickets."

 

He added, "Wilco's audience is a very special breed of cat. It's crowd was the most polite, engaged and interested crowd you could ask for at an indie-rock festival. When the trash cans got full, they very carefully stacked their cups next to the bin. They're immaculate recyclers. When they left here at night, there was none of this crush of horn honking that usually goes on. They're very respectful and interested in the art.

 

"In the future, we'll need to be cautious about hosting multi-venue festivals that include the galleries being open at the same time. Not every crowd will be like this one, so we'll really have to pick our partners very carefully. We really want to pick partners like Wilco, who will engage in the art and the music. The fantastic beauty about these partnerships, for us, is exposing our art and educational programs to a new audience."

reading this made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and so proud to be a wilco fan

Thanks - Just put up a bunch more this morning. Loving this one right now....

 

your pictures are stunning, thanks for sharing

like jeff says, you most likely would not see any fist fights at a wilco show.

picture perfect town

good friends

perfect weather

fellow rabid wilco fans

nice staff

good music

good ice cream!

free water!

cool art

cool venue

wilco and wilco sides

jeff solo

was i in heaven? i think i was.

i already dropped some change in the piggy bank for next year!

thank you wilco for being so good to your fans and thank you mass moca for having wilco there.

I was lucky enough to get a photo pass for this past weekend and I will upload the photos when I have sorted through the thousands of pictures I took but I thought for now I would share this video from the Tweedy solo show. It is the full length opening song, Sunken Treasure in HD. (720p because that's all youtube would let me do, if anyone knows where I can upload the 1080p version I will upload it there)

 

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj...

Admin Edit: Sorry, but Wilco mgmt. have asked that we not share live Wilco or Jeff Tweedy videos here on Via Chicago...see our VC Rules and Regulations.

beautiful, my friend and i were dead center for jeff

what a wonderful weekend

First Post!

 

None of my pictures were amazing or professional, but I got quite a few good ones with decent quality. I was second row for Wilco and first for Jeff's Solo, so yeah.

 

 

you can see some more on my Flickr. Most are from night #3.

 

I like all the pics that have been previously posted too, they look great.

nice,... i love jeffs profile especially when he is smiling. great pics!

i'm so excited,..and the second thing i'm most excited about 'jacket weather'!! the third is meeting new wilco fans!

see everyone there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN9CccrFXBI

i dont even know where to start. the usual superlatives fall flat.

It was a blast all around. The highlights were too many to mention, but I'll list a few.

 

1. being in a room with 30 other folks where a pin could drop and you'd hear it accompany Jeff Tweedy.

2. seeing old friends again, meeting old friends for the first time (Beltmann!), making new friends.

3. being there in prior years for the Nothing Up My Sleeve requests and being there for the payoff.

4. sneaking up to the stage with Tweedling during the set break and lightly running our fingers over the strings on the guitars while they sat on their stands so that we could claim we "played" Jeff Tweedy's guitars.

5. performing a tune with Jeff that I sing to my 2 yr old son every night before bed.

6. learning that everlasting everything is Bill Fay's favorite song on the album.

7. "open up this is a raid"

8. someday, some morning, sometime segued into a marriage proposal.

9. I am not sure which mystery I've solved because he's got so many damn guitars, but yes, that is an 00-21NY. he's got an 00-21 at home too, but he told me that he doesnt take that one out to play often.

10. he's back to the sunrise pickups.

 

I will list more as they come to me. My head is still spinning.

its only a dream for me. you all are so lucky.

its lovely,.thanks so much for posting

i don't know a lot of these bands either, i have heard the names of a lot of them but have not listened,..i do like LCD soundsystem and i only know of them from watching festivals online at the AT&T blue room..i like dr dog and i like gorillaz a lot even tho i'm not a big fan of electonica music. i see nobody mentioned the EVEREST album 'on approach'.. the singer reminds me of a cross between jeff buckley/chris martin and a little jim james..saw them open for neil/wilco in philly and thought they were pretty good and worth checking out. glad i did. 'ghost notes' was good too.

i love 'you are not alone' 3 listens so far,..it sounds very jeff,...love it!!

montclair 4/3 and philly 4/10

i can't pick between 'cars cant escape' and 'venus stop the train'

'sugar baby' for the 2nd. but i love the way jeff sings 'will you still love me tomorrow'

'nothing up my sleeve' definately!

alps apps,..whatever!..i can't wait for november when i can change carriers so i can get that bebot app!