Sparky speaks

I think they should change the way they play Impossible Germany live as well. That Nels solo in the middle is getting a little stale. Come on people, that's the song. It's great the way it is. They should open every concert with it IMO.

I was more than ready and eager to vote for Ron Paul but we know how that turned out. I even changed my party affiliation to vote for him in the CT primary. The deck was stacked against him from the beginning. His own party hates him. That's one reason why I like him. They fear his ideas and his solutions to the problems. Hard choices have to be made. But, I believe we are past the point of no return for this current economic system. The dominoes are falling one by one and we are the biggest. It is only a matter of time. For a good concise and easy read to gain an understanding of this situation please read "Dishonest Money" by Joseph Plummer. It is a great read no matter what your political persuasion. Nothing wrong with broadening your knowledge and understanding of the root causes of our current situation.

Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Dishonest-Money-Financing-Road-Ruin/dp/1439214115

Agreed. I was talking to a woman who ran the gas station I filled up at for the ride home and I asked her about the lack of water in the river. She said the utilities up river and the state governments of VT and Mass. are cutting off the flow. Every once in a while they open the floodgates (usually on weekends). It is killing the tourist industries that rely on there being water in the river. It's a shame.

I will only vote for candidates that support the Constitution, the principle of sound money, personal liberty and privacy, and peace. It's that simple. Not too many of them out there. The expansion of US militarism overseas through the world army of NATO, endless drone attacks against a phantom enemy we have killed hundreds of times over but who unbelievably get US support in the way of weapons and money in Libya and Syria, bombing countries without congressional approval, the failed war on drugs, a continuous stream of executive orders that sidestep Congress and deprive us of our liberties, assassination of American citizens without due process, expansion of the welfare state, endless corporate and bank bailouts, trillions of dollars of growing debt, the continuing debasement of our currency through our debt based monetary system, the surrender of our national sovereignty to international treaties and organizations, the destruction of free market capitalism, government spying and prying on our private lives, sexual assaults every time you fly on an airplane, the list goes on and on. Enough is enough. It's not just the executive branch. it's the whole pack of elected thieves, scoundrels and corporate puppets that pass themselves off as our representatives that I cannot in my good conscience cast my vote for any longer. The fact that you can't trust your vote will be counted, as you intended, is another issue. The game is rigged by the two party mafia and I refuse to participate any longer. The lesser of two evils is still evil. And I'm not sure either candidate is the lesser. They are both financed by Goldman-Sachs and surround themselves with neocon advisers. Where is the choice in that? No matter who wins we all lose. What if they held an election and no one showed up? I opt out.

I wouldn't want to drive that road at night, that's for sure. It's the quickest route to North Adams from the New Haven area though. Only 2 1/2 hours.

You are right there. In addition there is no difference between the two. People need to escape the two party, left/right paradigm or we will all be screwed (we are already)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDJEc92d38

My beef with One Sunday Morning is not the song itself for the most part. Yeah, it goes on forever and doesn't take you anywhere, (I actually like the little riff) however, it's too damned long for a concert IMO. Why waste valuable concert time (see shows where encores are cut short or songs are cut out because of a local curfew) with a ten minute plus tune that should be three to four minutes max.? Give me Far Far Away, The Thanks I Get or some other two or three songs that we haven't heard live in ages in its' place. Maybe condense it to three or four minutes and lead into another song with it? Just my two cents that no one cares to hear, I'm sure. Either Way is mellow enough for me to start a concert with.

Outside of the traffic accident in the pouring rain on I-91 in Rocky Hill that closed the highway for about 20 minutes, another great Wilco experience. My son, his buddy and I met my college roommate at the Bushnell for his cherry popping first ever Wilco concert. Wilco now has another fan. Managed to pick up one of those new Wilco baseball caps. I had to replace that worn out Red Sox hat I've been wearing since 2004. We knew about the after show party with Gutherie and company but the boys had to go to work the next morning and we passed on it. We might as well have gone since we ended up meeting my roommate at Vito's for some drinks and didn't get out of there until nearly 1 AM. Had to give said roommate a ride home to Old Lyme (long story) before heading back to Milford and didn't get home until 3:30. It was all worth it. Got up yesterday psyched for another Wilco concert, but alas, the run of five shows in twelve days has come to an abrupt conclusion. I'm already jonesing for next June. Will be going to Chicago next week however and will be taking my son to see the top secret, off limits to fans, area 51, Wilco Loft site. So that will have to suffice. Thanks for the link to the show download.

Just a footnote for those of you in Chicago, the bass player in my son's old band now plays for the Revivalists out of New Orleans. One of the reasons we are going to Chicago is to see them play at Martyr's on Wed. the 8th. They are pretty good if you've got nothing to do...

http://www.thereviva....com/about.html

The wife and I had a nice drive up from CT. The drive in along the Mohawk Trail from I-91 was smooth and quite scenic. Got our wristbands early, checked into the Holiday Inn, went to dinner and had a few beers on the deck out back of the art gallery store before the show. Stood in the relatively short line to get inside the auditorium. Sat on the floor in front of Nels' position about three rows of people back and waited for the fun to begin. Glad there was no local act to open and outside of One Sunday Boring, they rocked the roof off the place. I love leaving a concert with ringing in what little of my ears I have left. Overall, a great day, night and next morning in North Adams. Strange to see the town so empty as compared to when the Solid Sound Festival crowd is inhabiting the place. Met a few nice people from North Adams who were standing next to us pre-show. One of them lives in a 6,000 square foot loft in one of the old converted mills in town. Imagine how many tents he could fit in his place next June?

Agree with the beer situation. More than made up for it though in the parking lot before the concert. It kept my son kind of sober for a couple of hours if you want to make a positive out of a negative. Missed the first band but caught Blitzen Trapper's shortened set. Felt bad for them. The stage and their equipment were soaked and you could tell they were disappointed in having to cut their set short. Avoided getting soaked on the way in by ducking under an empty information tent. People were actually coming up to us for information. We told them it was raining and the fort was made of stone. A couple of folks got it. Great show none-the-less. Got two more firsts with Christ For President and Open Up Your Mind. The band looked pretty cool with the stone fort behind them. The folks out on the bay in their yachts sure got a nice treat as well. My son had gotten tickets to see Deer Tick at the Newport Blues Cafe afterwards. Great show. The locals sure love them some Deer Tick. Rocking loud with great audience participation especially with The Bump and Let's All Go The Bar. A night to remember for sure. Next stop, North Adams...

This should help. My daughter went to Roger Williams just north of Newport proper. Traffic was a bitch, without a festival, on the two lane roads leading into Bristol let alone the rest of the way to Newport if you are going that way. Leave early and be prepared for slow going...

http://www.newportfo....net/event-info

Didn't they play "Say You Miss Me" last night or did I confuse songs??? Jeff made a comment about it being at the edge of his abilities or was that after WTWGIS?

"Fuck, Yeah!!!" That is what I overheard someone say on the way out of the show last night. I have to agree wholeheartedly. I passed on the first two nights in NYC hoping to get a set list like this. Didn't expect hearing full band versions of TEN Wilco songs I had never heard before after attending 16 previous concerts. Lucky 17. I always seemed to miss Too Far Apart and Casino Queen. Not tonight. I got them both on my birthday no less. Kamera, Candy Floss and Capitol City were great to hear as well topped off by Dreamer, Lonely One, Hesitating Beauty and WTWGIS. I had seen a short sound check version of Kicking Television once, so hearing the full song was cool. Hope to get a similar type show at MassMoca next week. On to Newport...

Act. You only go around once...

Strong language...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl2JQfxnnHU

Sparky dont give up on the avetts just yet. old Crow couldnt spit shine their boots and every song is totally different. tough to judge any band that you havent heard before in a venue that big. they take some studying like wilco

You might be right but I'm giving Dr Dog and Deer Tick most of my listening attention right now. My son got the last three tickets to see them (Deer Tick) in Newport right after the Wilco show Friday at a gig down the street. It's going to be a long night trying to keeping up with these 25 year olds...

http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-22/news/32789072_1_wilco-heavy-metal-drummer-rock-n-roll

I thought Dr. Dog was great for that venue. I thought they were a Philly band? The crowd loved them from what I could see. They have a new fan in me. Avetts played a very energetic show, they were good but the songs didn't really do anything for me. I don't know how to put my finger on it but they are not very catchy tunes IMO. I expected more of an Old Crow Medicine Show catchy song kind of style. Their songs all sounded pretty much the same to me. Hadn't heard them before either. I thought Wilco needed to keep the energy level up when they first came out with something like Via Chicago. I think that would have rocked the place probably keeping some of those Avett Bros/ Dog fans in their seats rather than leaving early which I noticed happening. There were a lot of empty seats about 3/4 of the way into Wilco's set. Heard the encore in the parking lot. We took off as well after Tweedy said no encore tonight. That's ok, we were one of the first cars out of the lot. Heard Late Greats many times in the past. On to Terminal 5 Wed.

Dr Dog and Avett Brothers are the two best "opening" acts for Wilco I've seen. Wilco did manage to squeeze in more tunes than I expected they would be able to with the limited time. The crowd was huge. The covered section holds 7,000 and the lawn seemed almost full. Had to have been the most folks I've seen at a Wilco show that I've attended. The worst part was the drive down from Ct. on Friday. Over five hours for a usual three hour drive. Construction, accidents, lane closures, weekend get-a-way traffic and rain really took its' toll. Returned home this morning in under three hours. Just lucky I guess. GW Bridge and the Cross Bronx Exp. looked like a bitch going west this morning. Don't know how folks can drive that every day. I was sitting next to some elderly woman who told me she had seen the Avett Brothers 35 times. I asked her if she had ever seen Wilco and she said no. I told her she would become a Wilco fan by the end of the night. Unfortunately for her and her party, they left before Wilco came on and never returned. They didn't arrive until after Dr. Dog. It must be Avett or nothing for some. Their loss I guess.

Here Comes The Sun; the lost solo guitar

Just a comment about hotels for next year's Solid Sound Festival. The fact that Wilco has given over a years notice on this event, many hotels would not book rooms until they set rates for that weekend. Those that are now booking, with rooms available, are requiring a three night minimum stay at extortion rates. The two hotels that I used for the first two festivals and booked for two nights now have the three night policy with much higher rates than previously. After telling them how much that sucked and that most people leave on Sunday afternoon, they told me that was the policy for that weekend for all hotels in the area. Talk about squeezing every dollar from people. Closest available hotel is over 15 miles away. If you are interested PM me and I'll give you the name. And you can get it for two nights. Wilco should keep them guessing for 2014...