dvigs24
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Posts posted by dvigs24
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Ryan Adams (solo acoustic) at the Capitol Theatre. First time seeing him, pretty excited.
Amanda Shires opens. Jason Isbell played yesterday at Jones Beach and has nothing scheduled until August 5th - I'm sure he'll be in attendance, hopeful for a sit-in of some sort. -
Just dropped in to say that "Teens of Denial" is probably my favorite album of the year so far - really digging just about everything about it and still feeling that way after a good 15 or so front-to-back listens.
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I keep hearing "Can't Stand It" in that bass riff that runs throughout the song, perhaps most obviously in the part just after the little break from 1:00 to 1:13 when the vocals pick up again.
...also this song seems like it's about the GPS's in all of our cars and phones, perhaps representing our new "God" that's always watching, right?
Cool little song. Happy to hear something new!
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I've been really enjoying the new album Teens of Denial by the band Car Seat Headrest. Very melodic, fuzzy sounding, literate pop rock. Cool lyrics, songs with big choruses and surprising twists in arrangement and instrumentation.
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Caught the amazing and hilarious Milk Carton Kids at the Tarrytown Music Hall last night - a situation in which I found myself frequently thinking that it's almost unbelievable that two humans could make such a pure and beautiful sound. If you're into what they do it's great to see it live.
Was really impressed with the opening act, Margaret Glaspy, who was previously unknown to me. Cool songs, great interplay between vocal and guitar, definitely worth a listen. She has a debut album coming out soon which I'm unexpectedly now looking forward to. -
Jason Isbell on Colbert last night
Anyone who was at the Beacon last night recall the set times?
Shovels & Rope came on right about 8 and played until 8:40, set change was 20 minutes, Isbell came on right around 9, finished main set around 10:30, encore done around 10:50.
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Jason Isbell at the Beacon (tonight and tomorrow).
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Here's a link to the New Haven recording. My friend who knows these things (and posted links to his recordings of both Orpheum shows) says this was made with excellent equipment from the sweet spot. Haven't listened yet, but this should be a good recording.
I'm pretty much a soundboard snob, but I'm halfway through this recording right now and must say that the quality is excellent. Thanks for sharing! I watched the show last night from the front row of the loge (I was with my kids so no GA floor for me) and this recording is spot on to what I was hearing from my location (taper was probably 20 seats or so to my left). Everything comes through nicely in the mix, vocals are out front and clearly audible, and there's not that muddy quality that plagues some of these aud tapes, just a bit of echo.
Looking forward to being on the floor at The Cap on Wednesday!
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Well seeing this link and subsequently discovering the "Albums That Never Were" blog has my Sunday morning productivity to hell (in the best possible way)! Lots of interesting stuff presented with great care in every possible way, not least of which is sound quality. Thanks for sharing.
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The show was pretty excellent all around. The new material and Warren's guest spot were definitely highlights. I wrote up a little more detailed synopsis in the "After the Show" show thread.
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After weeks of being on the fence I was finally swayed by the prospect of the new Star Wars material and pulled the trigger on a single-day Saturday ticket for Vibes. Got to Seaside Park around 3:30 and caught all of Gaslight Anthem, Billy & The Kids (pleasantly surpised by this act), and Warren Haynes (featuring Railroad Earth) leading up to Wilco.
For anybody who has never been, there is a large U-shaped standing area in front of the stage that basically stretches back to near the soundboard behind which people are camped out on blankets, under tents, in chairs, etc. After each main act ends it's pretty easy to work your way up close to the stage. I moved up into the standing crowd near the end of Warren Haynes' set and once he finished was easily able to secure a nice spot one row off the rail directly in front of Pat's microphone.One of the things I pay a lot of attention to over the years is all the various guitars that enter and exit the stage during a Wilco show. Having watched the video from the Pitchfork festival I saw that the guitar they set up for Pat pre-show was the same one he used to play pretty much all the Star Wars songs at Pitchfork (rather than his usual Tele) so I was fairly certain that we were going to get Star Wars right off the bat. A few minutes later EKG started playing and the band was on stage jumping right in to 'More...'
It was definitely exciting to see the new material live. Standouts for me were 'Random Name Generator', 'You Satellite', and surprisingly 'Pickled Ginger' which rocked pleasantly and resonated live with me in a way that it previously hadn't. I think any Wilco fan will be thrilled to see the band run through these new songs. Even more exciting though will be to see how they work the new songs into the set once they stop playing the album straight through.
Best I could tell the crowd responed really postively to everything. The band seemed to be in good spirits, Glenn and Nels were in top form (shocking right?) and from my spot I could really here a lot of Mikael's little electronic flourishes which sounded really fresh and interesting to me last night.
I got a pretty decent video of California Stars that I've posted to YouTube, search "Wilco with Warren Haynes - California Stars - Gathering of the Vibes 8/1/15" if you're interested in checking it out.
California Stars with Warren Haynes was probably the best version I've seen of the song (and I've seen all the Solid Sound sing-a-long versions and was at Newport when they sang it with Woody's granddaughter Sara). Warren really added a lot of tasty leads after almost every line Jeff sung, and had a memorable and formidable little back-n-forth with Nels Cline that brought the song to a peak after almost seven minutes. Eventhough I felt the set could have used a few more rockers at the end this was probably a perfect ending for this setting.
Jeff said very little throughout the show, hardly any banter, although he did note at one point that it was "Nice to see so many vibes gathered in one place", which I thought was pretty funny.
Stayed to catch a little of Warren Haynes and the Seaside All-Stars, which was really an incredible band of musicians, who weaved through a set which to me was highligted by a cover of Radiohead's 'Karma Police' which segued into an extended jam playing off the Bond-esque riff section of 'Paranoid Android' - very cool!
I'm posting a vid of 'California Stars' to YouTube which should be up shortly - search "Wilco with Warren Haynes - California Stars - Gathering of the Vibes 8/1/15" if you're interested... -
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No guesses about the unannounced acts, but I am dying to know! I will be at the Watkins Family Hour pre-show (can't really call it an after-show since it's on Thursday night) as long as my flight is on time. Looking forward to it very much.
My biggest scheduling woe is Jason Isbell and Courtney Barnett overlapping almost completely on different ends of the fort grounds. Still don't know what I will do about that one, since they are two of my favorites. First time to hear the new Isbell songs live, but I've never seen Barnett and don't want to miss her. High class problem, right?
The Isbell/Barnett conundrum is killing me. I just saw Isbell last night and he was incredible. I thought it would make it easier for me to miss his set at NFF but it actually made it harder! Since I essentially bought the tix for Courtney Barnett and Sturgill Simpson she'll probably win out, but it's gonna hurt knowing that Isbell is playing on the other side of that fort wall!
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I'm really on the fence about this one too. It's basically 80 dollars for 90 minutes of Wilco.
I want to hear the new tunes pretty badly but I'm also holding out for headlining shows in the fall.
I think my plan as of now is to check stubhub and craigslist and the weather channel in the days leading up to the show and if its not going to be 90 degrees with 97% humidity and I can get a ticket for less than face, i'm going.
I'm about 25 minutes away and this is pretty much my strategy too. I have friends that have been trying to get me to go to Vibes for years. When I saw Wilco was headlining this year I thought finally I'd be there - there's no way I'm missing Wilco so close by. Then the day and lineup was revealed (not particularly tempting to me and I'm leaving for vacation the next morning), the price of the single day ticket announced, and I was on the fence. I've gone back and forth on this one a bunch of times. After Solid Sound I made my peace with not going thinking what could they possibly do that I haven't seen (I attended all 3 Capitol shows this past fall too)...then they go and drop Star Wars and do the Pitchfork set and now I'm back on the fence!
"Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in!"
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It was an amazing show, wasn't it? Such a powerful voice. I was almost dead center on the rail.
Yes! I was right in front of the other guitar player just behind the people on the rail. What really impressed me was the sheer number of high-quality tunes he strung together. There was no let-up in the set at all - just one great song after another. The craftsmanship just shines right through and that band is honed to a razor sharp edge. They just kill everything they play. The guitar tones are so incredible, the dynamics of the arrangements are perfect. I'm blown away by how blown away I was!
One of the reasons I went last night is because I'm going to Newport on Saturday and seeing Isbell freed me up to see Courtney Barnett since their sets almost completely overlap. After last night it's killing me that I'm going to have to miss him at all, eventhough I'm dying to see Barnett!
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Jason Isbell & Blake Mills.
I was there tonight at College St. Music Hall in New Haven. First time seeing Isbell and I was absolutely blown away. This guy writes flat-out amazing songs and the band is as tight of an outfit as I've ever seen. Just an incredible performance, and only $25! I haven't been that impressed seeing a live act for the first time since the first time I saw Wilco.
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Hey! Your live tweets of the Wilco set list Sat night were filling up the screen near the Hunter Center and the ice cream spot near the elevator and seating area. I noticed this when I sought out shelter. I took a pic of that screen this year and I'll post it when I'm on my computer.
Btw, they played Panthers and not Message From Mid Bar.
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After a few days to process my fourth Solid Sound experience, and first with my children (ages 7 and 8), there was one particular experience that really stood out as unique and special for me - the Drums With Glenn workshop/performance that took place Saturday into Sunday culminating with the world premiere of a specially commissioned drum piece, "The Immortal Flux", composed by Glenn for the event. I know a few people have alluded to it in the Solid Sound thread, but I think it merits its own space.
First a little background: Music is a constant in my household and my children have grown up listening to Wilco. Their first show was the Friday night at Newport a few years back (rained on) and I've been hemming and hawing about bringing them to Solid Sound for years. Finally I felt like they were old enough to actually appreciate it this year, so I pulled the trigger on some weekend passes for them. I must say that there are pluses and minuses to bringing children to a festival such as this, but Solid Sound clearly is playing to families with all the kid-oriented events taking place throughout the weekend, and the programming of this nature has gotten more thoughtful and robust throughout the years, for which both my wife and I are grateful. Anyways, I play guitar and have been gently cajoling my kids towards different instruments for some time. My son Joey started drumming last year and it's been amazing to watch him practice and grow as a budding musician. The first songs we ever played together were "Summer Noon" and "Shot in the Arm" so needless to say we were excited to see both Tweedy and Wilco in the same weekend!
Fast forward to this past Saturday. I had been vaguely aware of the Drums with Glenn event, but was reminded by a tweet around 12:45 which said the first 25 in line on the 2nd floor of building 11 would be able to participate. I grabbed Joey and we headed over, by my count there were about 17 or 18 people ahead of us, so I figured we were good. After a few minutes an event organizer announced that people who were preselected should form a line on the right, and at about 1:30 those people were let in to the room where the session was taking place, then they moved on to our line. An event organizer kept counting and they seemed to be letting people in in groups of five or so. When we were almost to the front of the line we were told there was only room for a few more and we thought we had just missed out, then after this last group entered we were told there was room for three more people. Joey was literally the last one who got selected and I got to go in as a "watcher."
For the next two hours Glenn walked the entire crowd in step-by-step fashion through the process of creating prepared drum heads using springs, dowels, sandpaper, tape, wires, wax, fishing line, rosin, and two drumsticks while also instructing his makeshift "orchestra" in how to coax sounds from them. Each drum head has five different colored sections around the outside and each section was modified in a different way. When combined with the central "S" Solid Sound logo the six areas of the drum head were each ingeniously matched to a different part of the musical compostion. Throughout this process Glenn was by turns enthusiastic, funny, charming, creative, instructive, and a whole host of other superlatives. His enthusiasm and encouragement for the project were infectious and it was quite a pleasure to watch.
Once the heads were finished some assistants passed out sheet music for the 8-minute composition. "The Immortal Flux" is comprised of six distinct parts (which match the colors on the prepared drum head) that represent the changing nature and different eras in the history (and future) of the Mass MoCA grounds. The orchestra of which Joey was a part was divided into three sections, each section playing a different pattern to mirror either Glenn's kick drum, snare, or cymbal in each of the different parts of the song. Joey was placed in section 1, mirroring the cymbal. The entire crowd was instructed to return at 9:30 AM on Sunday morning for rehearsal. Everybody left their heads behind so that they could be mounted on snares. Glenn hung around for a while generously signing autographs and taking pictures all the while seeming to genuinely enjoy the interactions with the attendees.
On Sunday morning we arrived for rehearsal. After a few munchkins and some coffee we assembled in the Ross Gallery where chairs were set up with the now-mounted heads and music stands. Everybody found their drums and took a seat then were quickly rearranged so that everybody was sitting by group. For the next hour Glenn, alternating between a microphone set up in front of the room and his kit, instructed all three sections on how and when to play their parts. There were two screens set up in front of the room that displayed the color that matched with the specific section of the piece. Every time the music would switch from one part of the composition to another the screen would switch. The way the piece is arranged every time a Glenn switches to a new part there is a period of rest for the orchestra before they join in. As the song progresses through each cycle of six parts the amount of rest gets shorter until there is no rest during the culminating cycle and the parts change every two measures. There were two full run throughs of the entire piece and that was it. Glenn explained that he liked to leave rehearsals sounding a little raw and save "the magic" for the show. He encouraged everybody to be aggressive and play loudly so they could be heard.
The piece was going to be played roughly during the middle of Glenn and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler's set later that afternoon so we set out to have some food and the later morning/early afternoon. Around 1:45 we headed back to the gallery which was packed with people. Joey took his seat and took in the very inventive performance (as did the rest of the family) and then came the big moment. Glenn introduced the crowd to the concept behind "The Immortal Flux" and the prepared drum head orchestra, then they were playing the piece and it went off without a hitch. Afterwards Glenn again was nice enough to hang around and individually thank everybody as they waited to have their heads removed from the snares so they could take them. My son got an autograph on his drum head, a nice thank you from Glenn, and even got interviewed for a short promotional piece that D'Addario is making about the event.
The entire experience was so unique and awesome. My family and I are so grateful to Glenn, Wilco, and everybody that has worked to shape this beautiful festival environment that embraces and supports the interactive fan culture that allows for these types of events to happen. The generosity of the band members along with their willingness to involve the fans in this festival in amazing ways such as this makes it a truly incredible and fulfilling experience. I know that this is one that we will always remember!
I have full videos of the rehearsal performance and the actual performance, as well as a bunch of other snippets which I will try to get up on YouTube eventually and post some links here (sorry that the video is shaky and primarily focused on my son, but you'll get the gist of it).
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"World Away" has a cool groove reminiscent of this:
Here's another one we got to hear today...a new original..."World Away"
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"Morning Phase" is streaming now on NPR's First Listen:
http://www.npr.org/2014/02/16/274773496/first-listen-beck-morning-phase
If you enjoy his more subdued, contemplative work a la "Sea Change", this album is really a can't miss. Beck sure knows how to record acoustic guitars perfectly, and here he surrounds them with beautiful ethereal and echo-y soundscapes. Certainly a mellow, mid-tempo listen, but undoubtedly very pretty music. -
Those videos were pretty great. Whether you like the album or not, it's pretty amazing how Brian Wilson had THAT bouncing around in his head, and that he was able to communicate his vision so clearly and produce exactly what he wanted. Definitely worth a watch - thanks for sharing!
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For anybody who's been following along, Charlie Sexton was playing guitar last night at Jones Beach (and I believe the show before as well). I talked briefly with Tony Garnier, Dylan's bass player, before Wilco's set and I asked him who was going to be on guitar tonight. He told me he didn't know, he was looking for someone and asked if I knew anybody.
Then he told me it was Charlie, but he thought Colin would be back tomorrow. -
The last 3 songs of Wilco's set last night were just incredible, the energy from the stage was amazing. Watching Jeff play that slide part on "Loser" and seeing Beck doing his rap/dance routine, a monstrous take on "Yer Blues" again with some great harmonica from Beck and Jeff and Sean Lennon swapping verses, and then Glenn's pounding drums and Nels guitar flourishes on "Tomorrow Never Knows" - just great stuff, very exciting.
I'm a big fan of Beck's acoustic output, and had never seen him before. I really enjoyed his set a lot. Loved hearing "Golden Age" and the "Song Reader" songs. Beck was amusing and talked a lot. It was fun to watch him play with the drum machine too.
I'm a huge Dylan fan, but must say that after seeing him at Bridgeport last week (which I enjoyed), I found myself bored by the set tonight. Even though I totally appreciate and enjoy Dylan's output since "Time Out of Mind", I was really empathizing with the fans tonight who just wanted to hear something they knew. Out of 15 songs there were only 7 that were written prior to 1997, and one of those was "Blind Willie McTell". I don't mind the singing so much, but I think Dylan's piano playing really holds the band back. His piano lines on "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" nearly ruin the song for me. Without major changes to the show, that will probably be the last time I see Bob.
On a side note, the crowd was very tame last night. I was sitting in the Orchestra in front of Nels, about 12 rows back. Security wouldn't let anybody stand in the wide aisle spaces, most of the people up front seemed to be there for Dylan, and sat through almost the entire show. The last three songs of the Wilco set were by far the high point of the show.
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I've been requesting Poor Places to no avail for the DC shows.. I'm convinced they don't actually read the requests..
I'm pretty sure they don't read the requests. If anything, they just play the most requested song for a show. I think.
Wilco store Roadcase shows
in Just A Fan
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Wanted a recording from the Fall "Schmilco" tour and grabbed Seattle 9/2 this morning based on the recs above. After two listens I'd just like to add my $.02 that this is a fantastic recording of a fantastic show. The band sounds great and very confident with the new material. The arrangements are thoughtful and everybody's contributions come through really nicely on this warm sounding recording.
Thanks for the rec!