last cigarettes

Just got home from Yo La Tengo at the Paradise. A lovely way to cap Father’s Day.

WILCO!

Down from Boston for the night, with my best buddy, who hasn’t seen them since ‘03. Should be fun…

Cortney Barnett! With my 13 year old son (who is a fellow obsessive). For Christmas last year I got tickets for us to see her at the Wang in February, and after band Covid cancellation, venue change, and many months of waiting, we’re finally here. First time seeing her since Solid Sound. 😎

Wrapped up Beach Road Weekend tonight on the rail for a great festival set from Wilco. Spiders was a happy surprise for a closer, especially AFTER I Got You. 

Other standouts from the weekend for me were Beck, Lettuce, Jason Isbell, Emmylou Harris, Billy Strings, Shovels & Rope, Khruangbin, Bully. 

Karate and Helms at the Sinclair in Cambridge.

WILCO!!!

Also hopefully Sylvan Esso, if these thunderstorms could blow past. Neko’s set after her Substack hour in Courtyard D was also a very pleasant surprise. 

So nice to be back here- it’s been a long time coming. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hi friends (and siblings)!

My wife and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this August (on Jeff’s birthday 🎂- we didn’t plan it that way, but it’s a fitting coincidence 😎), and we got passes as soon as they went on sale for the two of us to spend the weekend on the Vineyard with my wife’s brother and family, Wilco (and others). We can’t wait to celebrate…

Which brings me to the hitch. We didn’t get passes for our two kids, anticipating that more affordable kids tickets would be available later (our relatives who live on the island told us that’s been the case for the past iterations of Beach Road). Well, they aren’t. Our son and daughter are now 13 and 10, and have literally have grown up since birth going to Wilco shows with us. We are huge fans and longtime supporters of the band. We’ll be attending our sixth (!) Solid Sound in a few weeks. We really want them to be with us, and are looking for two full 3-day passes. All the options through Ticketmaster resale, StubHub and Seat Geek are $900.- or more for a pair, after all their gouging fees. We will happily pay fair money for our kids to be able to come along, but that cost is too steep for our budget. We’d also much rather help out a fellow fan who can’t make it, or needs the cash. 

Please reach out if you can help- you’d be making our summer... ❤️

Also saw Gunn/Parker at the Sinclair last night. Beautiful show.

22 hours ago, tinnitus photography said:

just back from Tedeschi Trucks Band

Tim, how was TTB? And Dino/Lemonheads/Walker? My buddy and I were strongly considering the latter, but opted for Flaming Lips/Particle Kid at HOB a couple weeks ago instead. My long overdue first time seeing the Lips, and Wayne and Co. did not disappoint.

Also thinking about TTB for Friday or Saturday- if anyone has face value tix they can’t use, please DM me. 😁

It’s finally here!!! (well, the on-sale, anyways. 😁)

Can’t wait to see all your faces again.

WILCO!

JRAD!

Just got home, actually.

Quite a night. I’ve never felt so grateful to be under a giant tent.

Can’t wait to go back there tomorrow…🤘🤩

Bbop, stellar recaps on this run as always- you’ve got such a knack for putting us there when we can’t be. Rest assured, you still have a loyal readership, even when we only post sporadically. Thanks for all your hard work. 😁

Glad you got a rocking Casino Queen- the encore from Solid Sound ‘17 (when it was sandwiched between Hate it Here and Hoodoo Voodoo) remains one of my all-time favorite show cappers.

I’m mighty excited to see the Boston gig next week, and so itching to see the band again that I don’t think I’ll mind much if it’s still a greatest-hits-ish setlist with some nightly variation. I’m glad to see Art of Almost back in regular rotation; it’s always been a proper facemelter live. Ashes too- I love IG as much as the next obsessive but feel like there’s so many underappreciated Nels solos on that song over the years.

Still, I wouldn’t mind a surprise rarity or two (ahem- Shake It Off? I’m looking in your direction... 😎). 

happy birthday, jeff! we wish we were spending tonight in boston with you and sleater-kinney (also our 18th anniversary ❤️), but instead we’re watching tweedy show reruns on the couch with our kids and our new puppy.

it’s good to have a backup plan. we can’t wait to see you next summer...

Thank you for the kind words, Isaac! Great story! Thank you for sharing it with us! And yes, I view this as a collaboration between Paul, Monty & myself.

 

And it sounds like you’re local to me, since you were also going to see Wilco on Jeff’s birthday in Boston. I don’t think that will ever happen again in terms of scheduling a show on his birthday in my neck of the woods.

i am indeed- JP resident for 17 plus years now, and grew up just outside boston.

last night was my first time watching live in a little while, and i was so happy to catch that beautiful rendition of muzzle.

i know that jeff is no longer accepting birthday requests, but if anyone wants to help send out brainwaves through the series of tubes, i'd be super special if we get to hear either acuff-rose or gun on thursday. i know he's played them both already. i'm just sayin'...

thanks for the kind words, guys. tim and vince, you have both always made me feel welcome in this community since i joined. monty, your level of deep appreciation and obsessive organization make you a welcome new friend- great to have you here.

watching the tweedy show is also taking a little of the sting out of not seeing wilco and sleater-kinney in my hometown, on our anniversary (and jeff's birthday!), with my wife and brother-in-law and sister-in-law in august. i've never been more grateful that it's not an odd-year summer- i'm keeping myself hopeful with visions of joe's field next june...

so well said. love to all...

so...

long time client here. i've been mostly watching episodes on youtube rather than live, so i haven't been as connected with all of you as i wish i were. i also wish i'd been a little less shy at past solid sounds and other shows, and said hello instead of just smiling in the background (though my kids and i are in the group photo from last year- if any clients have a decent resolution copy that they'd like to send along i'd be much obliged )...

i tend to be more of a reader (lurker just sounds creepy) than a contributor on VC. i seem to only post here immediately post-show (when i'm soaked in good energy), or after major trauma in my life (i won't bore you all with details). i don't mean to get weepy, but i just watched the father's day episode (63), and i'm feeling all my feelings.

peter, susie, jeff, spencer, sammy, casey, basil- thank you all for this beautiful gift. your show has been such a salve for the anxiety, uncertainty, grief, etc. that we've all been going through in these times. much as i've found jeff and company's music to be since i was 14 (uncle tupelo days), you have made it okay to be sad and happy and close and distant and fearful and hopeful all at the same time. 18 years ago this past tuesday, i lost my own dad to cancer when he was 49 and i was 23. much of my meandering, occasionally stumbling path through life since then has been shaped by that experience. we've gone through our share of other immediate family medical drama over the ensuing years, but i know it is no worse than that of many of the rest of you- we all have our struggles, and we would all be better off if we were more open to sharing them and finding common ground with one another rather than finding ways to define our differences and digging in on our opposition to those we disagree with.

thank you, tweedy family, for opening your lives and hearts and songbooks to those of us who love you from afar. high school, college, my marriage, my kids' childhood- all of it has included your music, humor, and acceptance, and is richer for it. this family of clients loves all of you (and other clients we've yet to meet) so deeply, and yearns for the opportunity to gather together again in the amazing community we've all helped to build. 

also, forevermore, i will both laugh and cry anytime jeff starts playing one sunday morning, especially close to the one minute warning (it's so sad, and so beautiful... and so long).

feeling all your feelings,

isaac 

p.s. U2roolz, glad to hear you're feeling better. you've been doing yeoman's work with your recaps. and paul, and diane, and all the rest of you, of course. we'd all be lost in the dark without such powerful institutional knowledge on our side. 

wilco again!

WILCO

any head who hasn’t yet watched the documentary “anthem to beauty” should seek it out. i haven’t viewed it in ages, but i still get chills thinking about robert discussing his lyric writing for american beauty. he was really tapped into some spring of eloquence that even he acknowledged “was not made by the hands of men”. that was my first dead album (dad’s old copy on my first turntable in 5th grade), and the gateway for years of amazing, ear-opening, soul-reorganizing music that has followed ever since. ripple, brokedown palace, attics- all still bring chills, but the most meaningful for me for a long time has been box of rain. it took on greater meaning for me when my dad died of cancer when I was 23, and I recalled robert talking about writing it for phil when his own dad was sick.

“maybe you’ll find direction, around some corner where it’s been waiting to meet you...”

such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there…

rest well, robert. your words will live on to inspire and console far beyond your time on this marble.

iron & wine & calexico, andrew bird, at the (your bank here- currently rockland trust) pavilion in boston. too bad that despite 41 years of trying, i still can’t whistle. maybe i’m defective. i’ll still appreciate.

julian lage trio, at the sinclair in cambridge. mind blown.

how was it?

 

i really want to see Mountain Movers... they have eluded me thus far in life. but i feel the tide changing.

it was a record release show for the new major stars album, in the tiny upstairs of the hong kong in harvard square. chris’ trio was tight and purposeful, mountain movers spun out some beautiful psychedelia, and then major stars came in like a guitar tornado. i can’t believe it’s taken me so long to see them live- i won’t miss them again (the new record is fantastic, BTW).