Wilco — 28 June 2019, North Adams, MA (Joe's Field at Mass MoCA) [Solid Sound Festival; Day 1 of 3]

[bböp]

So...karaoke night, eh? In what was almost certain to be a polarizing kickoff show on the first night of the sixth edition of the Solid Sound Festival, Wilco went through with a much-discussed plan for its Friday show to have some fans (and a few "ringers," as it turned out) take over the lead vocal duties on their choice of one of the band's songs. The event was billed as live karaoke with Wilco, and (most) folks were selected to sing on the basis of a short video submission a few weeks prior.

This plan was met with enthusiasm by some, derision by others and curiosity by most. How would it work exactly, and would the singers be any good? Did that even matter? And to add further fuel to the fire, should Jeff and his bandmates even be undertaking such a gambit after only recently returning from a lengthy hiatus and knowing this would be many fans' first opportunity to see them play live in a long time?

Well, I suppose I can report that some of the "live karaoke" performances were better than others and leave it at that. If you ask me if it was my favorite Wilco show ever, or one of them, I would have to say no if I'm being completely honest. But I will say that I — as Jeff also remarked before the karaoke portion of the set started — certainly admired the courage of all the singers to get up there before a big crowd and let it rip. I thought that each of them seemed to approach the task very earnestly and gave it their best, and it made for an interesting show. And moreover, it seemed like Jeff and the rest of the band were really enjoying themselves and having fun with the whole thing and that was great to see.

I won't really get into trying to assess each individual fan's performance, except to say that Bailey's rendition of Daniel Johnston's classic True Love Will Find You In The End received high marks from more than a couple of folks around me and I personally thought Kevin nailed Say You Miss Me. But there were a few slip-ups, generally speaking, and those usually involved the singer coming in a beat or two early. Turns out singing Wilco songs is tougher than it looks, even when you have the lyrics right in front of you! (Though Jeff poked fun at his own expense more than once, joking at one point that after some short rehearsals with the various vocalists earlier in the day he came away thinking that "Wilco needs a singer." )

In terms of the so-called "ringers" who joined in on the live karaoke fun to close out the main set, they provided arguably both the highlight and lowlight of the show. The former came when Courtney Barnett (who had played an excellent hour-long set with her band on the Joe's Field stage before Wilco came on) and performed what she has acknowledged in interviews as her favorite Wilco song, Handshake Drugs. Strapping her red guitar on, Barnett not only put her own spin on the song by changing the phrasing of the lyrics to fit her own vocal style but also engaged in a visceral closing feedback collaboration with Nels (while Jeff never took his acoustic guitar off while watching admiringly).

Unfortunately a couple songs earlier, Nels' wife Yuka C. Honda and another singer whom Jeff identified as "Catherine, a friend of the band from Los Angeles" (I think it might have been Catherine Popper, but I didn't have a great view, so I'm not 100 percent sure about that) [edit: it was not Popper apparently, but just a friend of Honda’s] struggled through the Wilco Schmilco track We Aren't The World (Safety Girl). It's a hard song to sing anyway, with a lot of tricky rhythms and cues, and the two women kind of lost their way about halfway through. I don't know how much they actually got to rehearse beforehand, but the performance came off as a bit of a mess.

Not that it would have necessarily helped on We Aren't The World, but one issue was that some of the lyrics displayed on a big screen at the back of the stage for the audience to see and sing along with (presumably what was also on the video monitors at the singers' feet) were just outright incorrect. Sometimes a line or two at the end of a song wasn't included, and other times the lyrics were just wrong. On What Light, for example, the displayed lyric in the second verse was "...don't let anyone change you back," when the actual lyric is "...don't let anyone change your bag." On Jesus, etc., the displayed lyrics apparently read "Voices cry..." instead of "Voices whine..." in the final verse. (On that song, Jeff also often varies from the "official" lyric by singing "I'll stick around" instead of "I'll be around" in the first verse). "I think I just learned the words to that song," Jeff deadpanned afterward. "Is it really 'Voices cry' and not 'whine?' Don't trust the internet."

After What Light, Jeff had to give a slight chuckle before admitting, "We didn't have time to vet all the lyrics. ... Hopefully the next (song) will be right."

It was all in good fun, though, even if some would have almost certainly preferred Wilco to simply play two shows with a minimum of repeated songs like they have done in Knoxville, Tenn., Brussels and Amsterdam since their comeback earlier this month. I do know that this karaoke format was something the band wanted to try, and as mentioned earlier, they all seemed to be having a lot of fun backing the assorted singers. Jeff seemed to be enjoying himself as much as anyone, and I know there have been times in the past when it seems like he would rather just play guitar on a song and have someone else sing it.

Anyway, I suppose we can let the debates over live karaoke continue. But for this evening, here was the complete setlist as played (Jeff only introduced the karaoke singers by first name and hometown, so I'll simply report those as best I can; apologies in advance for any spelling errors, etc. [edit: apparently, A Magazine Called Sunset was on the printed setlist in the second encore between What Light and The Late Greats, but wasn't played. That it wasn't one of the karaoke songs was a bit surprising in light of this article about the only local karaoker):

Random Name Generator
Hummingbird
If I Ever Was A Child
Cry All Day
I Must Be High
Born Alone
Misunderstood
Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again) (Darlie from North Adams, Mass., on lead vocals)
Heavy Metal Drummer (Aidan from Albany, N.Y., on lead vocals)
I'm The Man Who Loves You (Brad from Dallas, Tex., on lead vocals and acoustic guitar)
Poor Places (Henry from Eliot, Me., on lead vocals and acoustic guitar)
Hate It Here (Courtney from Albany, N.Y., on lead vocals)
Wishful Thinking (Alex from Oberlin, Ohio, on lead vocals)
Say You Miss Me (Kevin from Rochester, N.Y., on lead vocals and acoustic guitar)
True Love Will Find You In The End [Daniel Johnston] (Bailey from South Bend, Ind., on lead vocals)
Dawned On Me (John from Chicago, Ill., on lead vocals)
Monday (Eben from Brattleboro, Vt., on lead vocals)
We Aren't The World (Safety Girl) (Yuka C. Honda and Catherine (?) on lead vocals)
I'm Always In Love (Sammy Tweedy on lead vocals)
Handshake Drugs (Courtney Barnett on lead vocals and electric guitar)
------------------------------------------
Jesus, etc.
Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
California Stars (Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart of Ohmme and Liam Kazar on lead vocals)
------------------------------------------
What Light
The Late Greats

[Madcap]

Wow so basically half the set was karaoke? No offense to any of the singers, but that sounds absolutely awful. Poor Places is one of my favorite songs and I would have been pissed to see some random sing it instead of Jeff.

[LittleDrummerBoy]

Certainly sounds interesting. Courtney Barnett is probably my favorite alternative artist besides Wilco, so that would have been really cool to see.

 

 

On a secondary note, if I would have gone and submitted a video of me doing a drum cover, I wonder what the chances would have been for me being Wilco’s drummer for a song or two

[remphish1]

Wow so basically half the set was karaoke? No offense to any of the singers, but that sounds absolutely awful. Poor Places is one of my favorite songs and I would have been pissed to see some random sing it instead of Jeff.

I agree with you 100% I’m sure a thrill for the singers but it’s not fun as an audience member and especially if you don’t see Wilco often!

[TCP]

So, I thought the vast majority of the 10 winners did a great job. I counted two instances of coming in early but that wasn't a huge deal. I thought only one performance from the winners (I won't say who) wasn't strong, it sounded like they were struggling with the key. I had been wondering if they shifted keys on any of the songs, I guess not! But ultimately because at least in the area close to the stage, with the lyrics on screen, everyone was singing along so loud it didn't really matter who was singing on stage. It was a fun supportive night and I had a blast.

Fun fact: it was my first Wilco show since the 2016 Seattle show where someone almost died, this was a much more enjoyable experience!

[opsopcopolis]

After 4-5 karaoke songs I found myself saying “oh they still have almost an hour left!” And then it just kept gooiiiiinnnngggg. I think it was a cool/fun idea, but just went on for way too long.

 

That being said, one of my oldest friends, Eben, was the one who sung Monday, and I thought he killed it! Jeff even commented on how he reminding him that Wilco could use a real singer.

 

Eben’s record if anybody is interested: https://open.spotify.com/album/3bsCWc4RAI2n0kF6yTfS0i?si=TlWkxhbaTUyFW4u--XHnYw

[tinnitus photography]

huh i didn't realize that was Nels' wife... a friend of mine who is here knows Cat Popper so I'll see if i can find out if it was her or not.

[worldrecordplayer]

My take from my living room with the FM stream. Too much karaoke. I was frustrated not hearing Jeff sing these songs. Part of my issue was I thought the guest vocals were way too high in the mix, amplifying the off key parts and pushing the instruments into the background. My wife liked it better than I did. Loved Poor Places and CB on Handshake. Spoke to friends who were there (who were skeptical going in) and they loved it. Missing the visuals on an FM stream took away a lot. Also heard it was packed to the gills.

[bböp]

huh i didn't realize that was Nels' wife... a friend of mine who is here knows Cat Popper so I'll see if i can find out if it was her or not.

I guess that was just a random friend of Yuka’s, so not Cat Popper after all. I didn’t think it really looked like her, but it was hard to tell with her hair up.

[imsjry]

As a fan looking into this weekend from the comfort of my couch, I think this was a marvelous idea and from the small videos i've seen, seemed like it was executed wonderfully. Who else but Wilco would do this for their fans? Kudos to all the singers and for the band for making that happen! Very cool. 

 

https://www.jambase.com/article/wilco-courtney-barnett-karaoke-solid-sound.  

[dagwave]

Cat Popper is a good band name.

Even for a blues traveler/ cat Stevens cover band.

[The Inside of Outside]

So, I thought the vast majority of the 10 winners did a great job. I counted two instances of coming in early but that wasn't a huge deal. I thought only one performance from the winners (I won't say who) wasn't strong, it sounded like they were struggling with the key. I had been wondering if they shifted keys on any of the songs, I guess not! But ultimately because at least in the area close to the stage, with the lyrics on screen, everyone was singing along so loud it didn't really matter who was singing on stage. It was a fun supportive night and I had a blast.

Fun fact: it was my first Wilco show since the 2016 Seattle show where someone almost died, this was a much more enjoyable experience!

This was my experience as well. I thought, with the exception of Safety Girl and one other, the karaoke performances were solid. Handshake Drugs was blistering, and Monday, Say You Miss Me, and Poor Places were excellent. I was a skeptic going in, but I had fun. It helped that I love nearly every song they did in the karaoke section (the exception for me is Safety Girl - not a fan of that one). Glad to see the band having a good time with it as well.

[sinko25]

I agree with most of what was said here. Overall it was a little disappointing that so much of the set was karaoke. And the performances were mostly pretty great, but also kind of forgettable. I’m not driving 3.5 hrs, shelling out a few hundred bucks on tickets and a few hundred more on an air BNB, standing in a field, etc to see a pretty good singer do Wilco, ya know?

 

Courtney Barnett was incredible though, maybe the highlight of the weekend.

[Yaz Rock]

Just want to chime in on behalf of Wilco Karaoke and the contest winners. I really enjoyed the Friday night show and I thought the singers acquitted themselves quite well. Wilco Karaoke was fun and added an element of surprise to the event - what songs would they do? What would the singers sound like? Would they be visibly nervous or confident? etc. Putting the lyrics and visuals up on screen was a great idea too (love the random cat video that played during one song). I wonder if those of us up front enjoyed it more than those in the back?

I agree with the comment of "what other band could pull this off" and I think also "Where else could Wilco pull this off?" Solid Sound makes so much more sense than some random venue mid-tour. The vibe of SS is as much about connecting with old friends and making new ones, as it is about seeing Wilco, and it was cool on Saturday to see some of the contest winners in the crowd, or around town, and to see other fans compliment them on their performances. Kudos to all. I'm enjoying listening to some of the recordings out there too of the individual songs.

As for the other artists, Mdou Moctar was the definite highlight for me. I'm glad my friend suggested before the fest to check out his music and that we go see him. Mdou and his band rocked and I will be seeing them again for sure.I also enjoyed Ohmme's set.

 

Oxford Pennant Shop was cool but I didn't have enough money to buy all the awesome stuff in there! The jugglers & gymnasts (not sure of the troupe name) who performed Saturday afternoon were entertaining. Somehow I missed the Rock and Roll Photos exhibit and the Around North Adams exhibit, both of which I'm sure I would have liked. Glad to see Samosa Man was back but unfortunately he was set up near the entrance/exit, and I didn't notice him until on the way out Saturday night.
 

Ordinarily I'd post some photos but I won't be able to do so for a while, maybe I'll check back here in a few weeks.

Another great Solid Sound in the books and as always a memorable kick off to summer =)

[u2roolz]

Courtney Barnett’s set is up on the WFUV archives. Wilco’s set will be up shortly, according to them.

 

https://www.wfuv.org/content/courtney-barnett-solid-sound-2019

[the3penguins]

Courtney Barnett’s set is up on the WFUV archives. Wilco’s set will be up shortly, according to them.

 

https://www.wfuv.org/content/courtney-barnett-solid-sound-2019

 

Wilco's up now as well: https://www.wfuv.org/content/wilco-solid-sound-2019

 

Hoping Saturday turns up soon! One of the best sets I've seen by them.

[jff]

Congratulations to everyone who got to sing on stage.  I'm already on record as not being a fan of the karaoke concept, but I hope everyone had fun. I'm sure it was an unforgettable experience.

[u2roolz]

Roadcase is available for this show.