Jump to content

Wilco — 29 June 2019, North Adams, MA (Joe's Field at Mass MoCA) [Solid Sound Festival; Day 2 of 3]

bböp

By bböp,
in After The Show

 Share Followers 0

Recommended Posts

bböp

bböp

Posted
Posted

There’s always so much going on during the one full day of the Solid Sound Festival — in my mind anyway, Friday and Sunday are almost half days — that Wilco almost becomes an afterthought at its own festival. That’s total hyperbole, of course, but between checking out art, music and comedy, navigating Mass MoCA and its various quirks, dealing with the weather and just trying to take it all in, you do almost forget sometimes that a big reason for many people to attend this biennial gathering in the Berkshires is to see Jeff and his bandmates perform a couple of memorable sets.

So as weird as it feels not to really hit on anything/everything that transpired on Saturday during the sixth edition of SSF, for the purposes of this little recap, I’ll mostly stick to Wilco’s performance to close out tonight’s schedule on Joe’s Field, which also included stellar sets by Cate Le Bon and The Feelies, both featuring cameos by Jeff on covers of The Kinks’ Strangers and Arthur Russell’s I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face (with Le Bon) and Neil Young’s Don’t Cry No Tears (with The Feelies).

By the time Wilco took the stage at 9:17 p.m. and launched into Hell Is Chrome, the threat of rain and potentially severe weather some forecast for the day had fortunately dissipated with just a few harmless sprinkles. After “karaoke night” the previous evening, the band delivered a proper headlining set as promised, with no repeated songs from Night 1 and the added bonus of the live debut of two new songs — An Empty Corner and White Wooden Cross — presumably from the forthcoming Wilco record. (And incidentally, there was also a pop-up sound installation in the museum earlier in the day of yet another new song, Before Us.)

So anyway, it’s always difficult to describe new songs (for me, anyway) after hearing them for the first time. White Wooden Cross is actually a song Jeff had started playing fairly regularly on his solo tour in March and April, so it personally wasn’t as jarring to hear that one, though obviously the full-band arrangement will still take some getting used to. Lyrically, as I’m sure I’ve previously discussed, it’s pretty sad, seemingly about coming to grips with someone’s death. The song listed on the printed setlist as "Empty Corner," meanwhile, was also pretty dense lyrically and featured the line “you've got family out there” in its chorus. All of the new songs unveiled thus far seem to have a pretty deliberate tempo — none are out-and-out rockers — and at least a couple are built around a fairly simple, but nevertheless ear-catching, guitar pattern with some underlying sonic textures.

Aside from the new songs, the band more or less stuck to the material it has been playing on its relatively short warm-up tour this month that finally ended its lengthy hiatus. There weren’t many setlist surprises per se, but some excellent performances, including Reservations and Impossible Germany. And the “rock songs, etc.” trio of Red-Eyed>I Got You>Outtasite to close the main set definitely injected some energy into the crowd before the band returned for its lone encore.

That encore featured easily Jeff’s most significant and amusing visit to Banter Corner when he talked about how the band had once made a promise — probably broken more than a few times since then — that Glenn would only stand up on his drum stool at Solid Sound. But, as Jeff explained, since Glenn usually does his thing prior to I’m The Man Who Loves You and the band had played that song the previous evening as part of the live karaoke adventure, “it doesn’t seem appropriate for Glenn to upstage the karaoke winner with his parlor trick.” So Jeff suggested that Glenn could stand up on his stool before another song instead. And after more than a bit of mock(?) indignation, he finally obliged — to the delight of the crowd — and stood up with arms extended overhead to kick off the show-closing I’m A Wheel.

There wasn’t much other banter from Jeff, except at a couple of different points to sincerely thank both the audience for continuing to show up and support the festival and all of the artists, Mass MoCA and the city of North Adams for all that they do to make it happen. He also joked early on that everyone should “feel free to sing along. Just because you didn’t win the (karaoke) contest doesn’t mean you can’t participate.” And Jeff also acknowledged the traditional passing-by of the train on the nearby tracks during Wilco’s set, saying only that he wished that the band was about to play “something more atmospheric” before starting into Something To Lose.

From a musical standpoint, one thing I did notice that feels at least worth mentioning was that Glenn seemed not to be playing any of the drum rolls or adding any of the little flourishes that he often does at the end of some songs. I noted the lack thereof on Box Full Of Letters and Hesitating Beauty, for example. I’m not sure why he wasn’t, but I kind of missed them (this is probably something that only I would notice). And the band didn’t play the outro section, after the final “anymore,” on A Shot in the Arm. Again, I’m not exactly sure why they didn’t…but I missed it.

At any rate, Wilco’s one-hour, 55-minute set was a pretty solid way to close out what is always the most action-packed day of Solid Sound (the late-night set by clipping., Hamilton star Daveed Diggs' experimental hip-hop project, and another set by DJ Funkhauser notwithstanding). It might not have scratched every itch when it comes to seeing the full band again, but the vast majority of the attendees seemed to walk out of Joe’s Field more than sated — for now.

For now, here was the complete setlist as played for Wilco's second and final show at Solid Sound 6 (didn't see a printed setlist, so couldn't say if there were any changes/omissions [edit: apparently Ashes Of American Flags was listed as the first song of the encore, but wasn't played]):

Hell Is Chrome
Muzzle Of Bees
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
War On War
Company In My Back
I'll Fight
Shouldn't Be Ashamed
new song-An Empty Corner
new song-White Wooden Cross
Box Full Of Letters
Remember The Mountain Bed
Hesitating Beauty
Bull Black Nova
Laminated Cat (aka Not For The Season)
Reservations
Side With The Seeds
Theologians
Someone To Lose
Impossible Germany
Red-Eyed and Blue>
I Got You (At The End of the Century)>
Outtasite (Outta Mind)
--------------------------------
A Shot in the Arm
I'm A Wheel

Link to post
Share on other sites
u2roolz

u2roolz

Posted
Posted

The first new song was listed as Empty Corner on the setlist that’s going around the FB groups. And Ashes Of American Flags was listed as the first song for the encore.

 

Another amazing night!

 

Oh, btw, last night they had A Magazine Called Sunset on the setlist sandwiched between What Light & The Late Greats. I swear that I read somewhere that someone got picked to do that for the karaoke.

Link to post
Share on other sites
bböp

bböp

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The first new song was listed as Empty Corner on the setlist that’s going around the FB groups. And Ashes Of American Flags was listed as the first song for the encore.

 

Another amazing night!

 

Oh, btw, last night they had A Magazine Called Sunset on the setlist sandwiched between What Light & The Late Greats. I swear that I read somewhere that someone got picked to do that for the karaoke.

 

Ah, thanks for the printed setlist info. If you can't beat the FB groups...right? B)

 

And yeah, I was fully expecting A Magazine Called Sunset last night as well because of the article in one of the area papers about the only local among the karaoke singers. Her entry submission video was Magazine, so I was surprised when she ended up singing Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again). I wonder if that was her decision to change or if the band asked her to. (Incidentally, we saw her helping direct traffic among the crowd exodus from Joe's Field after Wilco's set tonight.)

Link to post
Share on other sites
bböp

bböp

Posted
  • Author
Posted

And any thoughts on the Feelies?

I was already a fan and, judging by the number of Feelies T-shirts I saw, it seemed like there were quite a few others in attendance as well. They basically played their "hits," in addition to the Neil Young cover with Jeff, but an hour-long set just isn't enough to give a true sense of what a proper Feelies show is like, IMHO. Hopefully they made at least a few new fans. Seemed like a lot of folks were just glad to finally have a chance to see them play live since they don't tour out of the Northeast all that often.

 

Anyway, out of habit, I jotted down their set as well so here's what they played:

 

Let's Go

On The Roof

Nobody Knows

The High Road

Decide

Don't Cry No Tears [Neil Young] (w/Jeff Tweedy on vocals and acoustic guitar)

Should Be Gone

Higher Ground

The Final Word

Away

Slipping Into Something

Doin' It Again

Too Far Gone

Raised Eyebrows>

Crazy Rhythms

Link to post
Share on other sites
u2roolz

u2roolz

Posted
Posted

How were the new songs?

Amazing & gorgeous! They’ll sound even nicer in a theater this fall & beyond.

 

Some clips are hitting the 2 Wilco FB groups. Not sure if you’re a member, but one is called Solid Sound 2019 and the other is A Shot In The Arm.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Oil Can Boyd

Oil Can Boyd

Posted
Posted

I was already a fan and, judging by the number of Feelies T-shirts I saw, it seemed like there were quite a few others in attendance as well. They basically played their "hits," in addition to the Neil Young cover with Jeff, but an hour-long set just isn't enough to give a true sense of what a proper Feelies show is like, IMHO. Hopefully they made at least a few new fans. Seemed like a lot of folks were just glad to finally have a chance to see them play live since they don't tour out of the Northeast all that often.

 

Anyway, out of habit, I jotted down their set as well so here's what they played:

 

Let's Go

On The Roof

Nobody Knows

The High Road

Decide

Don't Cry No Tears [Neil Young] (w/Jeff Tweedy on vocals and acoustic guitar)

Should Be Gone

Higher Ground

The Final Word

Away

Slipping Into Something

Doin' It Again

Too Far Gone

Raised Eyebrows>

Crazy Rhythms

 

Thanks! Wasn't expecting the full bböp treatment!

Link to post
Share on other sites
pathfire

pathfire

Posted
Posted

Amazing & gorgeous! They’ll sound even nicer in a theater this fall & beyond.

 

Some clips are hitting the 2 Wilco FB groups. Not sure if you’re a member, but one is called Solid Sound 2019 and the other is A Shot In The Arm.

 

Thanks! I'll check them out over there. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
last cigarettes

last cigarettes

Posted
Posted

d’oh!

 

there’s my post-show fomo for the weekend-my son and i caught most of cate’s set on the field, and were walking over to see tortoise in courtyard d when i heard strangers- my favorite kinks song (and one i’d requested jeff cover a few years back in his box full of letters)! i had no idea that was him on the harmonies.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
u2roolz

u2roolz

Posted
Posted

Thanks!! Been waiting for this to turn up somewhere.

 

Someone on Reddit claims the Wilco Instagram hinted these would be Roadcases as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wilco/comments/cacvyg/solid_sound_2019_roadcase/etak22n/

One of the distinguished VC members posted over at the Wilco FB fanpage that he stood next to the guy that takes care of the Wilco Roadcases at one of this summer’s biggest tours. That guy said to expect them when the new album drops. I took that to mean either a.) September or b.) sometime soon with a surprise album drop like Star Wars. At this point either way could be possible. It’s been a bit over a month since the come back shows in TN & they haven’t had a Roadcase yet. Maybe they won’t.
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Followers 0
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...