It's hard to believe that it's been two weeks since the Solid Sound Festival ended. I meant to write something sooner but you know how it goes when you get back from vacation. Over the last two weeks I've been catching up with work, catching up on sleep, and trying to catch some pesky possums that may have been the culprits in wounding our cat. Just in case you were curious two of them were captured last night. Hopefully that will be the end of them...but enough about that; this is a music blog so here we go.
My girlfriend and I arrived at the Mass Moca a little later than expected on Friday night due to some plane delays (no surprise there) Once we arrived on site we were a bit tired but excited to soak in North Adams, the Berkshires and all the music we were about to hear. We pretty much just got our wristbands for the weekend, grabbed some food and checked out some of the Wilco related exhibits (including a poster retrospective) the first night. We did catch a little of Deep Blue Organ Trio's set while we chowed down on some local pizza and refreshed ourselves with a few Magic Hat Wackos. After eating and checking out the lay of the land we decided to head back to our hotel and rest up for a big Saturday.
On Saturday we had about a 20 minute drive into N Adams from Bennington VT (where we were staying) It was a breathtaking drive through the windy roads in the shadows of the mountains. After dealing with 115-120 degree heat index for a few weeks the highs in the 80's was a welcome relief. We arrived just in time to check out one of the comedians, Hannibal Buress. I had seen his name a few times in some magazines and Chris Rock even name checked him on the Howard Stern show so I was pretty excited. Well I feel that he lived up to the hype. He did about a 45 minute set and while there were a few slow points my girlfriend and I did have some laugh out loud moments. We also had a few minutes to check out the Vermont based Mountain Man...Which was actually three women mostly harmonizing, occasional picking up an acoustic guitar. The lady's voices were impressive. We watched about 3 or 4 songs and then decided to check out some of the art exhibits. After that it was time to go see "the big boys" and head out to the vacant field behind the art museum.
We arrived in time to throw down the blanket in a good spot to check out Mavis Staples. As the sun started setting Ms Staples come on stage and after about an hour set acquired many more new fans (including myself) She sang spirituals, original songs (including Jeff Tweedy on guitar for a few tracks or "Tweedy" as she referred to him) and did a great version of The Band classic, "The Weight." After Mavis left the stage we had enough time to get some food and do another beer run before Wilco. They came out opening with "Wilco (The Song) with I believe the same stage effects they had when I saw them in Richmond this past spring. Although it was a cool theater in VA it was a little more awe inspiring with the backdrop of the Berkshire Mountains. The band played a solid 2.5 hour set hitting all the albums (with a few rarities that I've never seen performed live) It was definitely an exciting show for all the Wilco geeks in attendance. After it was over my girlfriend and I had smiles on our faces and headed back to the hotel excited to know that another day of music was ahead of us.
When Sunday came around my girlfriend and I both realized we were going to miss coming to the Mass Moca. It had been a wonderful weekend of great music, food, culture and awesome weather...but we still had one more day to go. We kicked off the day by checking out The Autumn Defense (which includes Wilco members John Stirratt and Pat Sansone)(Well after checking out the Natural Land Bridge up the road) I hadn't heard any of their tunes before, but I enjoy their playing in Wilco so I was excited to hear them. I'd seen them described as a throwback to 70's radio rock drawing comparisons to Neil Young and America. Well the descriptions were spot on. The guys came out and played a mostly acoustic set of original tunes (except one cover by Big Star to end the set) I was pleasantly surprised by Sansone's and Stirratt's side project and look forward to checking out their new CD that I believe comes out in November. After the show we walked to one of the other courtyards to catch a little of The Nels Cline Singers. I'm a huge fan of Nels' guitar work on Wilco records and he's a bit of a maniac onstage which is fun to watch but his side project is more of an experimental jazz trio. Well after a few minutes we decided it wasn't for us so we decided to take one more walk around downtown North Adams.(see Mohawk theater picture above) After killing about an hour we headed back to the field to see Jeff Tweedy solo, the closing show of the festival. (If you look hard at the picture to the left that's Jeff on stage during his solo set)
I'd only seen Jeff Tweedy perform solo once before so I was pretty excited about the show. Once again we secured a nice spot of grass and grabbed one more round of beers to cap off the weekend. He came on and pretty much everybody remained seated so we had a great view of the performance and were able to lay back and soak in almost two hours of originals, covers, and collaborations. Besides a bit of spitting rain during the last performance the weekend was perfect. It consisted of amazing music, good food, no long waits at the beer tents, historic architecture, and gorgeous mountain views. There’s a possibility this won't be the last Solid Sound festival. I'm anxious to see what they come up with next year. Hopefully it will give my girlfriend and I another excuse to head up to the mountains!
I've attached one Jeff Tweedy solo tune and one Wilco track from the festival. To get a copy of the entire shows check out the bt. etree link on the left side of the site.
Simple Twist of Fate - Jeff Tweedy (Bob Dylan Cover)
On and On and On - Wilco
