Wilco Solid Sound Festival one big installation
Published in Berkshire Eagle, 8/17/10
Words and photos by Jeremy D. Goodwin
NORTH ADAMS—By the time they finished their exultant Saturday night set with an uproarious version of "Hoodoo Voodoo" that saw guitarists Nels Cline and Pat Sansone trading riffs, pointing to the sky with mock-self-indulgence and duck-walking back and forth across the stage, the members of Wilco did so as conquering heroes.
It was a truly moving, deeply triumphant set, combining fierce rock and roll energy with humor, nuanced emotion and just-controlled experimentalism in a way that may be unique to this band.
And yet when the crowd wandered off into the night, there was still another day yet to go in the Solid Sound Festival, which took over MASS MoCA'ss sprawling campus and galleries from Friday night through Sunday evening.
The peak for many attendees may have been the headliner’s set, but it was an event with a deep and versatile list of pleasures, offset by very little worth objecting to. There was The Books' occasion-grabbing set before an absolutely mobbed Hunter Center on Friday night. There was Cline, with his side band The Nels Cline Singers (hint: the set was all instrumental), transfixing a crowd of several hundred with an amorphous fusion of noise rock, free jazz and fusion (pick your hyphen) in an outdoor courtyard at 2pm on Sunday. There was Mavis Staples pounding her chest with her hands as she belted “Put the load on me!” over and over toward the end of The Band’s “The Weight.” And there was Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's victory-lap acoustic set to close the festival late Sunday afternoon, a long and comfortable performance that happened in a field on the fringe of the Museum's property but felt as intimate as a living room recital.
NORTH ADAMS—By the time they finished their exultant Saturday night set with an uproarious version of "Hoodoo Voodoo" that saw guitarists Nels Cline and Pat Sansone trading riffs, pointing to the sky with mock-self-indulgence and duck-walking back and forth across the stage, the members of Wilco did so as conquering heroes.
It was a truly moving, deeply triumphant set, combining fierce rock and roll energy with humor, nuanced emotion and just-controlled experimentalism in a way that may be unique to this band.
And yet when the crowd wandered off into the night, there was still another day yet to go in the Solid Sound Festival, which took over MASS MoCA'ss sprawling campus and galleries from Friday night through Sunday evening.
The peak for many attendees may have been the headliner’s set, but it was an event with a deep and versatile list of pleasures, offset by very little worth objecting to. There was The Books' occasion-grabbing set before an absolutely mobbed Hunter Center on Friday night. There was Cline, with his side band The Nels Cline Singers (hint: the set was all instrumental), transfixing a crowd of several hundred with an amorphous fusion of noise rock, free jazz and fusion (pick your hyphen) in an outdoor courtyard at 2pm on Sunday. There was Mavis Staples pounding her chest with her hands as she belted “Put the load on me!” over and over toward the end of The Band’s “The Weight.” And there was Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's victory-lap acoustic set to close the festival late Sunday afternoon, a long and comfortable performance that happened in a field on the fringe of the Museum's property but felt as intimate as a living room recital.
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And, perhaps above all, there was a crowd of about 5,000 music fans who spanned generations and explored both the music and MASS MoCA's galleries with a gracious manner and a quietly satisfied, relaxed air. (The family-friendly element was acknowledged by Tweedy Saturday when he said his band could keep playing because “You don’t have to worry about babysitters, you brought the kids with you.”)
At Solid Sound, we caught a glimpse of what a multi-band summer music festival could be like if the top priorities actually were the experience of the patrons and the artistry of the performances. The powers that be could have squeezed a lot more money out of this event by booking bigger-drawing acts and revising the free and abundant water policy, for instance. (Not to mention holding it somewhere other than North Adams.)
But instead, from the deliberately overstaffed volunteer corps to the signs gently asking patrons not to park in the wrong lot, it seemed the key motivation of the event’s organizers was to leave a good impression on the attendees. To rock fans used to being herded in and out of these events like cattle-with-ATM-cards, it was a revelation.
Let's be honest about something that seems to have gone unsaid: in some ways this was a B-list festival. The headliner was one of the biggest rock bands in the world, but after that the musical options were truly, well, esoteric. If the lineup was put together by a music promoter looking to sell tickets, it would seem like that of a lower tier event. But since it was assembled by hand by Wilco (who chose the word "curated"), it instead felt like one big art installation, each act a piece of a larger whole. To assess it simply in terms fit for the typical summer rock festival seems to miss the point. Where does one rank the experience of hearing Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche explain the functioning of his interactive drum head exhibit, amid the setting of MoCA’s major Sol LeWitt exhibition? Or catching a bit of famed performance-art troupe Bread and Puppet, through the windows from inside the galleries? Or, even, making use of the power outlets and free wifi connection from a table in the indoor café, while the band’s set happening next door is helpfully played on the speakers?
At Solid Sound, we caught a glimpse of what a multi-band summer music festival could be like if the top priorities actually were the experience of the patrons and the artistry of the performances. The powers that be could have squeezed a lot more money out of this event by booking bigger-drawing acts and revising the free and abundant water policy, for instance. (Not to mention holding it somewhere other than North Adams.)
But instead, from the deliberately overstaffed volunteer corps to the signs gently asking patrons not to park in the wrong lot, it seemed the key motivation of the event’s organizers was to leave a good impression on the attendees. To rock fans used to being herded in and out of these events like cattle-with-ATM-cards, it was a revelation.
Let's be honest about something that seems to have gone unsaid: in some ways this was a B-list festival. The headliner was one of the biggest rock bands in the world, but after that the musical options were truly, well, esoteric. If the lineup was put together by a music promoter looking to sell tickets, it would seem like that of a lower tier event. But since it was assembled by hand by Wilco (who chose the word "curated"), it instead felt like one big art installation, each act a piece of a larger whole. To assess it simply in terms fit for the typical summer rock festival seems to miss the point. Where does one rank the experience of hearing Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche explain the functioning of his interactive drum head exhibit, amid the setting of MoCA’s major Sol LeWitt exhibition? Or catching a bit of famed performance-art troupe Bread and Puppet, through the windows from inside the galleries? Or, even, making use of the power outlets and free wifi connection from a table in the indoor café, while the band’s set happening next door is helpfully played on the speakers?
It's fair to say, though, that the undercard lacked some musical diversity. Pronto (led by Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen), Vetiver, Brenda, The Baseball Project (featuring REM's Mike Mills) and The Autumn Defense (with Wilco's John Stirratt and Pat Sansone) all trafficked in various shades of melodic rock and indie pop, well-executed and fit for summer days but stacking together eventually into a bit of a smiley-faced blur.
And so Cline's group, along with noisy rock trio Avi Buffalo, came as much-needed palette cleansers on Sunday. The Nels Cline Singers’ opening song, “Floored,” was the sound of one hundred boxes of electric eels falling down the stairs. It would have been a warm-up set on some side stage almost anywhere else. How wonderful to create a festival where this could be a featured event.
And so Cline's group, along with noisy rock trio Avi Buffalo, came as much-needed palette cleansers on Sunday. The Nels Cline Singers’ opening song, “Floored,” was the sound of one hundred boxes of electric eels falling down the stairs. It would have been a warm-up set on some side stage almost anywhere else. How wonderful to create a festival where this could be a featured event.