Report: Solid Sound Festival – Day 1
Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, which took place last weekend at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts in North Adams, rises to the challenge of offering something truly unique in the overcrowded summer festival landscape. Curated and hosted by the band, the festival establishes its own miniature universe of like-minded acts and fans for the weekend. This year’s opening day featured Austin rockers White Denim, reunited gospel-funk group The Relatives and a very special all-request covers set from Wilco.
The ride to North Adams, situated in the far northwestern corner of Massachusetts, is a beautiful one. If you’ve spent as much time on the eastern edge of the state as I have, you’d be shocked by the majestic Berkshires too. This was my first year at Solid Sound, and the sheer natural beauty of its location was pretty stunning. As far as potential festival sites within a reasonable drive from Boston go, this is the absolute best. The fascinating MoMA, which festival-goers have full access to for the weekend, was just an added bonus.
The festival was laid out over two small stages in the museum’s courtyards, a main stage in the adjacent Joe’s Field and an indoor stage at the Hunter Center. With limited overlap in set times and good sightlines and sound for each stage, Solid Sound ran just about as smoothly as one could possibly hope for with this type of outdoor event. Food and drink options were plentiful, and a mini Euclid Records store with a nearby artist signing tent was a nice touch.
Early Friday evening, White Denim played the weekend’s inaugural set. White Denim are the result of a whole bunch of influences melding into one multifaceted sound. There’s a lot of psych, a bit of punk, a hint of blues and elements of just about everything else in their songs, but on stage it all seemed to fit together naturally. A tight set delivered with genuine enthusiasm kicked off the weekend with a bang.
The Relatives, hailing from Texas, were the first main stage set of the festival. Led by brothers Gean and Tommie West, The Relatives have arisen from the tomb of 1970s obscurity in recent years to tour and record once again. Their sound melded funk and soul with gospel group harmonies, as well as a level of crowd engagement that got a surprising number of unfamiliar Wilco fans dancing. Seeing The Relatives bring a bit of gospel-funk into the lives of people who probably don’t listen to a whole lot of either reminded me of soul crooner Charles Bradley’s set at last year’s Newport Folk Festival. Much like Bradley, their level of showmanship had no trouble winning over a crowd who surely wasn’t expecting them.
As the sun set, Wilco took the stage for their much-anticipated all-request show. Fans could use an online request system in the months leading up to the festival to submit their suggestions, of which, according to frontman Jeff Tweedy, there were several thousand. Running the gamut from 90s indie rock to proto-punk and classic rock, Wilco delivered a consistently surprising and massively enjoyable headlining set. The tone veered from wistfully nostalgic (Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate,” The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”) to singalong blissful (Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair,” Big Star’s “In the Street”), but it all came together beautifully in the band’s capable hands. It’s a testament to Wilco’s admiral range that they could pull off back-to-back Neil Young and Daft Punk (!) covers convincingly, nail the nimble fretwork of The Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing” (twice in a row) and make a transition from The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” into Abba’s “Waterloo” sound good.
Guests during the set included Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson (for “Color Me Impressed”), members of Brooklyn indie pop group Lucius (who also performed on Saturday) and New Jersey’s legendary Yo La Tengo (busting out an anthemic “Tom Courtenay”). Comedian and Daily Show correspondent John Hodgeman was also on hand to ‘randomize’ the proceedings by pulling numbers from a bingo machine which corresponded to songs on the list, as well as host a few ‘stump the band’ interludes. Amid the numerous memorable moments of the set though, hearing guitarist Nels Cline shred his way through a brilliant cover of Television’s signature epic “Marquee Moon” was still the highlight. The entire set is available for streaming and downloading at NYC Taper.
Following the conclusion of Wilco’s immediately famous set was a more low-ley event in the Hunter Center, where Yo La Tengo performed a live score to the documentary The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller. Love Song is a unique type of documentary, whose narration and musical score are performed live each time it screens. Yo La Tengo underscored footage of Fuller’s inventions and speeches with minimal grooves and atmosphere as director Sam Green told of the man’s rather fascinating life (he made an decades-long effort to chronicle his entire life via paper trail in the Dymaxion Chronofile, and was the inventor of the geodesic dome). A unique bit of multimedia presentation and an interesting way to cap off day one.
