the magic wilco kingdom
On Sunday night, I returned from Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival, which, it turns out, is a lot like Disneyland. (Well, technically Disney World is the Magic Kingdom, but I like Disneyland better, so we’re going with that.)
Not chronological, not comprehensive, and possibly not coherent, but here are some thoughts and memories:
The Wilco
— What’s better than one Wilco concert? Two Wilco concerts. Two full-length, full-enthusiasm, full-strength concerts. The real draw of this festival was its variety of sights and sounds and experiences from a range of different art forms, but just seeing one of my favorite bands twice is, on its own, well worth the price of admission.
— That said, the weather factor is unavoidable. It rained pretty impressively just before and during most of Wilco’s first show. When an umbrella, a raincoat hood, and pounding raindrops stand between you ears and the music, it puts a bit of a damper on things. Literally and figuratively. And the songs were fighting with “cold! shivering! freezing! squishy sneakers!” for mind space the whole time.
— Based on the few songs from their forthcoming new album we heard, I think I’m really going to like it. A few weeks ago, I talked about what a special experience it is to hear songs for the first time in live concert form. “I Might” will fall into that category every time I hear it. It was one of the few they played during both shows, and now it’s permanently burned in my memory as a Solid Sound Song. Super catchy, too.
— With all the setlist variation, I heard almost every single song I could’ve wanted to hear (except maybe “She’s A Jar” and “Ashes of American Flags”). These long shows in succession really highlight how deep their catalog is, and the crowd excitement from even the deepest of the deep tracks highlights how devoted the fans are.
— Speaking of which, the second show had a great vibe. The people around me sang along to the songs, I made my way through the muddy field closer to the stage as the evening went on, and we were all just happy to not be in the rain.
— Sarah Lee Guthrie’s guest appearance on “California Stars” (already one of my favorites) was amazing and made me regret not catching her performance earlier. Also, Liam Finn guest appearance! I love children-and-grandchildren-of-famous-musicians-who-are-also-musicians. As we know.
Right, Disneyland. We took buses over from parking shuttles; people in costumes randomly burst into crowds and onto streets and started singing; museums were an escape from crowds; the big letters spelling WILCO resembled the California Adventure letters; we were ushered through the still-open gift shop at the end of the day when the place was closing; and a very familiar combination of delirious happiness and “my feet are killing me” dominated thoughts at that time.
And more!
— And there was Other Stuff! Surprisingly, the Wilco shows were the only full concerts I saw, but I saw portions of sets (and with some of these, that means just stopping by for a few minutes by walking through) by The Handsome Family, Sic Alps, Here We Go Magic, Jamie Lidell, Thurston Moore, Syl Johnson & The Sweet Divines, JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound, The Autumn Defense, Pillow Wand, and Levon Helm & His Rambling Band.
— I wasn’t at all familiar with JC Brooks before the show, but his performance on Sunday stands out as a highlight. Embarrassingly enough, I’m not even that familiar with soul music, but no education was needed to feel his stage presence and energy. The call-and-response interaction with the audience and words of wisdom between songs gave it a spirited church-like feel. Plus, there was THIS (I did not take this video).
— I only caught the pop-up gallery performance by The Handsome Family. That was enough to remind me that I like them and need to look into buying more of their music. It’s so wonderfully creepy.
— Solo Thurston Moore did not sound at ALL like Sonic Youth. In fact, it was about as not-Sonic-Youth as you can get — vaguely New Age-y, in fact. Interesting, but maybe only at the right place and at the right time.
— Speaking of Thurston Moore, Pillow Wand was crazy weird, in a good way. I caught most of that show from inside the galleries, which was fitting. It was really the aural equivalent of the modern art in the museum. Perfect soundtrack.
— Jamie Lidell was great until it started pouring (early on, unfortunately) and I gave up and left.
— Levon Helm is, of course, a living legend. My dream of seeing The Band will never come true (kind of like that dream of seeing The Beatles), so this might be the closest I get. He and his rambly folks did, in fact, do several songs by The Band. It was a nice rollicking, relaxed way to close out the festival. My only regret is leaving early in order to get home early-ish, because the best was clearly at the end, when I hear Wilco joined them for “The Weight” and a few other classics.
Next post, PHOTOS.
