Wilco's Solid Sound Festival: this weekend, Aug 13-15, North Adams, MA

[click for large size poster].

The Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival takes place August 13-15th in North Adams, MA at Mass MoCA, and I recommend it with great enthusiasm and shameless fandom.

Wilco, shown above, headlines the fest: it's their only East Coast performance of the summer. If you've never seen them live, do so. I saw them for the first time at Outside Lands (coincidentally also taking place this weekend, on the opposite coast), and I'm a True Wilco Believer. They are one of the greatest, if not the greatest, live act in America.

All of the band members' side projects will perform, too: Glenn Kotche's On Fillmore, The Nels Cline Singers, The Autumn Defense featuring John Stirratt and Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen's Pronto.

The event will includes a number of other musical performers (they got Mavis Staples on the bill, for chrissakes!), as well as…

[A] fully programmed comedy stage, interactive installations and exhibits (including the Solid Sound Stompbox Station, an interactive guitar pedal exhibit created and demonstrated by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, a concert-poster screening demonstration, planned workshops by luthiers and more), plus film, video installations and dj's. Festival attendees will have full access to the entire MASS MoCA campus, which incorporates 150,000 square feet of galleries. MASS MoCA, a renovated 19th century textile mill, is the largest center for contemporary, visual and performing arts in the U.S.

Tickets to the weekend-long festival, one of the few independently run festivals in North America, are $91 (including all fees and parking).

Link: Solid Sound Festival website, and they're on Twitter.