This is so right, even I’m dying to attend, and I’m not that big a Wilco fan!<\/p>\n
1. Context<\/span><\/p>\n Major labels will ask who you sound like, they don’t want anything unique, just something similar to what came before.<\/p>\n Now it’s about creating your own context.\u00c2\u00a0 No one has done this better than Wilco.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t sound like anybody else, and have no desire to do so.<\/p>\n 2. Hits<\/span><\/p>\n Huh?<\/p>\n You know that famous Wilco track, what’s it called again, it was all over Top Forty radio…<\/p>\n Funny thing is most acts topping the hit parade couldn’t stage a festival like this, no one would come, or certainly not past the first year.<\/p>\n It’s about a body of work.<\/p>\n 3. Fans<\/span><\/p>\n They’re fans of the band, not the track.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the way it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is the way it’s got to be again in order for the business to be healthy.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got to go to the show to hear what the band has to say, not to hear the one big hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Because if that’s all you’ve got, you’d better provide plenty of production, plenty of distraction, to cover up the fact that underneath…there just isn’t much.<\/p>\n 4. Take Your Music Seriously<\/span><\/p>\n I’m not saying there can be no humor, no one took his music more seriously than Frank Zappa, and his music was loaded with humor.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that the humor has to be in the material, it’s about having a sense of humor, being able to make fun of yourself, especially in an era where everybody can make fun of you online.<\/p>\n Are you angling for music nirvana or fame?\u00c2\u00a0 For cash or credibility?<\/p>\n Except for that misstep with product endorsement, Wilco never seems to be about the money, only the music.<\/p>\n 5. Artist Development<\/span><\/p>\n Jeff Tweedy was in Uncle Tupelo.\u00c2\u00a0 A band that wasn’t truly revered until it broke up.\u00c2\u00a0 Wilco experimented with various sounds, switched labels after being dropped, even made a movie solely for the hard core.\u00c2\u00a0 It took the band a while to find both its sound and its niche.\u00c2\u00a0 And with such a rich history, old fans are satiated and new fans can be enticed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about more, not less.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about being in it for the long haul.<\/p>\n 6. More<\/span><\/p>\n That’s what fans want.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why this festival line-up is so great.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only do you get Wilco, you get all the band members’ side projects.\u00c2\u00a0 You can wallow in Wilco!\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t trek across the country for only two hours of satiation, you get a weekend’s worth.<\/p>\n 7. Even More Than That<\/span><\/p>\n They called it the Woodstock Music & Art Fair.\u00c2\u00a0 And Wilco’s presenting comedy and art.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s three-dimensionality.\u00c2\u00a0 Not just stand in the dust and heat and drink overpriced beers.<\/p>\n You can leave with a story more than I saw the band and they were great!\u00c2\u00a0 You can have your eyes opened to what interests Wilco beyond music.<\/p>\n Aren’t festivals supposed to be held in a field, where you moo like cattle as the promoter rips you off?<\/p>\n To hold Solid Sound in civilized North Adams, at an art museum, not only demonstrates innovation, but respect for the band’s audience.<\/p>\n _____________________________<\/p>\n Festivals have become smorgasbords.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you been to a buffet recently?\u00c2\u00a0 Everything looks really good at first, then you sample and overeat and wish you went to a regular restaurant.\u00c2\u00a0 Because what you really want is one thing really good as opposed to a plethora of stuff you don’t truly desire.<\/p>\n Festivals have become about the promoter, not the band.\u00c2\u00a0 How can the promoter create a concoction of crap to the point where you want to go.<\/p>\n And on some level it works.\u00c2\u00a0 But at this point, so many are tribal rites focused primarily on socializing and punching your ticket to hipdom as opposed to music.\u00c2\u00a0 Most people who don’t go to the Wilco festival won’t care that you were there.\u00c2\u00a0 How twenty first century.\u00c2\u00a0 Where it’s not about the masses so much as the individual.\u00c2\u00a0 Not so much about everybody as opposed to the like-minded. Everybody at this weekend will be a Wilco fan.\u00c2\u00a0 What a great place begin!<\/p>\n
8. Location<\/span><\/p>\n\n