{"id":3787,"date":"2026-06-28T13:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3787"},"modified":"2026-06-28T13:07:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:07:30","slug":"solid-sound-kicks-off-with-a-stroll-down-mermaid-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3787","title":{"rendered":"Solid Sound kicks off with a stroll down \u2018Mermaid Avenue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>NORTH ADAMS \u2014 The most surprising thing about Friday\u2019s headlining set at Solid Sound \u2014 the biennial Western Massachusetts music festival curated by the veteran alt-country\/art-rock outfit Wilco \u2014 was that it took this long to come to fruition. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3785\">Rare books on sex have spiced things up at a library Franklin founded<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>The event\u2019s opening night tradition is a unique, festival-exclusive show from the band, ranging over the years from full-album performances to a deep cuts set, an all-covers night, and an experiment dubbed \u201cKaraoke with Wilco.\u201d (Some concepts have proven more successful than others.) High atop many a fan\u2019s wish list, though, has been a reunion of the band with the British folk singer Billy Bragg to spotlight their beloved \u201cMermaid Avenue\u201d collaborations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Released in two volumes between 1998 and 2000 \u2014 plus a \u201cComplete Sessions\u201d release gathering outtakes in 2012 \u2014 the \u201cMermaid Avenue\u201d project set unrecorded lyrics by folk icon Woody Guthrie to original music, producing a bevy of fan favorites and setlist staples for both artists. Curiously, though, the two acts had never undertaken a formal tour \u2014 or even a full show \u2014 to perform the material together. Such a set finally came together at Solid Sound on Friday at the Mass MoCA grounds in North Adams.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>That the occasion was both a special one and a long time coming was a sentiment echoed by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy throughout the night, which dug deep to explore all alleys of the \u201cavenue.\u201d Guthrie might be best known for his politically charged songwriting, but the selections here spoke to the true breadth of a lyricist who was poignant (a stirring \u201cRemember the Mountain Bed\u201d), earnestly romantic (\u201cHesitating Beauty\u201d), and often playful (the singsong rave-up \u201cHoodoo Voodoo\u201d). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Politics certainly had their place, too; Bragg tore into the \u201cbound to lose\u201d refrain of the set-closing song \u201cAll You Fascists\u201d with a pronounced fervor that the crowd gave him right back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The whole endeavor felt spiritually Guthrie-approved. In a bit of well-timed scene-setting, a particularly noisy train rolled past on the tracks overlooking the festival grounds, and Tweedy suggested they stop to listen, as Guthrie might have wanted. \u201cWoody would\u2019ve climbed aboard,\u201d quipped Bragg. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Rounded out by the surprise appearance of singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant for her pair of songs from the original LP, and closing with a mass singalong of the definitive Guthrie tune \u201cThis Land Is Your Land,\u201d the show proved a wholly satisfying way to bring the project to the stage at long last. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3783\">For the US\u2019s 250th birthday, a German Declaration of Independence goes on show<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>If there was any major drawback to the day, it\u2019s that anticipation for the \u201cMermaid Avenue\u201d festivities perhaps ran <i>too<\/i> high. A sense of general overcrowdedness atypical of the festival\u2019s past years felt palpable past the gate, and the lines \u2014 for food trucks, beer, everything \u2014 seemed to extend in all directions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Still, the logistics didn\u2019t dampen the spirit of crowds that packed in from the start of the day\u2019s programming. An outspoken set of solo material from Bragg kicked things off, touching on union solidarity, trans rights, ICE resistance, and the nature of music\u2019s power (not to literally change the world, in Bragg\u2019s eyes, but to recharge activism and tamp down cynicism). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As the evening rolled on, Chicago band Sharp Pins combined sunny hooks and garage-rock crunch with an idea-a-minute urgency at the festival\u2019s most intimate stage, their momentum only stymied by a stripped-down stretch of the set from leader Kai Slater nearly succumbing to the encroachment of an adjacent soundcheck. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Post-punk legends Gang of Four \u2014 whose current lineup finds indie-rock lifer Ted Leo and Belly\/L7 bassist Gail Greenwood joining original members Jon King and Hugo Burnham \u2014 faced no such obstacles with their thunderous main stage set. Burnham and Greenwood powered a rhythm section that wasboth groovy and menacing, while Leo did justice to the piercing tones of late guitarist Andy Gill with his own flair. Vocalist King brought a wild-eyed mania to it all, prowling the stage and engaging in his signature percussion technique of demolishing a defunct microwave with a baseball bat. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Always a festival to combine the traditional with the adventurous, Solid Sound\u2019s late-night hours offered a choice between Brooklyn artist L\u2019Rain\u2019s alternately ethereal and bracing swirl of jazz, rock, and electronic experimentalism, or a vintage vinyl dancefloor curated by indie rockers Yo La Tengo. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3781\">Ukrainian strike sets fire to oil refinery in southern Russia<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Much like the night\u2019s main event, it was a combination you\u2019d only find here. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Wilco and Billy Bragg&#8217;s historic &#8220;Mermaid Avenue&#8221; performance, to standout sets from Gang of Four and L&#8217;Rain, there was plenty to appreciate about the festival&#8217;s opening night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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