Wilco Announces All-Request Concert at the Solid Sound Festival, 6/21/13

The opening night of the Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA just got a little more interesting.

Wilco’s festival performance at the massive contemporary art museum in North Adams on Friday, June 21 will be an all-request affair. Fans are encouraged to submit songs requests in advance – including covers – and the band promises to learn 50 of those songs for the fest. Then, during the concert, approximately 20 songs will be selected live, at random, for Wilco to perform during their show.

The encores will feature still more fan-requested songs submitted via Twitter, as well as a live version of “Stump the Band,” in which audience members will request songs and attempt to stump the band – a variation on the original “Stump the Band” segment featured on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. The Solid Sound version will feature comedian-actor-author John Hodgman standing in for the late, great, late-night TV host, polling audience members for their very best song challenges.

Information will be announced soon regarding how and when fans can submit song requests.

And as the band’s official press release states, “This is the first-ever all-request concert by Wilco. It may also be the last.”

Sounds like the perfect way to kick off an always-adventurous music fest…

Wilco will also be performing at the Solid Sound Fest on Saturday, June 22 – playing a set of their own choosing.

Meanwhile, Wilco and the other festival organizers have announced the day-by-day breakdown of the bands’ performances, and here’s how it’s shaping up:

FRIDAY, JUNE 21
Wilco
The Relatives
White Denim
plus Yo La Tengo playing live to the film “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller”

SATURDAY, JUNE 22
Wilco
Neko Case
Low
Yo La Tengo
Foxygen
The Dream Syndicate
Lucius
Mark Mulcahy
Sam Amidon
plus John Hodgman’s Comedy Cabaret featuring:
Reggie Watts
Al Madrigal
Jen Kirkman

SUNDAY, JUNE 23
The Blisters
Mikael Jorgensen & Greg O’Keeffe
Nels Cline & Julian Lage
Glenn Kotche’s On Fillmore backing a live performance of the public radio show “Radiolab”
The Autumn Defense
Border Music featuring Mark Ribot and David Hidalgo
Os Mutantes
Medeski, Martin & Wood (and special guests)

Three-day festival passes for the Solid Sound Festival are available for $149. Single-day tickets for Friday, June 21 and Sunday, June 23 are $65. Tickets for Saturday, June 22 are $84. Upgrades are available from single-day tickets to three-day passes through the festival website. Three-day passes for children ages 7-10 are $50; and children ages six and under are free.

ADDITIONAL UPCOMING FESTIVALS FOR 2013:
Snoe.down @ Killington Ski Resort, Killington & Rutland, 3/21-24/13
Move Music Festival @ various locations, Albany, 4/26-27/13
Mountain Jam @ Hunter Mountain, Hunter, 6/6-9/13
A Taste of Country Music Festival @ Hunter Mountain, Hunter, 6/13-15/13
Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival @ Croton Point Park, Croton-On-Hudson, 6/15-16/13
Old Songs Festival @ Altamont Fairgrounds, Altamont, 6/21-23/13
Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival @ SPAC, Saratoga Springs, 6/29-30/13
The Big Up @ Hemlock Hollow Farm, Clavarack, 8/8-10/13