BY KACIE FULLER<\/p>\n
There are not many artists I\u2019d travel to St. Louis from Lawrence to see, but when Will Wood comes back from a hiatus to tour for the first time in two years, you make the trip. <\/span>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/span><\/i> is not a concert perse – at least not in the traditional sense. While Will Wood does perform this set brilliantly, the meat of the show comes from the story telling. The show is a theatrical comedy-routine detailing the mental stress of becoming an internet micro-celebrity overnight and the journey Will has taken to rediscover his identity as an artist. The show is an hour and forty-five minutes of comedy coupled with surreal honesty, oscillating wildly between side-splitting humor and a near-spiritual experience. <\/span>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/span><\/i> is genuinely one of the most impressive, thought provoking, and beautiful shows I\u2019ve been to in a long time. A large chunk of the set is dedicated to Wood\u2019s experience through Branson, Missouri. What seems at first a sardonic tale of fudge shops and dead attractions becomes an appreciation for what once was. He pays homage to every good idea that\u2019s been outgrown by the culture and left to fester, and draws parallels between the Christian Vegas to his own (and every creatives\u2019) career. <\/span>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/span><\/i> is a show that is hyper aware of its own mortality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If the existence of Branson, MO is one thesis for the show, then the other is that Will Wood is a regular guy and I don\u2019t know him. The show recontextualizes some of the tracks on the \u201cIn case I make it,\u201d album, making them all the more interesting to listen to afterwards. Already colorful songs seem more vibrant and full than they were before as Will shares some of the feelings that inspired their creation. Self described \u201cas truthful as it can get while still being considered a story,\u201d it felt shockingly honest, but the real joy of <\/span>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/span><\/i> is that we as an audience will never know where the line was drawn. It stresses the importance of understanding that our favorite artists are not the people we\u2019ve made up in our heads. Consuming deliberately shared information on social media is not the same as candid understanding, and attending this concert and running into Will Wood in the lobby is not the same as being buddies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Without turning this into an essay as opposed to a review, in short, the show is great. It\u2019s interesting, funny, original, and has something to say. If you brought your friend who’s never heard of Will Wood I think they\u2019d still get a lot out of it. Also, Shayfer James opens! His music is as atmospheric and appropriate for this show as Will Wood\u2019s. The venn diagram of Will Wood fans and Shayfer James fans is a circle so it feels exceedingly appropriate for the two to be partnered up on this tour. Listening to Shayfer James live evokes the feeling of sitting in a snowy cabin in a mysterious and haunted wood and I very much look forward to what he does going forward. His performance is also just delightful and personable, and the whole cabaret set-up with the venues really adds to that. Absolutely every aspect of the show is just great for so many reasons, you\u2019ll just have to go to understand what I mean. I can drop the serious writing act for a moment to just talk, person to person, go see the show! It\u2019s not completely sold out yet but even if it was? Stick around! Keep up to date and catch the next one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And now, the email interview with Will Wood. Thanks to the team for being so kind and helpful with this process, and of course to Will himself!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n _______________________________________________<\/p>\n Interview With Will Wood<\/b><\/p>\n Q: Just to start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your music?<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m ruinously addicted to boardwalk arcade coin-pushers and most of my royalties go towards the pursuit of Thanos and Toto cards, which results in a reluctantly maintained but world-class collection of sticky hands and Chinese finger traps. My music is often inspired by the feelings around the cycle of recovery and relapse.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Where would you recommend new listeners start?<\/span><\/p>\n My discography sort of follows a memento-style narrative, starting with my most recent album and ending with the third track of my second album. You kind of have to start at the last track of my most recent album and go backwards, take notes on which inversions I use in the chords, and follow people I knew in college and haven\u2019t spoken to since, otherwise you really won\u2019t get it.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: What are you most proud of in relation to your career?<\/span><\/p>\n Honestly – my ability to keep an eye on what\u2019s important: performing the best show based on my qualifications for the right people based on my real self, even if there\u2019s pressure for me to meet expectations from people who misunderstand me on a fundamental level and would expect me to do something different because of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: How is this tour different from your previous shows? In both the show itself but also your experience on the road?<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve learned more about how to use the skills I built from years of doing my abstract-one-man-musical thing to create a more advanced version of what I\u2019ve always done on tour. It\u2019s not as improvisational, not as loose, has less cagey fourth-wall-breaking, and is much more focused on storytelling, and in hindsight I think it was always where things were going to go for me. I\u2019ve found myself intrinsically motivated in ways I haven\u2019t in the past, and feel a sense of responsibility to the show, so I’m feeling more dedicated to ancillary and supporting elements of the touring process, and I’m practicing new skills and discipline I previously didn\u2019t feel the need to cultivate.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: Many of our paid staff and volunteers have interest in going into music. Is there any advice you’d give to local musicians and creatives?<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re not doing it because you enjoy the creative process for its own sake, don\u2019t do it.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: We saw your show in St. Louis and for a millisecond I was convinced the Branson, MO reference was a small one-off regional joke tossed in for that audience. Turns out, no! In fact, Branson has a lot to answer for. What are your current feelings on Branson now that you’ve had some time away? Would you ever go back? I kept thinking of what it would be like to perform the <\/span>Slouching Towards Bethlehem<\/span><\/i> set in Branson, but maybe that’s a risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Branson might seem like a punching bag, but I don\u2019t see it as such. I see it as a focal point of the grief that is inherent to experiencing history. Revering tradition and honoring the past is wonderful, but I think if you treat it as an anchor rather than a rudder you can sink, especially with the sea levels rising. I\u2019d absolutely go back. I\u2019d want to spend more time there next time. Maybe in the holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: At the station, each student DJ has their own DJ name. These names vary from DJ Bangs, DJ Gator, DJ Uncanny, to DJ Star Princess. If you were a DJ, what would your name be? And what type of music would you play during your set?<\/span><\/p>\n DJ Ent. I\u2019d play reggae and sludge metal.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Q: If you have any final comments, thoughts or feelings feel free to leave them here!<\/p>\n Eat at Joe\u2019s!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY KACIE FULLER There are not many artists I\u2019d travel to St. Louis from Lawrence to see, but when Will Wood comes back from a hiatus to tour for the first time in two years, you make the trip. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is not a concert perse – at least not in the traditional sense. While Will Wood does perform this set brilliantly, the meat of the show comes from the story telling. The show is a theatrical comedy-routine detailing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":81607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8774,15,3232,4,3234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concert-coverage","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-live-performances","category-music","category-music-interviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/17914125.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81608,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81605\/revisions\/81608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}