Musical Genius: Gig Posters

Last week we trekked out to the Berkshires to Wilco's Solid Sound Festival. Not only does the event feature an A+  entertainment line up - two Wilco performances, Levon Helm, Sarah Lee Guthrie and much more - but it is housed in the Mass MoCA museum complex, making the whole shindig highly conducive to all things artsy, fine, all things hipster. In addition to being able to freely wander through the galleries chock full of modern masterpieces, most notably featuring the mind boggling work of Sol LeWitt, there was a pop-up record shop, a sweet Polaroid exhibit, and a stunning Wilco Poster Retrospective. The 30+ "gig" posters from across Wilco's illustrious decade or so of performances were a nice way to showcase these  little snippets in time and to emphasize the uniqueness of each performance. I'd be lying if I said I like all of them but some are quite charming and would be welcome on my living room wall. My faves:

Upon pondering this subject, I flashed back to the Monsters of Folk (supergroup to which Jim James, Conor Oberst, and M. Ward belong) concert I so eagerly attended in late 2009. I opted to buy the record instead of the show's poster. Little did I know 1 1/2 years later I would still be thinking about the latter! Apparently there is such a thing as non-buyer's remorse. After a fairly extensive online search, I have determined that the poster is a) on display on the artist's website b) is sold out on this site c) is not available elsewhere. Alas I will have to be happy with the electronic version on my desktop. The upside is this artist has a knack for creating oodles of unique designs many of which are gig posters. Check them out below. Is it wrong to own a poster commemorating a show one did not attend?