St. Louis Music Blog

Dear Jeff,

Hi! What's up? This is the city of St. Louis. You might not remember me, but we used to be really tight back in the day. In fact, I think you used to have a band -- Uncle Tupelo? Is that its name? Well, okay, before that you started in Belleville, playing as the Primitives. Remember this? Halloween 1985? You were wearing a dress:

Anyway, you gained quite a reputation after the band changed its name to Uncle Tupelo. Y'all played old Cicero's basement, Mississippi Nights, Off Broadway, etc. constantly. Most credit you guys with sort of spawning the whole No Depression/alt-country/twang-punk scene/style/genre, yadda yadda yadda. Somewhere along the way, UT broke up -- but not before having two final homecoming gigs at Mississippi Nights. Raucous, sweaty, great gigs, which the Bottle Rockets opened up for you. (Look! The RFT even took a photo, and the same YouTube user as above, PantsElderly, has video footage.)

Somewhere along the way, Wilco formed, and you moved to Chicago. And you seemed to forget that you were from the area. I mean, you started writing about the Windy City, used buildings from there for your album covers (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), etc. And all of the pride the city had for Uncle Tupelo, all of the pride and respect you guys had for St. Louis -- seemed to dissipate.

Now with the news of Wilco's five-night stand at Chicago's Riviera Theatre, I have to say something. According to that linked article, during this residency, you're going to "attempt the 'complete Wilco' and try to clear out the dusty corners of the catalog that we haven't attended to in a while."

I understand, yeah, Chicago's a big city, and perhaps a more appropriate place for such a residency. And booking shows in St. Louis is difficult. You guys are sort of in between the capacities of the Pageant and the Fox -- and those venues might not always have open dates perhaps when you'd want to play here.

But really, did this ad really have to run in the RFT this week?

With that cheery "Road Trip!" logo in the corner? What a slap in the face. Like, all of the loyal St. Louisians who used to see UT shows -- and have supported Wilco when it's played here -- should hop in a car and drive to Chicago? This just reinforces the whole St. Louis prevailing attitude that "we can't have nice things" or special concerts, because we just can't compete with other markets. That we have to drive to other cities to see big shows, since the tour routing/venues/band desires just never seem to align for the Lou.

It's even more galling, because Wilco hasn't been to town since March 2006 -- but has pretty much circled St. Louis over the past few years, playing Springfield, Kansas City, Columbia, Nashville, etc. Even this current tour behind May's Sky Blue Sky will hit such metropolitan hotspots as Mobile, Alabama; Des Moines, Iowa; and, sheesh, the same high school auditorium in Cleveland on whose stage I on whose stage the RFT's music editor graduated.

Again, perhaps you will book a show here soon; and perhaps something is in the works; and perhaps logistics just haven't worked out for months. (And months. And months.) And those Chicago shows are sold out already anyway (big surprise). But come on. St. Louis supported you early on -- heavily -- and always remembers you and the bands you were in fondly. Heck, our music scene today is still heavily indebted to the sounds of your bands. Does that mean nothing to you? Booking a Wilco show in the place where you grew up -- even a regular one; at this point, it's too much to ask for something special, even, to give back to the city -- shouldn't be this difficult.

Love,
The City of St. Louis

P.S. Come to town -- seriously, we'll go see some heavy metal bands on the Landing. Even if it isn't the summer.