“It’s not the summer we were promised / It’s the summer that we deserve”
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—“Down the Line” by Sleater-Kinney
Live music is slowly making a comeback across the country as major tours that were put on pause in 2020 are finally starting to press play in 2021, even in the face of COVID-19 variants and a reluctant-yet-excited crowd. Thankfully, for the more apprehensive concert-goer, many area venues are requiring proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. This has provided a welcome bit of sanity and promise to citizens looking to ring their ears with rock again.
That promise was fulfilled for many on Friday evening at the newest St. Louis–area venue, the Saint Louis Music Park, with the co-headlining tour of Pacific Northwest rockers Sleater-Kinney and Chicago folk heroes Wilco. Located in the no-man’s-land between the Hollywood Casino and the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, the Music Park is an open and breezy outdoor venue that provides a great combination of shelter from the elements and acoustically sound design. Every solo roar and acoustic hum from both bands was crystal clear and perfectly tuned. The wide aisles and open space also provided room to easily move around, even with a packed house—great attributes for two bands that require a little grooving and shaking.
Riot grrrl figureheads Sleater-Kinney took the first slot of the co-headlining bill to a crowd that was still flowing through the gates of the venue and finding their seats. The two remaining original members, Carrie Brownstein (of Portlandia fame) and Corin Tucker, confidently strode onstage in the waning evening sun to seats just over half full of eager live music fans under the Music Park pavilion. From the start, it seemed the now six-piece group—filled out with a touring guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, and drummer—would have to work against both an early 7:45 p.m. start and a crowd that heavily leaned toward indie dads there for Wilco. It didn’t seem to faze the veterans, however, as they ripped and yelped and high-kicked through a packed set. A majority of the tracks were from their newest full-length, Path to Wellness, (their first without longtime drummer Janet Weiss), and the new songs sounded great in the surprisingly intimate outdoor setting.
Later in the set, as the crowd warmed up to the band’s excitement, Tucker and Brownstein took the opportunity to let them know that dancing was, in fact, allowed. After checking on how everyone was doing, Brownstein replied to a fan asking how she was, “I’m sweaty, but not as hot as you all look shaking it in your seats.” To which Tucker said, “Yeah, you all can step into the aisles. Aisles are the dancing areas if anyone wants to dance.” The crowd happily obliged and shifted over to the open areas as best they could. Everyone else got to their feet to sing along and shuffle to iconic hits “Modern Girl,” “One More Hour,” and “One Beat.”
The night breeze cooled things down, and the crowd swelled with anticipation by the time Wilco took the stage. The band has a strong fan base in St. Louis, and they were out in full force. In spite of their Chicago home base, St. Louis is always a quasi-hometown show for Wilco. Lead singer Jeff Tweedy grew up in Belleville and formed the beginnings of Wilco in St. Louis after the breakup of the legendary alt-country band Uncle Tupelo he co-founded with fellow Bellevillians Jay Farrar and Mike Heidorn. “It’s great to be back in St. Louis,” Tweedy said during the set. “I grew up here even though I don’t really remember it.”
As a subtle nod to the pandemic, the band opened with a confident and strong version of “A Shot in the Arm” from 2007’s Summerteeth. They then filled the night with a setlist that stretched and rolled through their history like the nearby Missouri River. Tweedy introduced “Box Full of Letters,” from the band’s début album, A.M., by asking bassist and longest-serving Wilco member John Stirratt, “Do you remember practicing this at my place in Maplewood?” The prompt garnered loud cheers. Fellow Summerteeth rocker “I’m Always in Love” and “Side with the Seeds” from Sky Blue Sky, flowed nicely next to newer singles “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” and “Everyone Hides.” The newest tracks had an infectious bounce after a year and a half on the shelf, and the audience was eager to hear those tunes in a live setting.
The night reached its end with tracks heavy from the classic albums Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born, before the band closed everything out in the shadow of the Hollywood Casino with deep cut “Casino Queen” from A.M.—a tribute to Tweedy’s father and the iconic Alton riverboat.
Overall, this new venue in this new and nebulous world of live music did a wonderful job of assuaging fears of being back in the dark, close quarters of a concert again. The requirement of proof of vaccination or negative test combined with the occasional fresh breeze gave the venue a feeling of tentative relief, of relaxed apprehension. Everyone was excited to finally be in the room again. The two veteran rock bands seemed just as excited, with both bands commenting on how wonderful and important being in front of a crowd really is. Although it’s early in Saint Louis Music Park’s existence, the newest venue on the St. Louis scene didn’t reveal any growing pains, and the wide-open sightlines and pristine sound show that it will quickly become an ideal place to catch live music.
