Twenty-five years after Uncle Tupelo played its final concert, at Mississippi Nights, former bandmates Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar will take the stage in St. Louis with their respective bands, Wilco and Son Volt, within less than two weeks of each other. The former comes to the Fox on November 14, hot on the heels of the release of the band’s 11th studio album, Ode to Joy, and the latter plays The Pageant on November 23.
For years, Wilco and Tweedy have made St. Louis a stop on their tours. Wilco’s front man played a sold-out solo show at The Pageant in February, not long after a live Q&A with fellow St. Louis native Jon Hamm to promote Tweedy’s memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back). Wilco, which last took the stage here in 2017, boasts an impressive lineup of instrumentalists and collaborators who’ve always been able to masterfully translate their eclectic recorded output into the live setting.
Earlier this year, Son Volt released its latest album, Union. Longtime fans will no doubt hanker for songs dating back to the 1995 debut, Trace. Mixing and matching signature tracks with deeper-catalog cuts and a few covers, Son Volt excels at a tricky game: keeping the group’s longtime fans satisfied while releasing new music at a steady, if not prolific, clip.
Both shows are sure to be memorable—and to leave music fans wanting more from the bands’ latest albums.
