Uncle Tupelo - French Village Drive-in, East St. Louis, Missouri, July 1987 / Lincoln Theater, Belleville, Illinois, 1988
Paying your dues as an up-and-coming midwestern rock band sometimes means playing an East St. Louis drive-in in between screenings of Innerspace and Adventures in Babysitting. At least that's what Uncle Tupelo had to do in the summer of 1987. And somehow, we can time travel back to catch a glimpse of the barely-out-of-their-teens trio tearing it up above a poorly rendered Bugs Bunny mural. This shaky/blurry camcorder footage (uploaded in improved quality by the terrific 3 Cameras and a Microphone channel) is priceless stuff, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy and Mike Heidorn rowing fearlessly down Pickle River.
About a year later, Uncle Tupelo had upgraded their environs somewhat, playing a hometown show in Belleville — and 3 Cameras has more shaky/blurry footage for our enjoyment. A rowdy crowd, likely made up mostly of friends of the band. But even though their debut LP was still a couple years away, UT is starting to find its feet, getting more ambitious with their original songs and getting into some unique interplay. They also haven't lost their sense of humor, blowing off steam with very loose Replacements-style covers of Neil Young, Skynyrd, CCR and KISS. "Fun" isn't necessarily the word that comes to mind immediately when it comes to Uncle Tupelo, but everyone's having a blast in Belleville on this particular evening.
Tweedy Says: We probably have more influences than we know what to do with. We have two main styles that have been influences. For instance, we like Black Flag as much as early Bob Dylan and Dinosaur Jr. as much as Hank Williams. To us, hardcore punk is also folk music. We draw a close parallel between the two. We'll play both in the same set if we get a chance. We don't have any biases as far as music is concerned. We have just as much fun playing acoustic guitars with a whole bunch of people singing along, as we do playing a noisy instrumental.
