Friday, Mar 22, 1996
Son Volt
Trace
With Blue Mountain
- Date
- Friday, Mar 22, 1996
- Show time
- 9:15 PM
- Venue
- Belly Up Tavern
- City
- Solana Beach, CA
- Seating
- General Admission
- Face value
- $7.00
- Sold by
- Ticketmaster
Seven dollars, no guaranteed seating, 21 & over. Blue Mountain opened, per John, who first thought the headliner was Wilco and then corrected himself. Son Volt played the Belly Up in 1996, 1997 and 1998; John picked the 1996 date, the Trace tour. setlist.fm records the show but logs no songs and no support act. John's third Blue Mountain sighting.
The moment
When Uncle Tupelo split in 1994, the question was which half carried the flame — and in 1996 the consensus answer was this one. Trace had out-reviewed Wilco's A.M., 'Windfall' was the most beautiful thing either camp had written, and Jay Farrar's flinty stoicism looked like the real inheritance. History flipped the verdict, but nobody at the Belly Up knew that yet. Seven dollars for the winning side of alt-country's great schism, as of that evening. John saw Tweedy's half three years later, same room.
From the time
- Trace
“The 1995 debut that won the first round of the Uncle Tupelo split — before Wilco's long game rewrote the scoreboard.”
The stub
