Hurley has good taste in music
" I guess I heard about original sin,
I heard the dude blamed the chick, I heard the chick blamed the snake."
- The Hold Steady
I should have written about The Hold Steady last Thursday, but I was hung-over. I'm also lazy. But if anyone read this blog, I would be doing them a disservice by not getting in the wayback machine and revisiting the show last Wednesday.
The Hold Steady is like your favorite bar band with 10 times the musical talent, poetic songwriting, and a penchant for the kind of dirty fingernail Americana that The Boss used to sing about before he became too successful to run in those kind of circles. Craig Finn sings/speaks/white-guy-raps stories about suburban Minneapolis drug dealers and conversations about the bible set in the Tampa Bay party district. He tells these stories while the band bangs out excellent, straight forward, rock ‘n’ roll and he gesticulates like some kind of sign language interpreter with a meth habit. While some people find his voice to be nasal I don't see it, particularly in the live show. I think trying to add 'real' singing to the overall sound The Hold Steady have going would be a mistake. Finn's voice is unique and it meshes nicely with the surprisingly subtle ‘dive-bar rock’ sound they have. I think you'd need a set of really gravelly pipes like the aforementioned Springsteen to pull it off.
The crowd at the Black Cat wasn't nearly as raucous as they should have been. I think part of the reason for the lack of energy was the surprising number of 18 plus-ers I noticed in attendance. I connect to The Hold Steady because they sound great, they sing about my home town, and they make me want to sit at a smoky dive bar. It didn't occur to me that they would appeal to the high school set until I looked around the Black Cat and realized I would have to be careful about buying a round without contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Once I had noticed the little-uns, the reason was self-evident. A good bit of the story in the songs revolves around teenage outsiders etc... It doesn't matter that most of the kids in the Black Cat carried themselves like they bought their clothes at Needless Markup with dad's credit card and can only relate to the how of the drugs in Finn's songs and not the why. The point is that these kids are too cool to give any energy back to the band, even if said band is putting on one of the best shows they are likely to see in a venue as small as the Black Cat.
To be fair, I think that a second factor contributed to the atmosphere being other than the beer soaked mayhem I had been hoping for. It was a week night. The Hold Steady probably hears more cheering than clapping at shows because they practically cry out for you to listen with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other. It would appear that not all the working stiffs in DC share my fortitude/stupidity when it comes to the week night concert. Too bad for them. Not over serving yourself a little at a Hold Steady show is like going to the Minnesota State Fair and not eating cheese on a stick. You just don’t do it.
The show itself was phenomenal. There’s a gutter poetry in the lyrics that almost teeters on cheesy calculation in the album, but there is no insincerity to be found in the live show. From the spastic lead singer to the gospel organ riffs, the music and performance are honest. The band played a few songs from their first album, sticking mostly to the stuff from Separation Sunday. “Stevie Nix” and “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” stood out in particular among a set that didn't have any sag to it. They hit a few brand new tunes, as well, playing a song about poet John Berryman that was called “In Between Stations”. It was tough to pick out all the lyrics, but it left me optimistic that they haven’t used up all their karma on this album. They played a mean set and I’d love to see what they can do with a crowd that really gets behind them.
So, to Craig and the rest of The Hold Steady (because I’m sure they troll the interweb for reviews written in blogs with a weekly readership of 12) I’d like to say that I’m sorry DC seemed tired last Wednesday night. Come back and do a Saturday show for the drinking crowd and we’ll make it up to you.
I heard the dude blamed the chick, I heard the chick blamed the snake."
- The Hold Steady
I should have written about The Hold Steady last Thursday, but I was hung-over. I'm also lazy. But if anyone read this blog, I would be doing them a disservice by not getting in the wayback machine and revisiting the show last Wednesday.
The Hold Steady is like your favorite bar band with 10 times the musical talent, poetic songwriting, and a penchant for the kind of dirty fingernail Americana that The Boss used to sing about before he became too successful to run in those kind of circles. Craig Finn sings/speaks/white-guy-raps stories about suburban Minneapolis drug dealers and conversations about the bible set in the Tampa Bay party district. He tells these stories while the band bangs out excellent, straight forward, rock ‘n’ roll and he gesticulates like some kind of sign language interpreter with a meth habit. While some people find his voice to be nasal I don't see it, particularly in the live show. I think trying to add 'real' singing to the overall sound The Hold Steady have going would be a mistake. Finn's voice is unique and it meshes nicely with the surprisingly subtle ‘dive-bar rock’ sound they have. I think you'd need a set of really gravelly pipes like the aforementioned Springsteen to pull it off.
The crowd at the Black Cat wasn't nearly as raucous as they should have been. I think part of the reason for the lack of energy was the surprising number of 18 plus-ers I noticed in attendance. I connect to The Hold Steady because they sound great, they sing about my home town, and they make me want to sit at a smoky dive bar. It didn't occur to me that they would appeal to the high school set until I looked around the Black Cat and realized I would have to be careful about buying a round without contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Once I had noticed the little-uns, the reason was self-evident. A good bit of the story in the songs revolves around teenage outsiders etc... It doesn't matter that most of the kids in the Black Cat carried themselves like they bought their clothes at Needless Markup with dad's credit card and can only relate to the how of the drugs in Finn's songs and not the why. The point is that these kids are too cool to give any energy back to the band, even if said band is putting on one of the best shows they are likely to see in a venue as small as the Black Cat.
To be fair, I think that a second factor contributed to the atmosphere being other than the beer soaked mayhem I had been hoping for. It was a week night. The Hold Steady probably hears more cheering than clapping at shows because they practically cry out for you to listen with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other. It would appear that not all the working stiffs in DC share my fortitude/stupidity when it comes to the week night concert. Too bad for them. Not over serving yourself a little at a Hold Steady show is like going to the Minnesota State Fair and not eating cheese on a stick. You just don’t do it.
The show itself was phenomenal. There’s a gutter poetry in the lyrics that almost teeters on cheesy calculation in the album, but there is no insincerity to be found in the live show. From the spastic lead singer to the gospel organ riffs, the music and performance are honest. The band played a few songs from their first album, sticking mostly to the stuff from Separation Sunday. “Stevie Nix” and “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” stood out in particular among a set that didn't have any sag to it. They hit a few brand new tunes, as well, playing a song about poet John Berryman that was called “In Between Stations”. It was tough to pick out all the lyrics, but it left me optimistic that they haven’t used up all their karma on this album. They played a mean set and I’d love to see what they can do with a crowd that really gets behind them.
So, to Craig and the rest of The Hold Steady (because I’m sure they troll the interweb for reviews written in blogs with a weekly readership of 12) I’d like to say that I’m sorry DC seemed tired last Wednesday night. Come back and do a Saturday show for the drinking crowd and we’ll make it up to you.
Labels: The Minny Apple, tunes
posted by DC Viking at 12:29 PM
1 Comments:
I saw them in Athens and Atlanta last week. The Athens crowd was pretty so-so but Atlanta rocked hard with a sell out crowd and $2.50 PBR Tallboys. The Plastic Constellations and Swearing At Mororists were awesome openers.
I like the comparison of Craig Finn to your 10th grade shop teacher gone off his meds.
Can't wait to see them again.
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