Concert review: the Hold Steady
Anybody who has talked to me in the past two months knows I don't go long without mentioning a little bar band called the Hold Steady. Their blend of bluesy hard rock and beat poetry hooked me in from the moment I streamed their new album Boys and Girls in America.
Last night, I got to see them play live at the Orpheum in Ybor City, which is one of those great concert venues for outside-the-mainstream bands. In my case, it's particularly nice, because halfway back, there's a step up to the bar about eight inches higher than the main floor. By positioning myself on that platform, I can actually see (which is rare for me at concerts).
From the moment the Hold Steady took the stage, I knew I was in for a hell of a show. I have never seen a group of guys look like they're having more fun on stage, and I've been to a lot of shows. In particular, lead singer Craig Finn just oozed joy from the opening riff of Stuck Between Stations to encore closer Killer Parties, during which the band started pulling people from the crowd up on stage with them. These guys love their audience because, in a way, they are their audience. Listen to them and you'll see what I mean.
Performance highlights include:
Unfortunately, they missed First Night, but that may have been due to confusion caused when the drunken crowd chanted for "Last Night" toward the close of the show. Amazingly, even though it's my favorite song on the album, I didn't really miss it. Besides, it's a ballad anyway. The Hold Steady showed up last night to rock from start to finish, and they did.
Song lyric of the day:
"I got bored when I didn't have a band
So I started a band"
- the Hold Steady, Positive Jam
Last night, I got to see them play live at the Orpheum in Ybor City, which is one of those great concert venues for outside-the-mainstream bands. In my case, it's particularly nice, because halfway back, there's a step up to the bar about eight inches higher than the main floor. By positioning myself on that platform, I can actually see (which is rare for me at concerts).
From the moment the Hold Steady took the stage, I knew I was in for a hell of a show. I have never seen a group of guys look like they're having more fun on stage, and I've been to a lot of shows. In particular, lead singer Craig Finn just oozed joy from the opening riff of Stuck Between Stations to encore closer Killer Parties, during which the band started pulling people from the crowd up on stage with them. These guys love their audience because, in a way, they are their audience. Listen to them and you'll see what I mean.
Performance highlights include:
- Finn's introduction to Chips Ahoy ("Like every good song, this one is about a guy, a girl, and a horse")
- The cathartic yell of "Ybor City!" when it was mentioned lyrically during Cattle and the Creeping Things and Killer Parties
- The 100 beer salute that greeted Party Pit's "gonna walk around and drink some more" coda
- Continually crescendoing "whoa-oh-oh"s during Massive Nights (the band was particularly exuberant during this part)
- Finn describing the awkwardness of trying to explain an album about sex, drugs, and drinking to his mother (a story told before closer Southtown Girls, which is actually one of the tamer songs along those lines)
Unfortunately, they missed First Night, but that may have been due to confusion caused when the drunken crowd chanted for "Last Night" toward the close of the show. Amazingly, even though it's my favorite song on the album, I didn't really miss it. Besides, it's a ballad anyway. The Hold Steady showed up last night to rock from start to finish, and they did.
Song lyric of the day:
"I got bored when I didn't have a band
So I started a band"
- the Hold Steady, Positive Jam
2 Comments:
Sounds like a quality show. I may have to resume concert reviewing myself either for Blue and The Vanished last week or for Five Dollar Friend tomorrow at Jet Lounge assuming I go.
and you forgot to mention that before the concert you blow a tire. See you had bad Karma and thats why they didn't play First Night.
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