Let’s keep this short: Go see The Hold Steady when they play in your fair burgh. They’re a kevlar-reinforced tank of a band (to extend the analogy, Daughtry is a Yugo and Sheryl Crow is a Schwinn with the banana seat). Think a rock concert as full-frontal assault on the senses. I’d have a more detailed report, but our view for most of the concert was the back of a colossus-domed guy’s head. On the side of the floor, the music was muted; towards the back, the music was compromised by a host of dumb conversations about Twitter. So we moved upstairs for the sound and space. I am very, very old. The photo above depicts what my sightline might’ve been like if I were 8’3” tall. I felt a little bad for the hardcore, cultlike HS fans, so studiously cool in their hoodies (adorned with hipster witticisms like “I [Heart] Mayonnaise”) and Chuck Taylors. Their little Brooklyn band is about to be taken away from them and shared with the world. I’d find this very unfortunate if the Hold Steady didn’t embody everything that’s great about rock music: the joyousness, the sense of community, the extreme volume. Hey, this happens to all the great ones. Let’s not begrudge them their richly deserved success. Craig Finn wore a Rangers jersey for the encore. I want him to be my new best friend.

Let’s keep this short: Go see The Hold Steady when they play in your fair burgh. They’re a kevlar-reinforced tank of a band (to extend the analogy, Daughtry is a Yugo and Sheryl Crow is a Schwinn with the banana seat). Think a rock concert as full-frontal assault on the senses.

I’d have a more detailed report, but our view for most of the concert was the back of a colossus-domed guy’s head. On the side of the floor, the music was muted; towards the back, the music was compromised by a host of dumb conversations about Twitter. So we moved upstairs for the sound and space. I am very, very old. The photo above depicts what my sightline might’ve been like if I were 8’3” tall.

I felt a little bad for the hardcore, cultlike HS fans, so studiously cool in their hoodies (adorned with hipster witticisms like “I [Heart] Mayonnaise”) and Chuck Taylors. Their little Brooklyn band is about to be taken away from them and shared with the world. I’d find this very unfortunate if the Hold Steady didn’t embody everything that’s great about rock music: the joyousness, the sense of community, the extreme volume. Hey, this happens to all the great ones. Let’s not begrudge them their richly deserved success.

Craig Finn wore a Rangers jersey for the encore. I want him to be my new best friend.

Mar 31 2009

Photo