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June 7, 2005

The Hold Steady at First Avenue

I saw The Hold Steady last night with my brother at First Avenue last night. I guess I am not hip enough to say that I had heard of them first or that I knew the lead singer and lyricist Craig Finn from his days fronting Liftr Pullr or kicking around the mean streets of Edina. In fact, I had only heard them for the first time perhaps a month or so ago on one of our local indie-friendly radio stations, 89.3 The Current.

The Hold Steady put me in a unique place. I can say that I thoroughly enjoy listening to them anytime I am engaged enough to listen to lyrics. The turns of phrase and mutli-layered allegoric imagery often reaches me. It speaks to experiences I've never had but am vaguely aware of. I think I know Your Little Hoodrat Friend; she's the one that worked at The Wedge, right?

For however entertained I am by the lyrics, no matter how colorful, apropos or nostalgic the observations are I cannot stand the classic rock "stylings" of the backing band for very long. It's the very curious juxtaposition of indie meets uncle-joe-with-a-beer-can that simply doesn't work for long haul listening session. I think my brother put it best when he called the band "the best pocket rockers in New York."

Last night marks the first time for my brother and I where we actually left a venue mid-set in order to grab a slice of pizza up at Pizza Lucé and then returned to catch their encore with fresh ears. Bless the magic of the smoking ban which inadvertantly added hand stamping and re-entry to First Ave!

I think the Minneapolis Star Tribune put it best when they said:

The Bowery show was as ambitious as the album. Recorded over 28 days instead of the six spent on last year's debut, "The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me," its dueling guitars and piano and organ melodies sound more geared to geezer-rock station KQRS (92.5 FM) than college outlet Radio K (770 AM).

Dave Gardner, the former Selby Tiger who co-produced the album, said: "Those guys made me listen to the first Billy Joel record before I came out. I was like, 'You're kidding me.' "

An excellent bit of commentary from heartonastick reveals:

The instruments play pure comfort food. Anyone who grew up listening to big-market classic rock radio is going to recognize every note, even if they can't exactly place them. There's a good chunk of E-Street sound—the over-mic'd snares, the piano pounding over rich Hammond whole notes, the low-register horn blasts. Guitar theatrics tend toward simple meat and potato riffs. Sometimes there's room on the side for a Bruce Hornsby solo. It's déjà vu on repeat.

Against that, vocalist Finn whines and barks and wheezes out stories of punks and pushers and hope and redemption. The words are relentlessly quotable and often rhythmically palatable, but the frontman’s nasal speak-singing can be abrasive. He sounds a little like a cross between Greg Proops and Rex Harrison, or your high school shop teacher and Eminem[...]The more you listen, the more it works: For some reason, it sounds like the most natural odd combo since Kerouac [shrieked] along with Steve Allen.

But then goes on to admit:

The loud-soft-loud Your Little Hoodrat Friend, with revved-up riffage, female back-up vocals and lyrics that are actually sung, may score the band some play, but it comes too early on the album. While there are memorable lines sprinkled throughout the CD, the tempo and tone remain too consistent and the music too anonymous to shake things up.

If they only would add some more dynamics to their instrumentation I think they would really have something amazing. The highlight of the evening for me was when Craig Finn actually did a hip-hop number with his opening act, P.O.S. of Doomtree. All of the lyrical magic with a beat I can groove. It kept me feeling special.

It will be interesting to see if the band evolves. But for now, I'm filing them in the colorful, novelty category I reserve only for special gems like The Rumble Bees (home).

Posted by jordanh at June 7, 2005 11:22 AM |

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