The Hold Steady Call of Roll

I thought the show was a blast. I missed 1990s entirely; I was helping a friend move a mammoth TV, and I'm not too broken up about it.

Art Brut were great, although I agree with Rhett's assessment, and probably wouldn't check them out again as a headliner. I enjoy the albums well enough, but it's just not something I'd need to see more than once.

I thought the Hold Steady were fantastic; they just don't seem to disappoint. Granted, it's a little like shooting fish in a barrel, in my opinion. With those types of songs about those types of things, I don't see how their shows can NOT be a good time. Nothing to change my worldview, but definitely a blast.

Great seeing Kosmo, the Director and Brennser again…I can't believe it's been that long since our paths crossed. And meeting Rhett was like a Christmas miracle!

i thought it was a great show. the only annoyance were two drunken lunchboxes who pushed in front of me to record 'you can make him like you' into their cellphones.
i have to ask, who does that work for?
also, craig finn looks a lot like a young version of my grampa which i find charming. a grampa singing about hoodrats and the bones brigade.

I'd signed on for 1990s and Art Brut ages ago and had a friend get tickets. Didn't even realize the Hold Steady was headlining until a few days ago. Didn't put two and two together. I thought I'd recognize a couple of their songs from woxy, and I might have, had we stuck around long enough to find out. Should have known from the way DC101 has been pimping them in the morning for the past week. Totally generic O.A.R.-sounding modern rock. Did not catch my ear at all. We left after 3 songs. But the crowd did seem REALLY into them.

1990s were great, though their last song was a bit too jammy for me, until it got to the meat in the last minute or so.

Art Brut took me a few songs to warm up, but once I got into it, it was surprisingly charming to me. I thought it was cute how Eddie referred to them as a collective all night, 'Ready, Art Brut?' and I loved when he mentioned right before Good Weekend that the song had gone #1 in Disneyland, Narnia and the former Yugoslavia. They really engaged the crowd.

Still not entirely sure how Art Brut and Hold Steady were paired for this show. My 20 seconds of research is showing that they aren't on the same label – was someone just like 'well, both of the singers just kind of talk melodically instead of actually singing, let's have them tour together!'? Cus man, after sitting through an hour of Art Brut (which I enjoyed) I was pretty much done with that quirk.

hey, do people get pictched (i'm hoping) from the 9:30 when they get up on stage?
i'll admit, i fucking hate that shit, and there were weird little pockets of shoving matches around, and then i saw one of the more offensive shovers get up on stage and never saw him again.
i like to grab their shoes and throw them to the floor. seriously.
superchunk encouraged that at the trocadero in philadelphia in 93 or 94 before you were removed from the club from stage diving. it was funny watching singularly shod assholes hobble around looking for their matching sneaker.

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Originally posted by sacklunch:

Originally posted by tigers scare me:
hey, do people get pictched (i'm hoping) from the 9:30 when they get up on stage?
i'll admit, i fucking hate that shit, and there were weird little pockets of shoving matches around, and then i saw one of the more offensive shovers get up on stage and never saw him again.
i like to grab their shoes and throw them to the floor. seriously.
superchunk encouraged that at the trocadero in philadelphia in 93 or 94 before you were removed from the club from stage diving. it was funny watching singularly shod assholes hobble around looking for their matching sneaker.

My experience there is that most people get pitched. Did anyone see the fat drunk dude (he kind of reminded me of Hurley from "Lost")who got tossed? He stood outside the club for like 45 minutes yammering away. He almost got hit by a car on 9th St…
I think that was the other thing that bothered me about this show, there were way too many drunk frat-type guys. Which was very similiar to my experience at the Georgie James show last weekend, where there were too many drunk sorority-type girls. I have developed a very low tolerance for sloppy drunk people. I guess I am getting old…

1990s were by far the best performance of the night for me. Jackie McKeown, their ugly singer, was in Yummy Fur by the way (as was their old bassist). I think they would have fit in nicely with the CBGB's '77 crowd.

Svet and my review + lot's of pretty photos here:

http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/live-dc/live-dc-1990s-art-brut-hold-steady-930-club/

Originally posted by SweetJoy:
Still not entirely sure how Art Brut and Hold Steady were paired for this show. My 20 seconds of research is showing that they aren't on the same label – was someone just like 'well, both of the singers just kind of talk melodically instead of actually singing, let's have them tour together!'? Cus man, after sitting through an hour of Art Brut (which I enjoyed) I was pretty much done with that quirk.

no offense, but i think this was the best pairing i've seen in a while … the sing-songy thing is part of it, but it's a lot deeper than that, both of them are like kaleidoscopes reflecting back the music and stories of their home towns / countries: you can really see it when you look at the bands on a lyrical level, the dry british humour vs. the heart-on-sleeve american heartland stories

sorry if that's too cheesy or deconstructive, but it made perfect sense to me

to sacklunch: you should have seen the against me! show last week, full-fledged mosh pits were breaking out all over the floor, dozens of crowd surfers … the staff seemed totally cool with it all, they'd just pluck the kid off the crowd and throw him around to the other side

i like the fuck-it-all energy at shows like that, it was only a dozen or so people up front, if you didn't want to be a part of it then you could have easily avoided it

1) That show was awesome.
2) Agree with Hoya - that was one of the most natural pairings I've seen in a while. I thought long before this show was announced that they should tour together.
3) Third time I saw Art Brut. It does not get old.
4) It seems like the people that didn't enjoy The Hold Steady either didn't know their material or are female. Not to generalize, but no girls I know really like THS. And I can understand how it would be hard to get into the show if you aren't familiar with their material.
5) For Chaz - the encore was First Night, How a Resurrection Really Feels, and Killer Parties.
6) They do not sound like O.A.R. That might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
7) Saw Craig Finn at DC9 afterwards. Not sure what I said to him, but I'm sure I made an ass out of myself.
8) I'm extremely hungover.
9) And I'm at work.
10) Kill me.

My wife is a girl and she likes the Hold Steady. Same with Bags. So there's two.

Good show all told. Art Brut were stellar and my favorite part of the bill. The Hold Steady were good (the encore was far and away the best "arena rock" moment I've seen at the club) and I love them on record, but after last night I have no particular love for Craig Finn live. He has no stage presence at all. For someone who's been in music for so long, I would expect him to have figured out how to fill the gaps between lyrics without twitching, mouthing the line he just said/sang, and making non-committal and "funny" pantomime. He really undercut the band's typical sincerity and made the show at-large feel like one big, smarmy put-on. Good thing the rest of the band tore it up.

Whoever referred to the "Hurley from Lost" guy–we called him Bluto, based on his makeshift sweatshirt toga. I was right in front of him when he got dragged out alongside some drunk girl yelling and taking a few shots at the poor overmatched skinny guy hauling him away.

Finally, bonus points to whoever decided to fill the 25 minutes between Art Brut/Hold Steady with only Beastie Boys songs. That was great.

Originally posted by amnesiac:
8) I'm extremely hungover.
9) And I'm at work.
10) Kill me.

me too (well, no longer at work but was a rough day)

good night of live music - others have summed it up well - I did not think the Cribs were as bad as some are saying

I really wish they had recorded this on NPR…
They didn't, did they?

They did.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16287021

Originally posted by lukas:
I really wish they had recorded this on NPR…
They didn't, did they?

Wow, I can tell this is a bad show. Craig sounds TIRED on most of the songs. Too much touring?

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
They did.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16287021

Originally posted by lukas:
I really wish they had recorded this on NPR…
They didn't, did they?

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
Wow, I can tell this is a bad show. Craig sounds TIRED on most of the songs. Too much touring?

Well this was their second to last show on this tour.

I thought it was fun night– I had never seen them before, so I didn't really know what to expect. Wasn't blown away, but I enjoyed show.

Bah, Joe's just a naysayer anyway. Anyone who wants their live rock shows to sound polished and album-produced doesn't really get it, in my book. And listening to a live show is like reading about sex. Sure the whole story is there, but you're missing the best part: the live experience.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
Wow, I can tell this is a bad show. Craig sounds TIRED on most of the songs. Too much touring?

I saw them here and in NYC, for the last show of the tour. I had a rousing good time at both, and ended up being an extremely low energy Thanksgiving dinner guest after two late nights fueled by the stories of Holly and Gideon and lots and lots of beer.

More later….