21st century soap-boxing

Autumn is a good time to live in Tucson. The town comes to life with the massive influx of students, the temperature drops down to a manageable level, and touring acts begin adding the bustling college town to their itinerary. At times the sheer number of good bands coming through town seems to offer up a different concert opportunity nearly every night of the week. That was certainly the case this past week with Pigeon John playing at Solar Culture this past Saturday, Asobi Seksu and Subtle lighting up Plush on Tuesday, The Hold Steady at Club Congress last night, and the Cold War Kids practicing how to duck and cover at the Rialto this coming Saturday. That’s not even taking into account the fantastic acts swinging through the city for the rest of the month. So many shows, so little time (or money)! I love that scenario!

Knowing that we would be hard-pressed to make it to all of the aforementioned shows, I made a command decision that, if nothing else, we would be at the Hold Steady show. The Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis quintet are currently touring in support of their newest release, “Boys & Girls In America,” a follow-up to last year’s phenomenal “Separation Sunday,” that deals with the now-familiar themes of sex, drugs, redemption, and squalor in a small Midwestern town.

The album’s title is borrowed from Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road,” with just cause, as lead singer Craig Finn’s lyrics tend to resemble the bastard love-child of Kerouac and J.D. Salinger (a combination that works far better than I could have imagined). While “Boys & Girls” is less character-driven than the band’s last album (Charlemagne, Gideon, and Hallelujah make little more than cameos) it could still be seen as an anthem of working class resignation. The lyrics tend to be less plot-driven, as though Finn is inviting listeners to attach their own experiences of working class life (and the necessary escapism that accompanies it).

These songs were meant for an intimate venue. Luckily, Club Congress is just such a place. Tucked off of the lobby of the historic Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson, the club was split in two for last night’s all-ages show, with fishing nets confining the 21+ crowd to the back (at one point, keyboardist Franz quipped that it felt like they were playing in a Long John Silvers). Opening act Sean-Na-Na was all right, though I’m unsure as to whether my lukewarm impression of them was due to the sound booth’s inability to properly mix the music (all the instruments sounded flat and tinny until nearly the end of the set) or whether it was due to the fact that the lead singer looked like a roommate I once had that ended up causing me a lot of stress. Still, the group had fun with the audience, and I can appreciate any band that likes to banter with their crowd.

However, once The Hold Steady took the stage, the evening was most assuredly a hit. The band was clearly having fun: joking back and forth, exchanging hats and guitars mid-song, and guzzling Budweiser like it was going out of style. Finn’s cherubic face was lit by a smile the whole time, which was as infectious as ebola and left the crowd grinning like fools. The set was culled primarily from “Boys & Girls,” though “Sunday” favorites like “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” and “Stevie Nix” were peppered throughout (sadly, there was to be no rendition of “How A Resurrection Really Feels”). Finn danced through the entire set, at times getting so excited that he forgot about the microphone and just yelled the lyrics into the audience. This is definitely a band that knows how to have fun and they can’t help but draw the audience into it as well.

The K@ and I had a blast, Fat Tires cradled in our fists while we bounced up and down to the band’s enticing classic rock-styled jams, and chatted with the kids around us (I was enthralled by one girl’s idea to bring an old-style collapsable paper fan to cool off with, a great idea that I had never thought of). The band’s set was a little short, due to a ‘dance party’ that was to be held later that night (and which became the butt of all jokes that evening), though after much clamoring from the crowd they returned to the stage for a second encore, during which most of the audience was dragged onto the stage by Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler to share in mass group hugs, sloppy sing-alongs, and all around merriment.

We went to the show last night to forget about the day-to-day troubles of holding down a job and keeping the lights turned on and The Hold Steady provided that release in spades. Gone was all concern about what might happen the next day, gone were all worries about getting back into school, or where we were going after Tucson. Instead we were all just wrapped up in the music and camraderie of the crowd, as directed by the charismatic star power of Craig Finn, which, given the band’s lyrical subject matter, seems to be the intended purpose of The Hold Steady. The band have recently added another 2 months of dates across the US, and fans of good music owe it to themselves to drop by at least one show.

*Link: The Hold Steady homepage
*Link: The Hold Steady MySpace
*Video: “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
*Video: Hold Steady Interview Part I
*Video: Hold Steady Interview Part II