Coachella Names A Great Line-Up

The Coachella Festival is one of the great music festivals of the world. Held in Indio, California which is about 150 miles out of Los Angeles Coachella has always set the standard when it comes to combining hot new acts with some well selected old timers.

The 2009 instalment is no exception. Its held over three days April 17-19.

Some of the older acts in this years line-up include Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Henry Rollins, Bob Mould, Perry Farrell, The Cure, X, Booker T and Michael Franti & Spearhead. They are joined by a host of younger acts including a couple that this website really likes The Hold Steady and The Gaslight Anthem.

Concert Review – The Hold Steady

Let’s look at it mathematically. If The Hold Steady play 200 shows a year in the next couple of years and on average they play to 1000 people per show, that’s 400000 people, right? Now if 2% of those people are inspired to form a band by the show the see that’s 8000 bands. Then if 1% of those bands turn out to be great bands that’s 80 great bands.

If there are 80 great new bands formed around the world in the next couple of years and then those 80 great new bands themselves manage to inspire a couple of new bands each then the spread of new bands that people will want to see would appear assured.

So, yes, in answer to the question that I’ve been pondering since witnessing The Hold Steady at the Corner Hotel – it is mathematically possible for The Hold Steady to single handedly save rock n’ roll.

It’s been several days since I saw the show and I’ve waited to write to review to be sure that the initial impression was a lasting one. I’m pleased to say my impressions of  the gig are as good now as they were on the night.

The performance commenced with lead singer Craig Finn announcing that they were pleased to be back in a rock club – a reference to the debacle that had apparently been the Laneway Festival the day before and as much a statement of fact – they really did look like they were happy to be in a rock club. Some up and coming bands are lauded for playing to an audience of 20 as if it were 20000. The Hold Steady would probably play a stadium as if it were a 400 capacity bar, and stadium rock would be all the better for it.

They opened with Stuck Between Stations and then roared into Sequestered In Memphis. If they had been a racehorse (perhaps a racehorse called Chips Ahoy) they would have been 6 lengths ahead after a furlong. The question was ‘could they keep going at this rate”.

They could, they did.

At one point Finn mentioned “we take a lot of pride in our live show”. We noticed.

There’s something endearing old fashioned about this band – they play live rock n’ roll as if there is nothing that they would rather be doing. Finn is the ringmaster – a natural born show-off in the body and visage of a chartered accountant. He not so much works the crowd as becomes one of them. He looks like a guy who would sit up half the night debating what was The Replacements best album rather than  hang out with a room full of celebrities and models. (He’d probably like to debate what was The Replacements best album with a room full of models, but even he probably doesn’t get to do that).

These guys come across as fans, as a bunch of guys unashamedly still hopelessly in love with rock n’ roll and not afraid to show it.

You just don’t get a lot of bands like that any more.
Actually it’s a good thing that they are such a good band, because such levels of enthusiasm would look kinda silly if they were crap. Finn, in particular, has complete confidence in his band and his songs – he is aware that they are chock full of “moments” and he is able to milk those moments with the confidence that the response will be there. He has a great relationship with his audience, because in essence he is still one of them. It must be fun to be the singer in your own favorite band.

Guitarist Tad Kubler is outstanding. He channels everyone from Thin Lizzy to Cheap Trick to The New York Dolls to Tom Petty and plenty of others and always plays just the right thing, somehow seeming to impress with his licks and put a silly smile on your face at the same time.

There wasn’t a dud song in the set, there wasn’t a moment when a Monday night crowd started looking at their watch. If I was pressed to name highlights it could only be a personal thing – Massive Nights, Chips Ahoy, The Swish, Southtown Girls, Magazines, Stevie Nix and of course Constructive Summer were all great but one that surprised me with its impact was Killer Parties from which Finn wrung every last drop of pathos.

With a rhythm section that does their job unobtrusively but impeccably and a keyboard player in Franz Nicolay, who adds so much in terms of musical texture and a massive additional personality to counterpoint Finns, the Hold Steady have a fantastic live band balance.

The only question that remains with this band is how do they continue to top where they are currently at.  Every album has been better than the one before and yet the songs from early albums stand up to the comparisons really well.  It’s a nice problem to have.

The Hold Steady

It’s been almost a decade since I found a new band that I like as much as The Hold Steady. And the reason I like them so much is that they sound like they could have existed about a decade ago – back in a time when bands still thought in terms of albums not simply single song downloads.

Hailing from Minneapolis the members of The Hold Steady did time in any number of bands both in Minn. and in New York. They are no teenagers and in fact you get the sense that the Hold Steady might well have been their last band rather than their first.

They are not exactly a new band having been formed in 2003 by vocalist, lyricist, and guitarist Craig Finn and New York City bartender and bassist Galen Polivka. Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler (both formerly of Lifter Puller) developed the idea of The Hold Steady when, while watching the The Band concert film The Last Waltz, Finn reputedly asked Kubler, “Dude, why aren’t there any bands like this anymore?” That was a good start.

Over the course of four albums The Hold Steady have managed to remind me of (in no particular order) : Soul Asylum, Bruce Springsteen, Husker Du, Dramarama, The Tragically Hip, Tom Petty, Jim Carroll, The Replacements, Godfathers, Cheap Trick and Dogs D’Amour.

Yep it could be argued that they play their record collection, but a/ it’s a bloody good record collection and b/ they exceed that record collection on a regular basis.

The mainstay of the band is Finn – a dorky looking mid thirties guy who manages to look at sound like he finds his role as the frontman for a rock band as slightly ridiculous but at the same time cant help but be hopelessly in love with rock n’roll.

The Hold Steady have songs that most literately describe being in a band and the whole indie band scene (Chill Out Tent, Boys and Girls In America and Sequestered In Memphis). Finn populates his songs with recurring characters and like Springsteen we are able to follow their evolution from mid twenties idealism/isolation to dealing with more adult situations.

Their evolution begun with Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday but they really started to hit their stride with Boys And Girls In America. Released in October, 2006, Boys and Girls in America was ranked #8 on the Rolling Stone Best Albums of 2006 list. Pitchfork Media’s Scott Plagenhoff wrote of the album, “[Craig Finn] not only has a commanding, rousing voice but he also says something worth hearing, displaying gifts for both scope and depth that are all too rare in contemporary rock — indie or mainstream.”

The band’s fourth album, Stay Positive, was released in the UK on July 14, 2008 and in the U.S. on July 15, 2008 and more recently in Australia.

It’s a remarkable record – managing to expand their musical palate to give them a set of textures that recall the E Street Band or Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, but without losing the indie-rock aesthetic.

In an interview Finn explained the dichotomy of being a new classic rock band. “I would say the Hold Steady is classic rock with a lowercase “c,” in that the riffs are familiar. Everywhere but in New York, part of your teenage years were spent in cars. I graduated high school in 1989, and there was no alternative rock radio, and there wasn’t really good college radio you could get on a car stereo. Once you get a car at that age, you’re spending all the time you can away from home, sometimes just driving around aimlessly. Listening, or not even listening, but subconsciously soaking up this classic rock barrage. I can still sing most Eagles songs, even though I never bought a record and never liked the band. So there’s a familiarity to the Hold Steady. “That’s kind of a Zeppelinesque riff there.” It makes you feel okay or something”

The Hold Steady will be touring Australia in February as a part of the St Jeromes Laneway Festival. They have now announced two headlining sideshows of their own:

Melbourne

Monday 2 February
The Corner Hotel

Sydney

Wednesday 4 February
The Metro Theatre