The Hold Steady - Great American Music Hall - 10/17/06

Originally uploaded by ryanfoley.

People keep calling The Hold Steady a bar band. I think that's a little off. They certainly play blue collar music. But in every one of their songs there's a bridge or a play on words or some other indication that these guys can really write and play music. And that what makes these guys special. They can play the three-chord verse, the three-chord chorus, and then blow you out of the water with some tempo change between them.

At the show, Danielle (who I convinced to go since their new album got a mind-blowing 9.4 at Pitchfork) and I were sandwiched between the sorts of people that would see a bar band. Maybe that isn't clear since you might be thinking these people were drinking alcohol or were wearing leather jackets: the crowd smelled. Really bad. Sex Panther bad. And the crowd was taller than normal. Maybe the two things are related with my nose being closer to the collective armpits and ass of the audience.

The one thing that really came through is that The Hold Steady really enjoy playing live. And they really love their own music. The lead singer's signature move is to sing a line into the microphone then move over to an audience member and re-sing that line directly to him. Kind of in that that-last-line-was-so-fucking-cool-that-I-have-to-say-it-again way. You know the girl at a My Chemical Romance (or similar mall punk music that is prepackaged for angsty tweeners) concert that treats the liner notes like the Bible and thinks the lead singer wrote that song just for her, that's the lead singer about his own band!

For the last song, the band brought a significant portion of the audience up onto the stage with them. Danielle and I stayed back in fear of an even more concentrated odor. The most mind-blowing part of the show was before everyone got up on stage, the guitarist asked a kid in the audience if he could play guitar. The kid said he could and was promptly pulled up on stage and given the guitar. Here's the crazy part: he could actually play! And not just chords, the guy was doing some impressive solos. I've been to plenty of shows where the band will hand someone a tambourine and the chosen one can't even tap out some quarter notes. Having a crowd member playing guitar is like finding out that your toddler can drive a manual-transmission car.

The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend

The Hold Steady - Swish