The Hold Steady at the El Rey Theatre

The Hold Steady have made it to the big time by selling out the El Rey Theater. They have corporate sponsorship by Gibson Guitars as both Craig Finn (Vocals/Guitars) and Tad Kubler (Guitars) were playing Epiphone Blues Custom amplifiers that feature Tad in the ads. The Hold Steady should have been sponsored by Budweiser because it was flowing all night.


The Blitzen Trapper by the way of Portland, Oregon opened the night with their indie alternative country electro rock. They covered all of those previous genres in a ultra tight set that spanned roughly nine songs. Their instrumentation included a miniature Casio keyboard in combination with a Nord Electro keyboard and a Moog. I liked "Cool Number One" which is featured on their Myspace page.




Illinois were up next and rocked the crowd with a banjo! I haven't seen a banjo on stage in quite sometime and was intrigued by their alternative country indie rock vibe. They reminded me of a combination of Pavement and Wilco.Tad Kubler even came out for a guest spot on drums during one of their songs. Check out their album "What The Hell Do I Know?". Some of the songs they played included "Blue Hands", "Screen Door", "Old Saloon" and "Nose Bleed".


The Hold Steady Setlist for The El Rey Theatre(6/1/07)






The Hold Steady have the dubious distinction of being the first official concert review back in October 2006 when they rocked the Detroit Bar. It was good to see a packed house enjoy a large selection of songs off of "Boys And Girls In America". The ultra catchy sing along chorus of "Massive Nights" had a large portion of the front of the crowd singing along. Craig Finn was his usual hyperkinetic self all over the stage flailing around and emoting his lyrics. It took only a few songs until Tad Kubler busted out the Gibson double neck to channel the spirit of Jimmy Paige. Tad was crushing his Boss Equalizer pedal all night for some scorching lead solos. He also sprinkled some flanging effects via his Boss Hi-Band Flanger pedal which adds a duplicate note an octave higher for a nice trippy effect. Some other highlights included "Citrus", "Killer Parties", "Chips Ahoy!", and "Chillout Tent". Unfortunately, no stage invasion tonight during "Killer Parties" but Galen Polivka (Bass) did manage to open his wallet and toss out some money out to the crowd during the show. I would have gone to see them in San Diego but couldn't pass up Autolux at the Natural History Museum.

The Hold Steady Acoustic at Lou's Records

At the FM 94.9 bash on Saturday, there were flyers for an acoustic performance at Lou's records by the Hold Steady. I couldn't pass that up so I rolled out to Lou's and did some minor shopping prior to the acoustic performance. Just a little after 4:00 the band had started to set up their stuff and were ready to rock. One of my measures of how good a band happens to be is whether or not a band can play good acoustically. When you plug in to rock, you can make a lot of mistakes and distortion or volume can cover you. Performing acoustically really highlights the song itself. The Hold Steady proved how good they are with an 8 song acoustic set. They played for 45mins which was pretty stellar in my opinion. Franz was totally rocking the accordion and caring the songs since Galen was without an acoustic bass. Tad was strumming away on his acoustic guitar and Craig was drinking and singing along. After Craig was finished with his paper cup drinks, members of the audience mysteriously produced various alchololic beverages to place right next to his mic stand. My friend said he could smell the alcohol even before he started drinking. I figure since he had the shades on that he was recovering from the previous nights show. The amazing thing is that Craig didn't slur his words at all. The guys did an informal signing afterwards and were extremely cool. They are touring the East coast in a couple of days but will return according to Bobby. Rock on!!!

The Hold Steady/Sparta at 4th & B in San Diego

After recovering from the Rapture set, I managed to gather enough energy to drive down to San Diego for the 94.9 FM anniversary bash featuring Sparta, The Hold Steady, and Ok Go. I was excited to see The Hold Steady again who had destroyed the Detroit Bar back in October. I had never been to 4th & B so I was hoping it would be as awesome as the Belly Up. Things were looking grim when I had to pay $15 for parking. I thought to myself that I was back in L.A. again. The doors opened at 9:00 and The Hold Steady came on first. They proceeded to play another stellar set with the highlights being "Chips Ahoy", and "Killer Parties". They still look like they are having more fun being on stage then the audience and that energy translates to a very good show. By the end of the set, the chants for Sparta had died down and the chants changed to "Encore!". I had secured a great rail spot and was taking some good pics of the Hold Steady and then I got confronted by the man. No more pics per club policy. BOOO!!!! on 4th & B. Well I got to concentrate on Sparta's set which was very heavy on the new songs but still very convincing. Sparta highlights include "Air" and "Taking Back Control". I figured I will get some good pictures at the Avalon show. I did not stay for OK Go because I needed to save my energy for the Hold Steady acoustic set and the Deftones on Sunday.

Hold Steady and Sean Na Na at the Detroit Bar

After hanging out with 90,000 people watching USC win, I went home to pick up the camera and head out to the Detroit Bar. For the bargain of $10.00, I got to experience the phenomenon of The Hold Steady. Sean Na Na was up first. Sean "the artist formerly known as Har Mar Superstar" put on a good show with solid songs and lots of "hooks" as he put it. Do you remember when Har Mar opened for Incubus back in the day?? I think he played the forum or something. Anyways, Sean got points for rocking his Costa Mesa shirt. I had to move shortly from my front of the stage position to make way for the case of Budweiser for the Hold Steady. At this point I figured I was going to be in for a hell of a show. I was already envious of Tad's Pedal board, but then he busted out the double neck gibson ala Jimmy Page. Craig had the Budweiser flowing all night which seemed to increase the intensity of his performance. The crowd was going crazy but I couldn't help but think that the band was having even more fun then the crowd was. Just when I thought the night couldn't get better, on the last song of the 16 strong set... Craig and Tad started picking people to come up onstage. Tad asked me, "You Play?" and I said "Yeah!" and he handed me his awesome Gibson Les Paul and said "PLAY G". I frantically starting strumming "G" in time with the rest of the band playing "Killing Parties" and then he said "C" and then "D". I can't tell you what a rush that was. I have been to hundreds of shows and I will NEVER forget this. When they make it huge, I will be like... "Yeah, I rocked it on stage with them".