photo by Brian Osberg
City of Pittsburgh, Hold Steady!
Craig Finn and Co. rolled into town Wednesday night brandishing their triple guitar-fueled drunk rock. The band's set was legion with fist-pumping rockers from all four of their previous records and showcased new material from the highly-anticipated Heaven Is Whenever.
Hearing live for the first time "Hurricane J" and "Rock Problems" from the new record, a packed house got behind The Hold Steady with more crushing singalongs despite Finn's earlier bit about Heaven Is Whenever being 'less anthemic'. Sandwich these tracks between the likes of "You Can Make Him Like You" and "Navy Sheets" and you get quite the positive result.
No Franz Nicolay, of course, as he amicably left the band earlier this January to pursue a solo career as a 'vaudeville troubadour', so absent or subdued were fill-in Dan Neustadt's keyboard parts that interlace the leads on "Navy Sheets" or the piano breakdown in the encore "Stuck Between Stations". Nonetheless, the guitar trio of Finn, Tad Kubler, and tour addition Lucero's Steve Selvidge powered through "Massive Nights" and "Same Kooks" from 2006's Boys and Girls in America. I can't even believe it was that long ago; sounded so good to me hearing six picks from this record.
The capstone of the hour-plus may have been the reckless spit of "Cattle and the Creeping Things". Other inclusions from the first two records included "The Swish" and "Your Little Hoodrat Friend". No "Positive Jam", nor "Citrus", which they did first encore with the previous night at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern in Cleveland. Looking at that setlist, it's proof that they've really been mixing things up city to city on this tour.
It was an unfortunate miss on our part not to find the crew out at the bars in South Side post-performance (a misleading tip from the owner took us to an almost-empty Bar 11). But, we can still imagine that hypothetical conversation with a half-fuddled Finn about how the singer, guitarist, and bassist of openers The Oranges Band looked like Ben Folds, Steve Carell, and Elliott Smith, respectively.
Hurricane J - The Hold Steady
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