The Hold Steady reclaim Minneapolis

CONCERT REVIEW: Basilica Block Party
July 11, 2009
Minneapolis, Minnesota



Let's face it, seeing the Hold Steady play live anywhere is a treat, but seeing them play in the city where they got their start, the city whose streets are referenced in numerous Hold Steady songs? That's pretty damn special. They rocked day 2 of the Basilica Block Party last night in Minneapolis.

I had intended to only catch 30 minutes of the Hold Steady's set before sprinting over to see the Counting Crows, but of course once Craig Finn and his bandmates took the stage, there was no way I was leaving. Finn did his outrageous lyrical miming like a charades player on crack, while keyboardist Franz Nicolay is becoming a madman onstage, jumping around with unbridled enthusiasm that was conspicuously absent the last time I saw the band.

I'm also realizing that Tad Kubler is one of the best guitarists in rock music. He's so low-key, I hadn't noticed this until recently. But when you see the Hold Steady play, Kubler is always the unsung hero of the show.

The setlist was a joy, starting with "Constructive Summer," a song that somehow gets better every time I hear it, and also including such favorites as "Massive Nights," "Stay Positive," "Chips Ahoy!" and "Southtown Girls." Nicolay's mike was noticably louder than at previous THS shows - the band has apparently (wisely) decided its background vocals should be more prominent.

As THS walked offstage, it was time to walk over to catch the Counting Crows. They're a tricky band because some of their songs are brilliant and others are incredibly boring. When I arrived at the Crows' stage I was greeted with a couple of the boring ones. A shockingly lifeless "Mr. Jones" was next, with Adam Duritz singing in a manner that suggested he's sung the song 5000 times before and no longer gives a shit.



The Crows did come alive for a spirited "Hangingaround," which featured a few dozen audience members dancing onstage, and for the encore of "Rain King," which rocked even though Duritz inserted an odd 2-minute piano section into the middle of the song.

Matt Nathanson opened for the Crows. His set included two strange covers - Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" and James' "Laid," both of which are probably best left to karaoke enthusiasts. His banter was entertaining - he introduced one song by saying that he wrote it for Miley Cyrus, to help her resolve her existential crisis as Hannah Montana.



The evening's first act was Texas band Green River Ordinance, who provided a satisfying brand of Our Lady Peace-meets-All-American Rejects mainstream rock n roll. Their lyrics need a bit of work - the chorus of one song was a trite, cliched "Don't give up on my love." But they showed enough promise with fun songs like "Goodbye L.A."



I have to comment about the logistics of the festival. This was the most poorly laid-out fest I've ever seen. There simply wasn't enough room around the stages for all the fans. They tried to fit 7,000 fans around stages that were meant for 2,000. During Matt Nathanson's set it was utterly impossible to move until you got all the way back to the food vendors - where you could no longer hear the music. This festival either needs to find a different venue, or bring in smaller acts so that people can actually breathe.

Also, you can't buy food with cash here. They have an incredibly bogus system where you purchase tickets, then use those tickets to buy your food. I felt like I was at Chuck E. Cheese. Of course this is a ripoff because you don't know in advance how many tickets you're going to need, so inevitably you purchase too many and end up losing money on the deal. I've never seen anything like this at a concert, but folks told me it was common here. Maybe it's a Minnesota thing.

Previous Summer Road Trip reviews:
7/4 Blake Shelton & Bucky Covington
6/23 Andrew W.K. & The Evaporators
6/19 Carbon Leaf
6/6 Peaches
6/3 Green Day
5/1-3 Beale Street Music Festival

Our 5 favorite bands, November 2008

Scott's favorites:

1 SIGUR ROS

I'm almost embarrassed to admit where I first heard these Icelandic weirdos - one of their songs was on an Urban Outfitters compilation CD I ran across several years ago. That caused me to buy their 2002 album ( ), the pretentious record with no title, which contained 8 songs with no titles and no lyrics. It was stunningly beautiful, and so was their concert film Heima, released last year. They've continued their artistic growth this year with Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, which features a handful of accessible, up-tempo tracks, and even a song in English, their first ever.
MP3: Njosnavelin (from ( ) )

2 MGMT
It's pretty much universally accepted now that MGMT suck live. Ok, that's correctable. And forgivable, as long as they keep cranking out masterpieces like Oracular Spectacular, which features a number of brilliant psychedelic synthpop gems. My favorite changes almost every day, but right now it's "Kids," which sounds almost as deliriously Nintendo-ish as "Time to Pretend."
MP3: The Handshake (from Oracular Spectacular)

3 AMANDA PALMER
For the first time since I started doing these bi-annual 'favorite band' posts, the Dresden Dolls are not #1. But they couldn't be, since they broke up, or are on hiatus, depending who you ask. Amanda Palmer is now flying solo, but the Dolls' singer still crafts the same gripping and humorous lyrics. Her new album ranges from the poignant balladry of "Ampersand," to the whimsical doo-wop of "Oasis," to the furious energy of "Runs in the Family."
MP3: Leeds United (from Who Killed Amanda Palmer?)

4 OKKERVIL RIVER
Having seen Okkervil River live 3 times this year, I'm in awe of Will Sheff's punk energy onstage. But his eloquent stories are what make this band special - like the vivid pictures he paints in "The President's Dead" and "Lost Coastlines." Tunes like "Plus Ones" show off an impressive level of lyrical creativity - and just for the record, I do want a tune about the 100th luftballoon.
MP3: Lost Coastlines (from The Stand-Ins)

5 THE HOLD STEADY
America's favorite bar band continues to win me over with their clever tales about parties and scenes, which sometimes seem sincere and sometimes seem sarcastic - I often can't tell. Their latest, Stay Positive, offers plenty of great sing-along moments, notably the title track and "Sequestered in Memphis." Craig Finn and his band somehow keep getting cooler as they age.
MP3: Chips Ahoy! (from Boys and Girls in America)

Others earning consideration: Radiohead, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Taylor Swift, Girl Talk, Architecture in Helsinki

Deena's favorites:

1 KEANE

Although their new album, Perfect Symmetry, is a bit of a mixed bag (starting strong with the insanely ear-catching single "Spiralling" along with a few more groovy synth-pop sounding tracks, it sort of trails off and is less inventive towards the end), it was still enough to project this British trio to the top of my list. What some of their music lacks in creativity it makes up for in sheer beauty and simplicity. I would listen to Tom Chaplin sing the phone book.
MP3: Spiralling (from Perfect Symmetry)

2 CHROMEO

One of the best bands I saw all year, I didn't even know who this Canadian funk-tronic duo was until I started researching bands before Lollapalooza. I absolutely love their tongue-in-cheek lyrics and throwback '80s synthesizer effects. I put Chromeo in when I want to dance--and laugh. Their recent performance of "Mama's Boy" on Jay Leno was totally creative, abandoning a good bit of the rocking electric guitar from the track and substituting it with a small but equally rocking orchestra--I highly recommend looking it up.

MP3: Tenderoni (from Fancy Footwork)

3 ALKALINE TRIO

I dig the way Alkaline Trio can wrap the most morbid themes around a good pop/punk song. Who doesn't love catchy singalong choruses about love, alcoholism, depression, drugs, and/or death? My favorite chorus to date is off their July 2008 release, Agony and Irony: "Love, love, kiss, kiss...blah, blah, blah." They stay consistent with their goth-tinged lyrics on every album but manage to also grow just enough musically on each release to keep things interesting.
MP3: Private Eye (from From Here to Infirmary)

4 ABBA

Yes, a band that hasn't been together for over 20 years can still make a top 5 list. Blame it on Mama Mia!--the movie (which I saw when it opened in August) and the musical (which I just saw on its tour through Pittsburgh the other week), which reminded me of the tuneful work of this Swedish quartet. They actually have a nice body of work that ranges from disco ("Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!") to rock n' roll ("Does Your Mother Know"), even songs with a latin flair ("Chiquitita"). Their harmonies just seem to melt together. I really dig the songs with the gutsy, often quite low, female vocals like "Money Money Money" and "The Winner Takes it All."

MP3: Super Trouper (from Super Trouper)

5 GARBAGE

Since my default "favorite band" hasn't had a new album in over three years, Shirley and the boys have gotten pushed to the bottom of the pile. Only a few stray singles have escaped lately--in August, "All The Good in this Life" (a B-Side from 2007 previously only released digitally) appeared on the Songs for Tibet charity album, and a new track called "Witness to Your Love" is available on a charity compilation that I'm told is being sold by Urban Outfitters until January 31. Guess the best way to get my Shirley fix these days is by watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

MP3: Tell Me Where It Hurts (from Absolute Garbage)

Full-length CD reviews are for suckers

So here are our short takes on noteworthy discs from the past several weeks...

STAY POSITIVE The Hold Steady
Scott: "These sing-along songs will be our scriptures," yelps Craig Finn in his sing-speak manner, and he couldn't be more true. "Sequestered in Memphis" might be the best song of 2008 - if "Stay Positive" isn't. Both are vintage Hold Steady, with the detailed plotlines, riveting piano melodies and soaring choruses that makes us love them. Those were the first two tracks I heard off this record, and that led me to believe this was an early contender for Album of the Year. The rest of the album isn't quite that good (if only "One for the Cutters" was as awesome as its title...) but this is still a terrific effort.

WEEZER (RED ALBUM) Weezer

Deena: The predictableness of most Weezer albums has pleasantly lessened on their sixth record. Each band member sings lead on at least one track, which provides nice variety; some fun white-boy rapping shows up on a few songs; and several tracks meander away from the traditional 3-minute disposable pop song formula, with great success. Often the complaint about Weezer is that their lyrics haven't been as emotional or personal since Pinkerton, but the Red Album might actually deliver on that as well, particularly the deluxe edition, which contains some equally good tracks that didn't make the final cut.

Scott: My favorite here is "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived," Rivers Cuomo's most ambitious song ever. Rivers channels Kanye West's ego for a masterpiece that might be the band's best since "Only in Dreams." The spoken-word bragging is the high point, with Rivers claiming, "If you don't like it, you can shove it. But you don't like it - you love it."

MEð SUð í EYRUM VIð SPILUM ENDALAUST Sigur Ros
Scott: A brilliant disc. Gone (for the most part) are the plodding 9-minute epics; instead, more than half the songs clock in at 4:15 or less. They are also much more lively, starting with the opener "Gobbledigook", while the last two minutes of "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur" are as perfect as pop music can get. Sigur Ros also throw in their first-ever English song, "All Alright," which ranks up there with "Heysatan" and "Samskeyti" as one of their most beautiful tracks.

PRETTY. ODD. Panic at the Disco
Scott: This is better than it has any right to be. Panic sets out to make a record that the Beatles would make if they recorded in the year 2008, and remarkably, they come close to succeeding. "She Had the World" and "Beyond the Sea" wouldn't be out of place on Sgt. Pepper. This is one of those records that's a major artistic step forward, even though it's not likely to match the commercial success of their debut.

Deena: Even though I bitched that Panic abandoned their original producer, Danny Elfman, on this album, I really can't complain about the end result. Like the new Weezer album, most of the band gets a shot at the mic, especially lyricist Ryan Ross, whose voice is a pleasant departure and yet a great complement to lead singer Brendon Urie.

NO, VIRGINIA Dresden Dolls
Scott: This collection contains most of the songs the Dolls have performed in concert over the years but never put to tape. "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner" is an intense track that is so fun and upbeat you almost don't realize Amanda Palmer is literally singing about a lonesome organist raping his page turner. "Night Reconnaissance" is another standout, Palmer speaking for outcasts everywhere when she sings, "Nothing is crueler than children who come from good homes."

ROBOTIQUE MAJESTIQUE, Ghostland Observatory
Scott: GLO is a favorite of mine, but this one doesn't live up to their previous efforts. "Dancing on My Grave" is a quirky electronic pop tune that stands out from a batch of unremarkable songs. Singer/snakedancer Aaron Behrens has given up the guitar on this record, and while I didn't think that would be a bad thing, it ends up leading to a lack of variety on this disc.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, Kathy Griffin
Scott: As a huge Kathy fan, I have to say this CD is a bit of a disappointment. Her stories aren't as compelling as usual. Instead of giving us behind-the-scenes stories from award shows, she talks about what she's seen lately on Oprah. Lame! Her stories about Marie Osmond and Stevie Wozniak aren't terribly exciting either, but there are still plenty of laughs, particularly when she talks about her 88-year-old mother randomly discovering new reality tv shows - "Kathy, I just don't want you to end up like those goddamn Kardashians!"