Despite the fact that my LWR TA told me, “You’re a first year; you’re not supposed to have time to go out.” on Monday, I went to see The Constantines and The Hold Steady at The Great American Music Hall last night.
And it was good.
I had almost forgotten how much fun a good show can be. The Constantines were pretty good, I quite liked most of their songs (although Sean pointed out that one of their song sounded a bit too much like Bush for his taste) and I’m going to have to get the album at some point. There was an awful lot of posturing on stage that I alternately found annoying and a little charming. I suspect that if I’m ever in a rock band, I will also rock out on stage. A lot. And I will love it. And perhaps disaffected pseudo-hipsters like myself will stand in the crowd and and find me lacking. And maybe I won’t care, because if I am ever in a rock band, I can guarantee to you that I will be a rock god, and I will be loving every minute of being on stage.
Hoo-kay, I got off track there a little. Anyway, The Hold Steady were awesome. Really fantastic. They also rocked out, but not in the “I am a rock god.” way, but they were clearly having a fantastic time on stage. The interplay between long, almost jam-session-esque lulls in each song combined with furious talking/singing and the band totally wailing on the guitar, keyboard, accordion, etc. was far more compelling that I would have guessed from descriptions. Also, given the non-stop drinking on stage, I fully expected it to turn into a sloppy mess, but instead there was a great emotional vibe in the room, culminating with the lead singer proclaiming it “the best night of my life.” And I’m sure it was.
It wasn’t the best night of my life, but it was good enough that I haven’t yet started regretting staying out late and having to get to the library early this morning to do my reading.
In summary:
- The Constantines - good, I’ll buy the album
- The Hold Steady - so much fun, I’ll buy the back catalog
2 Comments
Agreed, the posturing was somewhat charming; it just came across as forced more than them just having a great time and rocking out. That’s what bothered me. And hell yes, if I were on stage, I’d be rocking out too, and hopefully it would come across as genuine.
Yeah, that’s the point I was trying to make - the more genuine you seem to me (and I don’t mean genuine in some sort of rigidly defined “keepin’ it real” sense), the more likely I am to be in to your antics, as opposed to finding them distasteful.
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