The Hold Steady, followed by Strippers!
When they finished their set on Friday night at Webster Hall, the Hold Steady thanked Target, who apparently sponsored this Breaking the Band concert, and a friend turned to me and stated, I dont want my band to ever have to do that.
New Yorks best bar band has graduated to the big venues over the last few years, growing far too big to play random bars in Brooklyn. And though they may need to thank a corporate sponsor occasionally, and the larger venues dont have that pleasant feel that bars do, The Hold Steady have lost none of what makes them so great.
When they took the stage at 9pm, they knew that the venue needed them off the stage at 10pm, in order to make the transition from rock concert to amateur burlesque contest, so the Hold Steady wasted no time. They just played for an hour straight, with no banter, no tuning, no bullshit. And though they didnt have a huge amount of time, they managed to really squeeze in almost of of their best songs from their three outstanding albums. Lead singer Craig Finn even opted not to take time to talk about his first place Minnesota Twinsa topic that he always raises during a set.
When they left the stage, the crowd refused to leave, hoping for an encore, but the house lights and music started up immediately to signal that it was time to leave, so that the strippers could start setting up. Surely the band would have given an encore if they were allowed, and that sucks, but they were smart and filled up the entire hour with nonstop rock, rather than waste time by leaving the stage with 15 minutes left, letting the crowd cheer for a minute or two and then coming back out to play a couple more songs.
Photo by [Jonny-Leather]