Live Review: Craig Finn of the Hold Steady at Slowdown

Finn performs with his band on Slowdown's front room stage.

With a big snowfall iminent, I wondered how many people would actually show up to see Craig Finn on Friday night. Granted, the snow wasn't supposed to start falling until after the concert would be over, but people in this town kinda freak when they see a few white flakes fall from the sky.

When we arrived at Slowdown at about 8:30, only about 10 people (not including the club's employees) were milling about. I was surprised to see it was a front room show, but it probably would have felt empty in the main room.

As I feared, there were very few people there. But when the frontman of The Hold Steady took the stage more than an hour later, it was very full.

With little grandiosity but lots of applause, Finn took the stage with the band from his solo album, "Clear Heart, Full Eyes."

"Hey Omaha. The last time I was here was in the parking lot outside here on a night much nicer than tonight," Finn said, mentioning this summer's outdoor show at the venue. "These songs - or most of these songs - are off my solo album. Thanks for coming out tonight. Thanks for being a part of it."

To be sure, there wouldn't be any songs by The Hold Steady. Holding an acoustic guitar instead of his usual Les Paul, Finn started into the leadoff track off of his new album, "Apollo Bay."

In an interview, Finn described this music as being much less celebratory than what you'd normally get from The Hold Steady. That's for sure. These songs were more subdued, more singer-songwriter style, but still good. The guys:girls ratio was about on par for a Hold Steady concert, but there was no fist-pumping, fewer people singing and no tallboys raised in the air.

A lot of these songs are about being an adult and dealing with transitioning from your teenage/twentysomething shenanigans to being an adult while still staying true yourself. Of course, nothing changed in your personality: you didn't stop liking whiskey or staying up late with your friends, but you're expected to grow up.

That was pretty well summed up by Finn before he and the band played the song "Rented Room."

"You know when you're in college or you're just out of college - whatever you do - late teens/early twenties and you live in a house with all these roommates? And all these fun things happen. You're drinking, you're carrying on. You have all these inside jokes. It's funny," Finn said. "But when you're 35 and you have a whole bunch of roommates, it's not funny at all. Take it from me."

No, it's not funny, but it still did get some laughs. Finn was a lot more talkative than he usually is and had a lot of good anecdotes like the one above.

He played every song from the album as well as some stuff that didn't make the cut. Some of those songs were the best ones he played, such as "When You're Going To A Show," "Some Guns" and "Sarah, I'm Surrounded." (Check out the full setlist.) Hopefully he releases an EP of extra songs sometime.

Other favorites of mine were "Honolulu Blues" and "No Future," which you can listen to below.

Also of note was opening band Mount Moriah. The North Carolina band was fronted by tiny woman with a big, melodic voice, which was matched up well with their very melodic lead guitar player. I highly recommend you listen to their song "We Don't Need That Much."

After the show, Finn took at seat at the merch table to sign autographs and meet fans. I always like to meet artists I've interviewed in person, so I made my way back there while my friends snagged a booth in the emptying club.

Finn signed merch items, talked to fans and posed for a few photos. He was cool enough to let me bug him for a minute, and sign a vinyl copy of "Clear Heart, Full Eyes" for me. Since he played several songs that weren't on the album, I asked if he had plans to release an EP of those songs. He said he'd really like to, but there were no definite plans.

Finn also mentioned that mentioned how awesome Slowdown is compared to other venues he's played at. I said I think he's the only artist to ever play the front room, main room and outside stage there, and he laughed. He said it's a fantastic venue, especially compared to the place they were at the night before, whih may have been his number one worst place to play at.

I appreciate artists that hang out and talk to fans (and me, too). It takes little effort and it's a memory that people will have for a long time.




Setlist
Apollo Bay
Balcony
Jackson
No Future
When No One's Watching
Some Guns
??
My New Friend Jesus
Sarah, I'm Surrounded
The Man Around Your House
Dudes From St. Paul
When You're Going To A Show
Honolulu Blues
Rented Room
Terrified Eyes
Not Much Left Of Us

Rock Candy Interview: Craig Finn of The Hold Steady

Craig Finn (Photo by Mark Seliger)

Normally when Craig Finn steps up to the mic, the crowd raises cups of beer, sings along about characters like Sal Paradise and girls that predict winning horses and belts out lyrics such as “we’re good guys, but we can’t be good every night.”

But Friday night will be different. Finn will be without his celebrator, raucous and literate rock band The Hold Steady and instead will perform songs from his debut solo album, “Clear Heart, Full Eyes.”

The songs are more intimate than anything we’ve heard from The Hold Steady. “Honolulu Blues” mentions a wavering faith in Jesus, how we’re all good and evil and how troubles still follow when you’re trying to get away from it all.

[Listen to "Honolulu Blues." ]

Intimate and personal? Yes. And still rocking without the soaring riffs of The Hold Steady’s Tad Kubler? Definitely.

We called Finn in Brooklyn as he geared up to head to Europe and then strike out on tour in the U.S.

Q. What should fans expect from your new album compared to The Hold Steady?

A. It’s quieter for sure. That’s the first and simplest answer. It’s also a little more narrative. It’s able to be a little more intimate and vulnerable.

With The Hold Steady, there’s high highs and low lows. My writing for that tends to be more cinematic. The solo stuff has more to do with the everyday and the mundane and those human moments.

Also in The Hold Steady, I really don’t write much music, if at all. Rarely do I contribute anything. With this, I come up with everything including lyrics and chords and melodies.

Q. Have you enjoyed doing things a little differently?

A. Yeah. I wouldn’t say they’re bad habits, but there are habits and ways you get of doing things. There’s a level of comfort there. One of the goals for me as an artist was to break out of those. To plug in with some other people and see if I could get somewhere with them.

Q. And you have never worked with this band before?

A. They were people I hadn’t met before. I remember the night before I left, I was really scared. I’m far from an accomplished musician. These guys, I had to shake their hands and then try to make a record with them. I learned a lot from it.

They’re all staring back at you and writing notes down. “This is the song in its most basic form. Where can we go from here? What is everyone hearing?”

It was nerve-wracking. It still was like you’re halfway through the song and you’re thinking, “Do they hate this?”

The producer (Mike McCarthy), he really produced the record in the true sense. He was sort of the leader, and he hand-picked some of the musicians.

Q. How did you end up working with Mike McCarthy?

A. We met through a friend. It must have been 18 months ago. I had a drink with him and he said some things that stuck with me. Also Britt (Daniel) from Spoon, he said a lot of the ways they made some of those Spoon records were very one-on-one.

I called him and talked about what I was thinking and played him some rough demos. I’m not a great musician and he said, “If you can sing me the song over the phone, like if you have a vocal, lyrics and melody, the rest of it can be my problem.” That was a really liberating thing to be said.

Q. Was it weird to be with a whole group of people you’d never worked with before and also to be recording in Austin instead of New York?

A. That was part of the whole concept; tying myself to a new concept and new people. It would have gotten weird if I was hiring people in New York or even Minneapolis. It was nice to separate and plug in down there.

Q. Is it the same band touring that was on the album?

A. Some of them. The touring lineup. I hired all Austin people because, spiritually, they live (in the mind set of these songs).

Q. Obviously, these shows have quite a different feel from what people may be used to seeing with you.

A. It’s more subdued, I’d say. There’s something about The Hold Steady that’s very celebratory. This record is sort of a break from being celebratory. There’s hours in the day where you don’t feel like that. This taps into a different part of my own human nature.

Q. How do you usually write? Do you sit down with a guitar or do you jot in a notebook?

A. It can go a lot of different ways. A lot of times, it’s the first line of the song or a phrase.

With this solo project, I really tried to write every day and write a song every day. I have a friend who wrote for Letterman. He’d say, “I don’t really have time to have writer’s block. We write a show and then we try to make it good.”

You probably know something about this feeling.

I though, “Maybe that’s a new way to approach songwriting.”

So, I started out with a song. A lot of them were terrible. But I gave them time and went back to them and got an idea of what was good and what wasn’t. Maybe the first verse was alright and then I’d build from there.

I liked putting a little more craftsmanship to it and punching the clock every day.

Q. And you recorded a lot of it live, right?

A. Even the vocals were recorded live, which is pretty unique. That’s one thing that I love about it. The musicians were in the room watching me sing. So when I step up to the mic, they back away, even imperceptibly. It’s the kind of thing you don’t get from overdubbing. I like the way it breathes.

Q. Do you think you’d ever do that with The Hold Steady?

A. It definitely makes me think of it. The volume that we operate at may not make that possible. (Laughs)

Q. Have you played much of this stuff live?

A. We just did one in Austin. It’s funny. When I got offstage, I felt like I hadn’t played a show yet — compared to what I’m used to. It’s mellower. I wasn’t tired and I wasn’t sweating and all wet.

Q. Is it tougher to keep people’s attention? It’s gotta feel different.

A. The audience energy is different. No one’s climbing on top of each other and throwing beer. It’s subdued material but it’s also keeping people’s attention. That’s a nice challenge to face. It’s a different one. It’s kind of cool.

Q. Will you be sticking to the solo stuff?

A. We won’t do any Hold Steady songs. We have 15 songs so far and we’ll be picking stuff up along the way. There’s 11 songs that made the record plus four outtakes. I might do a few songs alone without the band. I kind of want to keep things fresh. There’ll be plenty of material.

I don’t think it would feel right to play Hold Steady stuff. That doesn’t feel right to do.

Q. How many songs did you write for this album?

A. I have a lot of song that I wrote. I gave McCarthy 23 songs and he narrowed it down to 14. There’s plenty of songs. There’s more than that even. It’s just a matter of the band picking them up.
And they learn very, very quick.

Q. We’ve talked in past interviews about how you’ve taken up running a lot. Are you able to do it on tour?

A. I do. It’s actually a wonderful thing. It’s become completely necessary. I’ve got one of those iPod things that tells you how long you’ve run. There’s something about setting off on a run and not knowing where you’re going that helps me stay sane and focused and healthy.

I get kind of lethargic if I don’t run a few times a week.

Q. And you’ve talked about doing another Hold Steady record soon. What’s going on with that?

A. We have Steve Selvidge (on guitar) and we’re really committed to writing with him for this record. It takes a little extra planning because he lives out of town, but he’s coming to New York for all of next week.

I’d love to say that we’re in the studio in the end of the spring. I’d like to get back to the U.K. for the solo thing and then it’s back to The Hold Steady.

I’d love to have a record out in 2012. But that’s not always within our grasp. A lot of people have different things to say about that.

Live Review: The Hold Steady in Lincoln

Last night, we hopped in the car around 8 p.m. in Omaha, picked up Matt Whipkey and a friend in Lincoln around 9 p.m. and made it to the Bourbon Theatre shortly afterward.

We were there to see the Hold Steady. They've become a favorite band of mine and Whipkey's a big fan, too. When we got there, a Chicago-based group called Company of Thieves was onstage.

Their lead singer was spastic and wild, but had some soul in her voice. She was easily the best part of the band, which was a bit too loud at times and a little too soft at others.

The Hold Steady dropped on the stage like a ton of bricks. With very little fanfare beyond the "taking the stage" music, they blasted into "Sweet Part of the City" and then "You Can Make Him Like You."

The band's first time in Lincoln, they didn't stop to do or say anything through the first several songs.

Frontman Craig Finn is easily my favorite part of seeing the band. The crowd wasn't giving him a lot of energy (don't know if it was the people or how unnecessarily large that room is), but he had a near-permanent smile on his face while he bounced around and did his half-singing/half-talking thing into the mic.

A lot of Finn's between-song banter is well-rehearsed, but to me, it's still enjoyable.

"Alright Lincoln. Back in my slothful teenage years, my dad gave me some advice. He was trying to get me off the couch and stop smoking so much weed. It was a motivational thing and he said, 'Craig, guys go for looks. Girls go for status.'"

Next up was - big surprise - "Girls Like Status."

Anyway, it continued that way the rest of the night. The set leaned heavier toward the newish, including all the best stuff from "Heaven Is Whenever" and "Stay Positive."

A couple of sodas through the show, Whipkey and I ran into each other outside of the bathroom and talked about how much we liked the set.

Somewhere in all the philosophical positing about why they're good, he called them "dude rock."

Spot on assessment.

It's something about the band that makes we want to throw back a couple more PBRs than I should, throw my fists up in the air and holler all the words I know (and some I don't) back at the band.

Not a lot of groups do that to me any more. But the Hold Steady still does. Every time.

Maybe it's Finn's boyish enthusiasm despite the lackluster response from the crowd or the fact that he's nearly 40 and still rocking it. Maybe it's all the lyrics about drinking and having a good time. Maybe it's that I can sympathize with some of the band's rock 'n roll problems.

Who knows?

But there is something about being a dude that just makes me like the Hold Steady. And I'm alright with that.