The Hold Steady - Camden Koko
In March 2008 I travelled down to London on a particularly generous 'pass out' from the missus, to meet up with Osc, Luke and Jon to go and see my absolute favourite band of the last year or so (in fact, my favourite band since The Smiths), The Hold Steady.
As a Guardian writer once put it, "The Hold Steady couldn't sound less fashionable if they set up a branch of C&A". Their bar-room rock n roll with fist-pumping, terrace-like choruses sounds like early Springsteen (especially with twinkling piano going on in the background). But their deceptively simple-sounding Americana guitars occasionally veer into chaos, which gives a hint of the band's punk roots. It's like early Springsteen played by a punk band in tribute, and that's what makes it wondrous somehow. It pushes my button every single time. I love them. (This is the best example available on YouTube.)
But the reason above all others that I adore them is, being the son of an English teacher, the singer Craig Finn's jawdroppingly fantastic lyrics. His songs tell vivid stories of drunken and druggy excess and regret centred around a few regular characters from - I am assuming - his youth in Minneapolis. I am probably reading way too much into it, and apparently Finn has said they are 'characters', not real people whose stories he is passing on to us. But he produces such vivid images I feel like I know these people. So, for me, they're real...
In particular, there is a girl called Holly ("a real sweet girl who's made some not-sweet friends") who turns up regularly. In the songs Finn is clearly in love with her, and has been since he was a teenager, but it's classic unrequited 'just-good-friends', and so he seems to be watching her descend into bad drugs and abuse, unable to help much. So he sings of her conceding that she's "laid beneath my lovers, but I've never gotten laid/ Some nights she felt protected, some nights she felt afraid", and of parties "that start lovely/ But they get druggy/ And they get ugly/ And they get bloody".
Well, if you listen to the albums in chronological order, we get introduced to Holly as a messed-up and abused girl trying to redeem herself by attending Christian camps "down by the banks of the Mississippi river". She gets 'born again' and seems to have sorted herself out at the very end of the 2nd album in one of Finn's most fantastic lyrics:
"The preacher caught a draft/ The deacon kinda laughed/ She stumbled into the Easter Mass with her hair done up in broken glass/ She was limping left on broken heels, when she said/ 'Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?'" The final 'chant' is "Welcome back" from the whole band, and it's heart-warming and moving.
But, by "First Night" on the 3rd album, "Holly's not invincible/In fact. she's in the hospital....", and you know she's slipped back again into the drugs and/or abuse, and I don't know about anyone else, but I almost choked when I got this update. At the gig I almost wanted to shout out, "How's Holly? Is she OK?", which would probably have been met with bemusement, but it's testament to Finn that I really care about this girl.
Other genius lines include one about a girl going out with anverbearing boyfriend: "You can wear his old sweatshirts/ And cover yourself like a bruise".
All three albums are brilliant. The gig was tremendous: the band were up for it, and so was the audience, and knowing the words like they are sacred text definitely enhances the experience. The new songs, off the new album, were also excellent. I'd seen them in Leeds in May 2007, and will do so again in Newcastle in July.
As a Guardian writer once put it, "The Hold Steady couldn't sound less fashionable if they set up a branch of C&A". Their bar-room rock n roll with fist-pumping, terrace-like choruses sounds like early Springsteen (especially with twinkling piano going on in the background). But their deceptively simple-sounding Americana guitars occasionally veer into chaos, which gives a hint of the band's punk roots. It's like early Springsteen played by a punk band in tribute, and that's what makes it wondrous somehow. It pushes my button every single time. I love them. (This is the best example available on YouTube.)
But the reason above all others that I adore them is, being the son of an English teacher, the singer Craig Finn's jawdroppingly fantastic lyrics. His songs tell vivid stories of drunken and druggy excess and regret centred around a few regular characters from - I am assuming - his youth in Minneapolis. I am probably reading way too much into it, and apparently Finn has said they are 'characters', not real people whose stories he is passing on to us. But he produces such vivid images I feel like I know these people. So, for me, they're real...
In particular, there is a girl called Holly ("a real sweet girl who's made some not-sweet friends") who turns up regularly. In the songs Finn is clearly in love with her, and has been since he was a teenager, but it's classic unrequited 'just-good-friends', and so he seems to be watching her descend into bad drugs and abuse, unable to help much. So he sings of her conceding that she's "laid beneath my lovers, but I've never gotten laid/ Some nights she felt protected, some nights she felt afraid", and of parties "that start lovely/ But they get druggy/ And they get ugly/ And they get bloody".
Well, if you listen to the albums in chronological order, we get introduced to Holly as a messed-up and abused girl trying to redeem herself by attending Christian camps "down by the banks of the Mississippi river". She gets 'born again' and seems to have sorted herself out at the very end of the 2nd album in one of Finn's most fantastic lyrics:
"The preacher caught a draft/ The deacon kinda laughed/ She stumbled into the Easter Mass with her hair done up in broken glass/ She was limping left on broken heels, when she said/ 'Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?'" The final 'chant' is "Welcome back" from the whole band, and it's heart-warming and moving.
But, by "First Night" on the 3rd album, "Holly's not invincible/In fact. she's in the hospital....", and you know she's slipped back again into the drugs and/or abuse, and I don't know about anyone else, but I almost choked when I got this update. At the gig I almost wanted to shout out, "How's Holly? Is she OK?", which would probably have been met with bemusement, but it's testament to Finn that I really care about this girl.
Other genius lines include one about a girl going out with anverbearing boyfriend: "You can wear his old sweatshirts/ And cover yourself like a bruise".
All three albums are brilliant. The gig was tremendous: the band were up for it, and so was the audience, and knowing the words like they are sacred text definitely enhances the experience. The new songs, off the new album, were also excellent. I'd seen them in Leeds in May 2007, and will do so again in Newcastle in July.
Labels: gig
posted by Graham at 1:50 PM
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