Post by howard on Dec 6, 2017 8:50:35 GMT -5
As ever, Craig nails it on his facebook post:-
It’s a wrap! Actually, we finished Saturday night but I’m still licking my wounds a bit…..
Massive Nights was an incredible success. We couldn’t be happier with how it went. People came from all over the world to take part in four of the best Hold Steady shows ever. I met a ton of cool people and we were honored by the support and connection. Each night the room felt electric, and each night seemed to ramp up just a little bit. My head is still swirling, but I’ll try to walk through it all to the best of my memory.
First off, a week ago we dropped two new songs, our first new music in quite a while. “Entitlement Crew” and “A Snake In The Shower” were a surprise to the fans and were only recorded a few weeks earlier. It was fun to turn something around so quickly. Also, it gave us two new songs to play each night, which felt cool.
We also had a beer just for the event from Hanging Hills Brewing Company, the Massive Nights IPA. It got a lot of compliments from people I talked to who had tried it. IPAs aren’t perfect show beers for a singer, so I’ll have to catch up this week as I know they are serving it at Lake Street in Greenpoint.
While we were making the set lists for the shows I came upon an idea: if we play 21 songs (a bit longer than normal) and then a four song encore (again, a bit longer), then we will play 25 songs a night for four nights= 100 songs over all the shows. It felt like a nice round number and a good goal….
Wednesday night we kicked things off with our friend Patterson Hood, who turned in a killer set and joined us for an AC/DC cover “Ride On”. One of my favorite things was when a good part of the crowd was chanting “D B T! -D B T!” which underscored the relationship we have with the Drive By Truckers. DBT was truly a big influence on the early THS long before we had met them, so to have Patterson open this up (and count him as a good friend) was really special. The show went perfect, we opened with “Positive Jam”, gotta start it the only way we know how... And of course the set featured the live debut of “Entitlement” and “Snake”.
Thursday we were treated to a performance by Cayetana who made big fans out of the THS guys as well as the crowd. They were so good! I’ve been listening to their record “New Kind of Normal” non-stop in last few weeks and I suggest you do the same. We had another great set and threw “History Lesson Pt. II” by the Minutemen into the encore. I really like that song in that it speaks to their own legend in a cool way, and how bands take what they look up to, combine it with what they know, and go forth to put that out into the world. It always gives me chills a bit to hear it, and it’s inclusion at the end of the show is meant to remind us of that phenomenon.
Friday brought in The Whigs, our old friends and tour mates, doing their ONLY show of 2017. I was wondering if they would be out of practice but they were every bit as tight as they ever are. PLUS they played all our favorite songs including my favorite “Right Hand on My Heart”. It was glorious. And not lost on us what it means that they did this for their only show this year. Love those guys. Our show was again really great, it felt like the weekend had arrived as people seemed to be in party mode. No covers but another 25 songs that flew by and a great audience.
On Saturday afternoon, the cat got let out of the bag. Frank Turner was the final night surprise opener. Frank flew FROM LONDON TO NYC AND BACK in about as little time as possible just to do the show. He is a hero for doing so, and also for turning in a set that can only be described as transcendent. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one guy with an acoustic guitar grab the audience by the throat like that. I can’t thank him enough for his contribution to the final Massive Night. And being kind of a tall guy, it was fun to look out at the crowd and see him out there amongst all the people singing along during our set. Saturday night felt like a culmination, we started with “Stuck Between Stations” and blazed through the set. Somewhere in there Frank joined us for Constructive, which was awesome. And of course our friend Mosh Pit Josh came out and destroyed “Stay Positive’ with us for the encore. Eventually we got to “Killer Parties” one more time - the 100th song of the weekend.
Right now, I can barely talk. My body aches. These four shows took a lot out of me, and I’m sure all of us. But I’ve never felt so good as I did at Massive Nights this year. I said it every night- this six piece lineup of THS is the best lineup we’ve ever had and it’s an honor to stand onstage with my bandmates. The good people at the Brooklyn Bowl worked tirelessly with us all year to put this together and were fantastic hosts again.
But mostly, it’s so amazing to see the community that has sprung up in the audience, something that continues to be awe inspiring. I am so proud to be a part of this. And I’m so glad you are a part of it as well. We couldn’t have ever done this if it wasn’t for you.
In short, THAT WAS MASSIVE.
So…..let’s do it again next year?
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for understanding!
Stay Positive!
cf
THE HOLD STEADY
It’s a wrap! Actually, we finished Saturday night but I’m still licking my wounds a bit…..
Massive Nights was an incredible success. We couldn’t be happier with how it went. People came from all over the world to take part in four of the best Hold Steady shows ever. I met a ton of cool people and we were honored by the support and connection. Each night the room felt electric, and each night seemed to ramp up just a little bit. My head is still swirling, but I’ll try to walk through it all to the best of my memory.
First off, a week ago we dropped two new songs, our first new music in quite a while. “Entitlement Crew” and “A Snake In The Shower” were a surprise to the fans and were only recorded a few weeks earlier. It was fun to turn something around so quickly. Also, it gave us two new songs to play each night, which felt cool.
We also had a beer just for the event from Hanging Hills Brewing Company, the Massive Nights IPA. It got a lot of compliments from people I talked to who had tried it. IPAs aren’t perfect show beers for a singer, so I’ll have to catch up this week as I know they are serving it at Lake Street in Greenpoint.
While we were making the set lists for the shows I came upon an idea: if we play 21 songs (a bit longer than normal) and then a four song encore (again, a bit longer), then we will play 25 songs a night for four nights= 100 songs over all the shows. It felt like a nice round number and a good goal….
Wednesday night we kicked things off with our friend Patterson Hood, who turned in a killer set and joined us for an AC/DC cover “Ride On”. One of my favorite things was when a good part of the crowd was chanting “D B T! -D B T!” which underscored the relationship we have with the Drive By Truckers. DBT was truly a big influence on the early THS long before we had met them, so to have Patterson open this up (and count him as a good friend) was really special. The show went perfect, we opened with “Positive Jam”, gotta start it the only way we know how... And of course the set featured the live debut of “Entitlement” and “Snake”.
Thursday we were treated to a performance by Cayetana who made big fans out of the THS guys as well as the crowd. They were so good! I’ve been listening to their record “New Kind of Normal” non-stop in last few weeks and I suggest you do the same. We had another great set and threw “History Lesson Pt. II” by the Minutemen into the encore. I really like that song in that it speaks to their own legend in a cool way, and how bands take what they look up to, combine it with what they know, and go forth to put that out into the world. It always gives me chills a bit to hear it, and it’s inclusion at the end of the show is meant to remind us of that phenomenon.
Friday brought in The Whigs, our old friends and tour mates, doing their ONLY show of 2017. I was wondering if they would be out of practice but they were every bit as tight as they ever are. PLUS they played all our favorite songs including my favorite “Right Hand on My Heart”. It was glorious. And not lost on us what it means that they did this for their only show this year. Love those guys. Our show was again really great, it felt like the weekend had arrived as people seemed to be in party mode. No covers but another 25 songs that flew by and a great audience.
On Saturday afternoon, the cat got let out of the bag. Frank Turner was the final night surprise opener. Frank flew FROM LONDON TO NYC AND BACK in about as little time as possible just to do the show. He is a hero for doing so, and also for turning in a set that can only be described as transcendent. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one guy with an acoustic guitar grab the audience by the throat like that. I can’t thank him enough for his contribution to the final Massive Night. And being kind of a tall guy, it was fun to look out at the crowd and see him out there amongst all the people singing along during our set. Saturday night felt like a culmination, we started with “Stuck Between Stations” and blazed through the set. Somewhere in there Frank joined us for Constructive, which was awesome. And of course our friend Mosh Pit Josh came out and destroyed “Stay Positive’ with us for the encore. Eventually we got to “Killer Parties” one more time - the 100th song of the weekend.
Right now, I can barely talk. My body aches. These four shows took a lot out of me, and I’m sure all of us. But I’ve never felt so good as I did at Massive Nights this year. I said it every night- this six piece lineup of THS is the best lineup we’ve ever had and it’s an honor to stand onstage with my bandmates. The good people at the Brooklyn Bowl worked tirelessly with us all year to put this together and were fantastic hosts again.
But mostly, it’s so amazing to see the community that has sprung up in the audience, something that continues to be awe inspiring. I am so proud to be a part of this. And I’m so glad you are a part of it as well. We couldn’t have ever done this if it wasn’t for you.
In short, THAT WAS MASSIVE.
So…..let’s do it again next year?
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for understanding!
Stay Positive!
cf
THE HOLD STEADY
