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Post by kayfaberaven on Apr 12, 2023 14:28:41 GMT -5
Sign up at theholdsteady.net/ I believe. I figure I've done it thrice, because I receive 3 emails every time they announce something.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Mar 26, 2023 18:34:05 GMT -5
I'm really surprised that there's been no comment on here about the latest track Sixers, which was released on streaming last week. Has everyone moved to a new site and not told me! As for Sixers, to me it sounds more like a Craig Finn song than a Hold Steady song. That's still a massive compliment rather than an insult though... "Muddy" is a good way to put it, and to be honest for now I'm a bit disappointed with the sound, since I was SO blown away by the production on ODP. So I'll reserve full judgment until I hear the whole album.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jan 7, 2023 14:03:10 GMT -5
This will be my first time seeing The Hold Steady. Does anyone know if they will be playing unique sets each night in Chicago? Thanks, Without any inside information whatsoever, I guarantee they will play different sets every night. They typically play a about 6-8 "core" songs every night (Stuck Between Stations; Sequestered) and then mix it up, with other songs getting played 2 out of 3 nights and other songs getting played only one night.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 28, 2022 11:02:38 GMT -5
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Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 25, 2022 12:03:24 GMT -5
I know a few on this board attended the last couple of Craig gigs, any info would be appreciated stage time wise and otherwise. Was Scott on at 7.30on as previously posted. What time was Craig on? Did Craig hang out after the gig or was he shuffled out the door with a towel over his head into a waiting car avoiding the crowds and the paparazzi?🤔 The last bit would be good. 😅 I once saw Elvis Costello do just that. Running out of a gig. There were no crowds, no photographers, no one at all. He was avoiding people who weren't there. I only saw it because I was talking outside to some people as my wife was getting her coat from the coatcheck. 😅😅 Totally unrelated I know but I just remembered that. Someone somewhere might see the funny side to it like I did and still do?. For a completely opposite experience, I fondly recall leaving a venue on a drizzly Sunday night and the guys from Titus Andronicus were sitting on the curb outside, feet literally in the gutter, sharing some well-deserved post-show beers.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 9, 2022 13:03:49 GMT -5
I absolutely LOVE Legacy of Rentals. I liked it when I first listened and my love for it has grown over time.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 8, 2022 11:30:02 GMT -5
Craig had gone pop, in a very unique and Craig-like way, and the collaboration with Josh Kaufman hit a peak. I think Josh Kaufman has become the "special sauce" for Craig's recent albums, as well as for TTTP and ODP (especially ODP). I don't really know anything about music production, but whatever they're doing is really working for me. I reference it all the time, but the last part of Heavy Covenant sounds almost impossible, especially on headphones. There are so many things going on that it almost devolves into chaos, but not quite. Kaufman's production on Craig's solo work never sounds that stuffed and busy, but it still hits just right almost every time.
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L.A.
Sept 5, 2022 18:42:29 GMT -5
Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 5, 2022 18:42:29 GMT -5
I live a block away from The Lodge Room so this is basically a dream scenario for me. Lots of bars/restaurants on Figueroa in Highland Park. Right around the venues and within walking distance, there's Gold Line, a cool bar with 1,000's of vinyl and a dj. Greyhound, a sports bar. La Cavueita, a neighborhood dive. And Highland Park Bowl, the oldest bowling alley in LA. Even if you don't bowl, they've got a bar with a good happy hour and it's worth popping in just to take a look at. If you are looking to get dinner in the area before the show, Homestate does delicious Tex-Mex style tacos and is right down the street. Next door to The Lodge Room is Goldburger which is a vegan burger place I've heard great things about as well. For late night food, it's LA. If you see someone cooking tacos on the side of the road and there's a line, it's probably awesome. Happy to give food/drink recs for other parts of town if anyone needs them.
There's also a metro stop like two blocks away from The Lodge Room. Uber can be really unreliable and ultra expensive in LA right now so keep that in mind.
This is terrific intel, thanks. I'm getting into LA late-ish afternoon Friday. Staying in Koreatown, which I understand is on the train line to get close to the Lodge Room, so all of this will come in handy. Although small correction, per the band's posting just now: the vegan place is apparently Burgerlords, which has collaborations with the band, while Goldburger is a block or so away.
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L.A.
Sept 5, 2022 18:34:03 GMT -5
Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 5, 2022 18:34:03 GMT -5
I live a block away from The Lodge Room so this is basically a dream scenario for me. Lots of bars/restaurants on Figueroa in Highland Park. Right around the venues and within walking distance, there's Gold Line, a cool bar with 1,000's of vinyl and a dj. Greyhound, a sports bar. La Cavueita, a neighborhood dive. And Highland Park Bowl, the oldest bowling alley in LA. Even if you don't bowl, they've got a bar with a good happy hour and it's worth popping in just to take a look at. If you are looking to get dinner in the area before the show, Homestate does delicious Tex-Mex style tacos and is right down the street. Next door to The Lodge Room is Goldburger which is a vegan burger place I've heard great things about as well. For late night food, it's LA. If you see someone cooking tacos on the side of the road and there's a line, it's probably awesome. Happy to give food/drink recs for other parts of town if anyone needs them.
There's also a metro stop like two blocks away from The Lodge Room. Uber can be really unreliable and ultra expensive in LA right now so keep that in mind.
This is terrific intel, thanks. I'm getting into LA late-ish afternoon Friday. Staying in Koreatown, which I understand is on the train line to get close to the Lodge Room, so all of this will come in handy.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jul 19, 2022 10:55:52 GMT -5
The Hold Steady were emblematic of a place in time. That place in time has passed. It was definitely a good run. I get this as a personal statement, but I don't really feel the same way. Or to put it another way: Yes, they were a special band for a special place in time to me as well. But they're still very much special to me, just in a completely different way than in 2006-07. Open Door Policy was almost as perfect to me as a 37 year old as Boys And Girls was to me as a 23 year old. Same goes for the live shows. They used to be hectic and frantic, and I loved that. Now, they're a well-oiled machine, sounding better than ever - and I'm able to catch them three or four nights in a row once or twice a year. And, frankly, still get pretty drunk while doing it. Well said, Muzzle. Are you still doing the Craig Finn solo thread, or is that on hiatus?
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 12, 2022 11:15:04 GMT -5
I'm coming in from out of town and will be flying solo on Thursday (my friend gets into town on Friday), so I'd be good with a meet up. Lost Lake looks good, although online it seems to indicate that there's a ticketed concert taking place there with "doors 7, show 8", so I'm not sure if that will be an issue(?).
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 12, 2022 11:07:52 GMT -5
Hi all. I have tickets already, actually probably 1 extra myself. If no one replies in need of these I would be happy to receive these freebies and hand out some miracles to the box office line before the show. Hit me up here or @ Jaredgeisler@me.com if you wanna. I hope it's ok if I jump on your thread, but I have an extra for Thursday night that I'm giving away for free as well. So maybe this is the free tickets thread? I actually found a guy who could use my one extra, over on the Facebook group. And it will be this guy's first show ever, so that's pretty good.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 8, 2022 12:05:59 GMT -5
Craig just formally announced the Oct 2 show at the Moth Club. As luck would have it, I'm going to be in London anyway (wife is running the marathon that morning), so all of a sudden my Oct 2 has become (1) cheer on wife in the marathon, (2) go see Saints-Vikings at Spurs Stadium, and (3) go see Craig that night. Sometimes the world just kind of aligns, doesn't it?
Now I've just got to figure out how to get word to Craig that I want to go to the Saints-Vikings game with him...
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 8, 2022 10:57:17 GMT -5
In Nashville, Tad play a gold top that I've never seen before. Might have been a Les Paul. I was in the balcony. I got a good chuckle from this response coupled with your avatar pic.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 3, 2022 16:58:08 GMT -5
Now, in addition to all of the new THS and Craig solo music, we also have a new Craig Finn podcast. And I forgot to mention Franz's excellent novel too.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Jun 1, 2022 16:40:31 GMT -5
Washington-Dulles. I believe they've already announced the dates as March 10-12. My birthday falls on the Saturday night, so perfect timing. Thanks man, I was hoping it was the later date.. I'll keep my eye out for prices and if I see anything reasonable I'll PM you..Ridiculous pricing that is..Hold Steady in September in L.A my flight cost £550 I think..that's about $690 current exchange rate. Can't have them.asking that much .❌ Are you coming from *Europe* for the LA shows? If so, kudos my friend. I will buy you at least one moderately priced beer if I bump into you there.
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 31, 2022 15:08:54 GMT -5
I hope it's ok if I jump on your thread, but I have an extra for Thursday night that I'm giving away for free as well. So maybe this is the free tickets thread?
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 25, 2022 10:43:34 GMT -5
I disagree that the band is tired, or that it’s ‘residencies or nothing’. There’s a whole scene around the Hold Steady that’s alive and vibrant. The AV Club recently did that list of best frontpeople in rock, and like 10% of them had some connection to the band. You’ve got entire scenes inspired by THS like the Gaslight Anthem/Menzingers/Frank Turner orgcore scene, the emo/power pop/pop punk Jeff Rosenstock/Chris Farren/PUP/Wonder Years scene, and I’ve even seen an article or two saying THS inspired the endless wave of UK post-punk speak sing bands (which I don’t fully believe, though Fontaines DC and IDLES were on the same label as Craig). You have millennial acts/critical darlings like Ezra Furman and Cassandra Jenkins and The Mountain Goats. You’ve got Sam Fender. You’ve got Pkew Pkew Pkew, and the dozens of smaller bands I find every day like Other Half, Russian Girlfriends, Hurry and others I can’t remember inspired by the band. What THS need to do isn’t stop the residences What THS need to do is put on a Unified Scene festival every year where they play with the bands that inspired them, and the bands they inspired. Maybe they wouldn’t even headline some nights, since lots of those bands are bigger. But it would expand the community. I definitely don't think the band is tired or worn out. I do think that their days of full touring seem to be behind them, due to a combination of economics and (understandable) lack of willingness by the band. But if their next album is even close to being as good as ODP, this second (third?) act will be damn near miraculous. I'd love your idea of a Unified Scene festival, although I'm not sure how the economics would work. I saw THS and DBT together in Asbury Park at the Stone Pony outside stage, and I could see something like that working for an expanded summer version of Massive Nights, but short of a full festival and all of the logistics that would entail. Put together 4-6 bands each day Friday-Sunday, with some overlap, and run a concert from 3-11 pm each day with other stuff going on around it, like afterparties inside the Stone Pony, bowling, etc. I wonder if something like that could work.
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 24, 2022 23:01:51 GMT -5
I don't know anything about musicianship or music production, but how good are Bobby's drums on ODP? They're the highlight of the majority of songs on the album, with so many stand out moments. I wonder if the recording set up was different than for TTTP?
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 24, 2022 12:10:19 GMT -5
Muzzle, thanks for perfectly summarizing some of what I was getting at: "I think it's residencies or nothing by now."
Robs, I thought this same thing but didn't express it as I was rambling away: "And without any firm evidence to back this up, I reckon he [Franz] would be the least likely to go on a full tour, and is probably key for the residencies to continue?" And then you wrote in two lines what I was getting at in my original post: "If the residencies give us the best version of the Hold Steady live, and free the time to record more THS and solo stuff, that's more than I could have hoped for in 2015 and selfishly works for me. I do appreciate that there will be many who feel cut out though."
While I'm here, I must admit that in my darker hours I do think about the end. Will it end with a bang - one final Massive Nights pre-announced as the last Killer Party? Will it end with a whimper - residencies continuing to diminishing returns, until they just taper off? Or will I eventually lose interest (unlikely) or have some unforeseen change in my circumstances? I know that it has to end some time, so I'm going to try to enjoy the ride.
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 23, 2022 20:24:51 GMT -5
Hiya,
On the touring vs. residencies thing, I'd love to know all of the numbers and the "business" of the band (or any band, really, but especially this band). Without knowing anything about anything, I've found myself trying to do some VERY rough back of the napkin math for these weekends. Hopefully none of this is taken as disrespectful to the band or anyone else, it just intrigues me for a number of reasons (including, selfishly, if the band isn't making money then they likely won't keep going).
For example, I'll be in Denver for all 3 nights in June. Google tells me capacity at the Bluebird is 550. Let's say all 3 nights sell out (I think Friday and Saturday are sold out, but Thursday isn't) and tickets are $40 per. 550 times 40 is $22,000 per night, which is $66,000. I don't recall what the soundcheck meet and greet costs, but let's say $40 again. I've only been to a soundcheck once (in Brooklyn), and there were definitely fewer than 100 people there, so even if there's 100 people at the soundcheck, that's another $4,000, which gets us to $70,000. Then there's merch sales which couldn't be more than $5,000 (once the cost of making the merch is accounted for) for the weekend could it? So we're at $75,000.
Then we've got to take away expenses, which I have even less idea about. But even if we figure the building is free (but the building keeps all drink sales), there's still air and hotel (Comfort Inn not the Mandarin, naturally) and transportation to and from the airport for 6 band members and at least a couple of support folks I assume. What does that cost - $15,000 total? Management needs to be paid (10%?). Support staff needs to be paid (I assume Mosh Pit Josh isn't working for free). I may be forgetting other expenses - again, I have no idea. Maybe we're down to let's say $48,000 in "profit", to give me a nice round number? That means $8,000 to each band member for the weekend (assuming everyone gets an equal share). But who knows the actual figure - maybe it's somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 per band member. Which isn't bad, obviously, but it's not enough to be a full time source of income.
Having said that, band members have said in interviews that the residency model is a lot more pleasant, given their ages and family situations and other commitments. I don't know these guys at all, but I doubt that they all want to get back in the van (or even a bus) for a few months. Some of them may be ok with it - Craig tours solo so he seems ok with it - but likely not all of them. I also wonder if they'd make more money going on a full tour. Again, I know nothing, but if they're out on tour then they have expenses every day so they are going to want to have money coming in most days. Maybe not Omaha on Monday, but they've got to play somewhere on some of the Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays they're out on tour (I think). And those days are a lot harder to sell tickets for, I assume (there's a reason the Wednesdays and Thursdays of residencies sell out way later, if at all, than Fridays and Saturdays).
Selfishly, the residency model works for me. I live in Vancouver so if they went on a proper tour then I'd see them here (if they crossed the border...although there last show here was in a casino in the suburbs ferchrissakes) and Seattle. I'd rather fly to Denver for the weekend, but I realize that I'm fortunate to be able to do so.
Maybe one day they could adopt a hybrid residency thing, kind of like the Nashville-Atlanta shows this coming summer? Manageable loops in one geographic area? So, San Diego - LA - San Francisco, for example? But even then, they still need to set up and tear down every day, which is apparently a pain, as is the travel between cities. And my guess is that the band has come to the conclusion that they probably aren't at a stage of their career where they're winning over new fans in significant numbers that would make a full tour more worthwhile as a loss leader to build out the fan base.
But going back to the main point of my original post, I thought it was pretty much over in 2015, and yet here we are in 2022 with about 35-40 new songs (and more on the way) and the chance to see my favorite band multiple times each year, often in cities that I wouldn't have an excuse to visit otherwise. Now, I've just got to make it over to London for the Weekender one year...
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 23, 2022 13:41:34 GMT -5
Hey, it's theothermatt from Defector.com! (This is thelittlebulldog from Defector.com).
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 23, 2022 12:41:03 GMT -5
Late 2014, from afar the band seemed to be running on fumes near the end of the touring cycle for Teeth Dreams, which had taken four years to release after Heaven is Whenever. And without Franz. It seemed like we were getting close to the end, or at least to the beginning of the end. And if that was the case, it would be fine - possibly inevitable. We'd have 6 THS albums, plus one Craig Finn solo album that I once saw described as "tentative", and a lot of good memories. A hell of a run, capped off by the Horseshoe residency in December 2014. The band apparently played only 1 show in 2015, in February 2015 at the Bowery Ballroom...I wonder if that felt like a farewell.
And then...another Craig Finn solo album later in 2015, which was a leap forward from CHFE. If the band had gone dormant, at least we'd have new songs from Craig, which he'd tour with. Summer 2016 the band played 3 festival shows, but that was it. I believe these 3 shows is when Franz first showed up again to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BAGIA. But it felt more like nostalgia than a new beginning.
And then...Massive Nights 2016. Using the Horseshoe residency as a roadmap, the band had apparently figured out a way to go on that made sense. In June 2017, they had a 3 night residency in Chicago and Massive Nights again in late November/early December. Even better, the band released a couple of new songs in late 2016 as well.
You know the rest. The residency model has expanded to about 6-8 residencies per year, all over the USA and internationally in Toronto and London and even Australia. 2 new THS albums have been released, with another one likely on the way. 3 more Craig solo albums. Craig's tours.
Friends, in 2015 it felt like it was over. And look where we are now.
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Post by kayfaberaven on May 9, 2022 13:09:48 GMT -5
Probably my favorite from I Need a New War - the "You travel your whole life just to get out to the place you're gonna die" is devastating but genius in its absolute truth. Yes! That line is absolutely gutting to me.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Apr 18, 2022 13:05:24 GMT -5
Sorry, disregard.
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