Hold Steady July 16 Toronto

[jazzyjeff]

http://www.collectiveconcerts.com

THE HOLD STEADY

THE WHIGS

Friday, July 16, 2010 at The Kool Haus

[YearsAlongTheSea]

Hells Yeah!

[zero]

thank fucking god

[Northern Wish]

Can I just go out on a sturdy limb here and say:

July 17 2010- Ottawa Cisco Systems Bluesfest

[Jaimoe]

That's a hell of a double bill. Beer will be flowing for sure.

[bradm]

Fingers crossed for a Montreal show on July 18 or so.

Aloha,

Brad

[phishtaper]

whaaa, i want ottawa, montreal, moose jaw, blah blah blah.

come to toronto, the center of the universe, you lazy bastards.

[Northern Wish]

We have. The past 3 times they have played TO.....

Its a tough drive home the next day!

[zero]

Well I'm definitely hitting TO then back up to Ottawa it would seem.

[Northern Wish]

I would, if it were Lees again, or the Opera House but no way in hell I drive 10 hours to be at the Kool Haus.

[NewRider]

:cheers: WOOHOO!

[phishtaper]

I would, if it were Lees again, or the Opera House but no way in hell I drive 10 hours to be at the Kool Haus.

really? why? I actually quite like Kool Haus and would never hesitate to see a band there. Ive lost count of the number of shows Ive seen there.

[Northern Wish]

Although I've seen 30 or 40 shows in that place my taste has refined and the last time I walked through its doors was in 2002 (?) for Tenacious D. Great show, that I couldn't see half of, over hear over the chatter from the crowd around me, get a drink at one of two bars with three bartenders for 1500 people etc.

[phishtaper]

i hear ya about security, NW. its a bit of a show, but ive never had a problem. the washrooms are actually pretty clean now, complete with attendants. sure, the place is a hanger but since they whacked out those damn pillars, i like the lines inside and the sound is very good. back chatter is indeed annoying but just float up front or right front. i dunno, i find it one of the easiest venues to get to and from and is close to some decent eats beforehand. i guess im just willing to overlook its deficiencies in favour of the many great bands ive seen there.

[Northern Wish]

If anyone has any doubts about the new lineup, check this review from long time fan (and author of Love is a Mix Tape) and writer for Rolling Stone:

The Hold Steady Pull Off Rock & Roll Doubleheader in NYC

By Rob Sheffield

Apr 18, 2010 10:48 AM EDT

There's an old baseball superstition that you never talk about it when the pitcher has a no-hitter going, so it's probably crass to mention how insanely great the new Hold Steady songs are. These guys have only been making records for what, six years now, and they've made five of the best albums released in that timespan - who gets on a roll like that? It's like they've already had the Replacements' career twice. To preview the new tunes from their upcoming Heaven Is Whenever, while also celebrating Record Store Day, the Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis bar band played a double-shot of Saturday night shows in two different New York 'hoods, hitting enough massive highs to reward fans who were drunk, insane or devoted enough to make the mad dash across the Williamsburg Bridge to catch both. Some of us just can't get enough rock & roll problems in one night.

"We're going to start this the only way we know how," singer/strummer/splutterer Craig Finn announced taking the stage at Bowery Ballroom, kicking the night off with "Positive Jam." It was a fittingly festive introduction to the revamped band - new keyboardist Dan Neustadt is subtler than the departed Franz Nicolay (he sits down, for one thing). New guitarist Steve Selvidge can actually keep up with Tad Kubler, pulling off the Thin Lizzy-style twin-guitar leads this band probably always dreamed of, over the punk rhythm section of Bobby Drake and Galen Povinka. The typically manic Hold Steady fans screamed along with every word, beating Finn to his own punch lines on the always-a-tearjerker "How a Resurrection Really Feels." Both shows crunched surefire crowd-flatteners like "You Can Make Him Like You," "Stuck Between Stations," "Slapped Actress" and "Sequestered In Memphis." They shut down Music Hall of Williamsburg nearly five hours after they started at Bowery, high as hell and shivering and smashed, stretching out "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" with a lilting Hendrix-gone-soukous guitar interlude from Kubler.

But the new songs were the main attraction, doled out over the course of both sets. "The Sweet Part of the City" rambles like Side Two of Exile on Main Street filtered through early Van Morrison and (no, really) Jefferson Starship's "Find Your Way Back." "Barely Breathing" dishes about Eighties hardcore bands getting religion and handing out Hare Krishna pamphlets; Kubler ended it with the intro to "Stairway to Heaven." The Heaven Is Whenever quasi-title-track is now titled "We Can Get Together," which might be one Jefferson Starship reference too many, but remains an emotional ballad of sitting on the floor with a punk rock girl who wants to play you her Hüsker Dü and Heavenly records. "Soft in the Center," with its big-brotherly lyric ("You can't get every girl / You get the ones you love the best"), deserves to get handed off to some struggling Nashville singer in time to become the country smash of summer 2011. Stranger things have happened, right?

With all these great new songs from both the Hold Steady and LCD Soundsystem, the summer of 2010 is shaping up to be a historic peak for 40-ish Irish dudes yelling about drunk girls. But at the Bowery, when when Craig Finn yelped, "I just can't sympathize with your rock & roll problems," he had to be kidding. The Hold Steady are our rock & roll problems. And if these two shows are any indication, the problems are just getting critical.

[FairySari]

Can't wait for this show!

This review makes me smile. Especially this:

They shut down Music Hall of Williamsburg nearly five hours after they started at Bowery, high as hell and shivering and smashed, stretching out "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" with a lilting Hendrix-gone-soukous guitar interlude from Kubler.

[zero]

Much respect to Mr. Sheffield and his Hold Steady love but is he being serious about this?

These guys have only been making records for what, six years now, and they've made five of the best albums released in that timespan - who gets on a roll like that?

Maybe I'm reading that wrong but it seems a bit of an over the top assertion.