“He was so enthusiastic. It was his spirit of enthusiasm that steamrollered things through and it's why we put up with him for so long! You could have an argument with Tony and walk out hating him and the next time you saw him it was all forgotten. You just loved him.”
It’s nice to pay tribute. That was Stephen Morris of New Order and Joy Division laying down a eulogy to recently departed mogul-with-a-soul Tony Wilson, Manchester legend, talking head, chap people generally liked. There’s no way you can look at that and think, nah, that’s not nice. Tonight also, though in a different way, is a night of tributes. Like we say, that’s nice. Cat The Dog, however, deliver an alternative acknowledgment to the one we expected. The single ‘I’m A Romantic’, our only prior experience of the band, pours a generous cap of Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ and gargles loudly for 3 minutes. The main difference between ripping someone off wholesale and paying tribute, we supposed, is probably a few years, so we gave them the benefit of the doubt, seeing as that seminal album saw light of day back in the late 80s (knocking the wind out of us and reminding us exactly how old we really are these days). But the band we find before us tonight is more a straight up homage to Kings Of Leon. Kitted out like Dirty Pretty Things. Yes, quite a quantum leap there. And a little like turning up at Tony Wilson’s funeral to find Prince Harry talking about how he was the best mum ever. It’s deep fried blues rock wearing one of Johnny Borrell’s t-shirts. It makes a lot of sense that they’ve come out of nowhere signed to a major now – it all feels that calculated. The riffing’s immaculate, the shape-pulling seamless, the pouting loose, the cogs are figuratively and to a point literally greased. Nothing goes wrong. Apart from – from our perspective this is – when they belt out the still furious spitting-grunge roar of the single and he groove to the riff. Yes, grooves. Which is probably – from their perspective – all right now. But for the few right (read regulation) things they do there is still, as far as we can tell, no excuse for that name. The Hold Steady do not groove. They flail, they ricochet, they stand astride speakers, they play solos the way solos are meant to be played (that’s utilising muscles in the face as much as the fingers), they tip their hats, they grin an awful lot, celebrate continuously and run on pure positivity and goodwill. They may try to groove from time to time, but fall over themselves in the process just like the rest of us – although we suspect that this could have just been the wine. They look like a band who’ve spent a lifetime imbuing, as well as the alcohol, tall tales, late nights and wide experiences, so almost inevitably they can roll out a fine line in tribute. Before they take to the stage two gentlemen behind us discuss with a dry enthusiasm Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s forthcoming London show. Close your eyes tonight and you’re already there, on double adrenaline shots, dancing on that there figurative ceiling. Springsteen, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Husker Du and Cheap Trick. We’re talking good time and tunes with a healthy midriff wrapped a college rock t-shirt. They are incredibly faithful to their influences and there really is little variation on the whole, but there needn’t be when this is all about chewing on the juicy bits and incinerating the rest. Part tribute, part clean-up job. So they can get speed through of two of their breakthrough songs, ‘Chips Ahoy’ and ‘Stuck Between Stations’, early on because there’s more than enough in the way of crashing chords, proud piano tinkles, bold beats and ecstatic sociological stream-of-consciousness lyrics to fill the rest of the evening and with spares to set aside for a rainy day – which, incidentally, is one thing The Hold Steady never experience. Lead man Craig Finn is so bursting at the seams with enthusiasm for the songs and tales he tells through them, he’s close to body popping off the words that spill furiously from his mouth, still spitting unidentifiable ad-libs when away from the microphone. There’s no mistaking who’s the boss tonight. And they make us feel better about ourselves in more ways than one. Given their unashamed, shall we say more mature status we don’t feel nearly so old anymore. Finn: “If people say you’re old, say fuck you, I’m old school!”. But neither, apparently, do they. “I hope rock and roll has as positive an influence on your lives as it does on ours”. Tonight certainly it does. They’re a cliché, but then that’s kind of the whole point. Relevant sites:
www.theholdsteady.com
James Berry for Crud Magazine 2007© |
