I guess The Hold Steady kicking off their September 19th show at the Vogue with Positive Jam is fairly obvious, seeing as the lyrics are We gotta start it off with a positive jam, HOLD STEADY!, but it was what everyone was praying for. Craig Finn and his audiences are a perfect match. There was head smacking, hand waving and various slapstick behaviour, then there was Craig Finn.

This show didn’t start out great for me personally. On the way to the show, me and my friends went for a little record shopping, and I picked up LCD Soundsystem’s self titled debut for $4, a great deal. But right before the concert started, I realized that the double disc album was missing the first disc. Whatever, minor setback. When we got to the show, there wasn’t any merch from The Hold Steady, just a small table from the opening band Still Life Still. And that’s where my night hit its low point, having to listen to Still Life Still play the same song over and over again. No dynamics in their songs, relatively boring lyrics and the same beat over and over again, it almost killed me. They had people wandering on stage, having some kind of gala or walkabout which only confused me further. Then The Hold Steady appeared and my life was saved.

I had seen the band only once previously, and that had been at Coachella 2009, in California. Since it was a festival, they only got about 40 minutes for their set, which left me wanting more. And the energy from the crowd at this show hailed in comparison to the energy shown by the crowd in Vancouver. Even though it was suppose to be a seated event, there was a huge crowd that ran to the front, which meant that everyone in the nosebleeds could hang out in the aisles. (I really don’t think security could have done anything about it, and they didn’t really seem on top of anything). Once Craig Finn got on stage, he thanked British Columbia for Justin Morneau, who plays MLB for Finn’s hometown team, Minnesota Twins, then threw a set list full of showstoppers at us. The band even premiered a brand new song Hurricane J for the eager Vancouver crowd, which made the evening that much more authentic.

The climax of the performance was when Craig Finn posed a question to the crowd. “Do you want me to tell it like boy meets girl and the rest is history? Or do you want it like a murder mystery?” and almost everyone recognized it from Charlemagne In Sweatpants. He finished with, “I think I’m gonna tell it like a comeback story.” And then kick backed into the song. The set clocked in at about 1hr and 45 minutes, and the Springsteen-like energy went on all night. I had high expectations for these guys and they were surpassed.

Set List

Positive Jam
Magazines
Constructive Summer
Navy Sheets
Banging Camp
Sequestered in Memphis
Massive Nights
Party Pit
Goin’ on a Hike
Heaven is Whenever
Yeah Sapphire
Chips Ahoy
Charlemagne in Sweatpants
Separate Vacations
You Can Make Him Like You
Hurricane J (I think. First time ever.)
South Town Girls
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
Stay Positive
Slapped Actress

Encore

Citrus
212 Margarita
Stuck Between Stations
Girls Like Status
Killer Parties