The crowd at Royale was clearly waiting for the Hold Steady to make their appearance on stage, spending most of Wintersleep's opening set hanging near the bar (or simply not there yet). While I can understand the disinterest in a band pretty substantially different than the headliner, they did miss a few gems.
"Weighty Ghost" was a download-worthy tune (at least if you're a sucker for some na-na-na's in the chorus), and their final song "Miasmal Smoke and the Yellow-Bellied Freaks" was fantastic. It featured a long instrumental intro, showcasing their great drummer and some guitar skills that weren't really on display during the majority of their fairly formulaic set. If they can put together more songs like that, maybe they'll find themselves a more engaged audience next time.
Once the Hold Steady made their way to the stage, I was immediately struck by two things. First, it must be a Massachusetts state law that you aren't allowed to see them live without a Narragansett in hand--at least judging by the wide swaths of college-aged guys holding two of them. And second, for a guy who couldn't look more different than your prototypical rock band frontman, Craig Finn holds an audience in the palm of his hand every second he is on stage.
As engaging as Finn is, I still struggle to listen to his voice. At times his singing became closer to spoken word than his usual gruff singing--and when you can't hear any of the lyrics, spoken word loses some of its appeal. Not that the front half of the crowd seemed to mind--within the first measure of every song, they were singing along by heart. "Stevie Nix," "Chips Ahoy!," and "Southtown Girls" were particular hits with the singalong crowd.
The band did a good job with the setlist, bouncing between solid cuts from their older albums and playing some of the strong new material from their 2010 release, Heaven Is Whenever, though at a certain point I found the songs running together. Finn even admitted as much, saying "This song is about pretty much the same exact thing as the last one." Not stellar self-promotion, in my opinion.
If I found myself hanging out at a bar with some friends and the Hold Steady came in to play a set, I think we'd enjoy ourselves. But will I be buying a ticket to their next show? Most likely not. I'll let a die-hard fan get that last ticket: one who knows the words, idolizes Finn and can really enjoy their favorite band.
