The Hold Steady, Jack Bauer and my mile walk down Santa Monica Blvd. - A concert review.


Back in the third week of July I found out through my various interweb resources that the Black Keys and The Hold Steady were coming to town. The Black Keys released Magic Potion and came to Avalon and that was that, good stuff but not all that I hoped for.

Roughly a month later, The Hold Steady's new CD, Boys and Girls in America was released. It was the first day of the baseball playoffs and I wasn't working until later that afternoon. Luckily for me the playoffs started at the crack of 10 am. I was going to make a day of it or at least a late morning and early afternoon of it. Left the apartment at 9:30 to hit up the Empire Center for the CD and some Krispy Kremes. After a big runaround at Target and Best Buy (both of which mind you are based in the Twin Cities - the hometown of Craig and the gang) in which they didn't have it. So I scrambled, and as a shot in the dark, tried Warehouse music on Olive in Burbank. They had one copy and it went for about five bucks more than it would have anywhere else. Should I tell Warehouse to go screw and take my discriminating taste and funds to Amoeba which would mean I would miss more of the Twins - A's game? Or should I just bite the bullet and get out of dodge quickly while the Krispy Kremes are still warm and head back to Runnymede? I chose the latter. I was pretty sure I was gonna enjoy the hell out of the CD anyway so what's five bucks anyway.


As they say out here "cut to.." October 16th. The Hold Steady are finally in town at the Troubadour. I had been playing 'Boys and Girls in America' in my car, on my iPod almost exclusively since it was released. I was hanging around watching the game and I fell asleep watching the first half of the Cards - Bears game. Woke up, kinda had that quick panic, like "What time is it?!?" and thought I was gonna be late to show. I knew I wasn't gonna miss any of The Hold Steady but in the back of my mind I always think "What if they actually start on time? It could happen ya know" I took Laurel Canyon over the hill to Santa Monica and parked on the street east of La Cienega. Now, I had only seen where the Troubadour was once before. I guess I got confused and thought it was a lot closer to where I parked. And from my experience in West Hollywood which stems mainly from the time I spend out here during my internship, I had the mindset of 'If you are lucky to get a spot on the street, you keep that spot, now matter the walk, god has shined down on you' This is because when I was in West Hollywood it was on Sunset and on a weekend night, of course there aren't any spots on the street on Sunset Strip on Friday and Saturday night. A random Monday in October on Santa Monica is a different story. I realized this as I passed easily a dozen closer spots as I walked down Santa Monica passing all the various alternative lifestyle establishments. I guess if you are gonna pick a spot to walk by yourself at night, you could get a ton more grimey than Santa Monica in West Hollywood.

After a roughly 20 minute walk I reach the Troubadour. Of course the Hold Steady wasn't on yet, neither was the second band of the night. But I'm glad I'm there ahead of time, not rushing or worrying about missing the opening song. I nurse a Sam Adams in the front bar and make it in for the second half of the second band on the bill Sean Na Na.

I could give a fuck about Sean Na Na, I don't know a damn thing about them but they sound reasonably good so I'm nodding my head to the first song that I saw them play. Not really blowing me away but they guy in front of me seems to be really fucking enjoying it. He kinda turns to talk to his friend and I get a fairly good look at him. I think it was who I thought it was but I'm not sure. It couldn't be could it? Nah, no way. So Sean Na Na keeps rocking out and I get another, longer look at the familiar face in front of me.

Well friends, it was none other than JACK MOTHER FUCKING BAUER. Yes, Kiefer Sutherland was in front of me at the concert.



If it was just another random guy on TV, it'd be a nice little anecdote but this isn't any normal TV guy. It is Jack Bauer for pete's sake. I mean, how can you pretend like that's not a big deal?

So he's just loving Sean Na Na. Playing air guitar, getting real live at the show. Oh yeah, and he is completely and absolutely wasted. Remember when you got really drunk that one time and you loved everyone and were hanging on them for support, hugging them and shit? That's the level Jack Bauer was at. Just smashed. He had a cigarette behind his ear that was all bent up, taking the curve of his head, not exactly straight and narrow like it was fresh out of the pack.

He is clearly into this band. And honestly, if Jack Bauer is co-signing this band, I am not going to be the guy standing behind him that catches a hot one for not rocking out enough. Keep in mind, I've seen every episode of 24, I know what this man is capable of.



Oh yeah, and Jack Bauer is blind drunk. You wanna cross a dialed up Jack Bauer? Be my guest pal, leave me something in the will playboy. You think I'm gonna be the a-hole who goes the way of so many other lames on 24 because I'm trying to be too cool and just nod my head? Fuck that, Sean Na Na is my new favorite band and I'm gonna act accordingly.

Eventually Agent Bauer made his way behind me with the people he was hanging on earlier. I'll be damned if I'm gonna turn around and shift my focus from the best god damn band in the world. At some point I assume he went outside to try and smoke that cigarette. I couldn't risk not cheering for the rest of the set from Sean Na Na so I kept it up. For all I know Chloe had a wig on and was tending bar up in that bitch with the Bluetooth feeding Jack updates.

I get another Sam Adams and make my way back to where I was standing earlier. Jack Bauer is not in sight. I am somewhat relieved.

Soon Craig and the rest of the guys from The Hold Steady made it to the stage. Before they even played a note I was amped up. Seeing these guys in such a small venue with a bunch of fans was gonna be awesome. They started with 'Stuck between Stations' off their new CD. It was on. This just set the concert off with a bang.

They definitely lived up to their reputation of partying hard while playing. Craig Finn, lead singer and 'bullshitter' opened and drank at least six Budweisers on stage. Tad, guitarist passed around the Jim F'n Beam around a lot, everyone took generous slugs a couple of different times.

I really love The Hold Steady's music but I'd be a liar if I thought their image of hard drinking, semi-nerdy, pop culture soaked, Twins fans didn't add to my enjoyment.

Back to the show, I think the easiest thing to say about seeing the Hold Steady live is how enthusiastic they are. They truly are having a great time. They don't care about anything else for the time they are on stage. They are dedicated to having fun and rocking out.

Some particular details about the stage presence of The Hold Steady:
- Finn has the guitar slung over his shoulder but really only plays it I'd say 25% of the show. Most of the heavy lifting guitar wise is done by Tad.
- Tad kinda looks like a bigger, slightly meaner and generally more like a rock star version of JD Drake. True story.
- Tad also played the double bowed guitar for a couple songs, like one Jimmy Page had in "The Song remains the same"
- When he was playing his normal electric guitar, he did this move where he threw it across his body and since it was strapped across his chest, it spun around his whole body and landed in his hands again. Pretty epic.
- Their bass player looks a lot like Eric Thomas.
- Toward the end of the show, Finn just started throwing beer into the crowd and on to Tad. Refreshing to see some actual rock star type behavior on stage. Every show I've seen so far out here, everyone is drinking bottled water exclusively on stage. Not the Hold Steady. They actually drink and have a good time. Like I said before, their enthusiasm is contagious, kinda like what Gideon saw in Denver.
- Finn has the most active hands as a lead singer I've ever seen. He does all these gestures and has all sorts of spastic motions with his hands.
- He also does thing where he sings (yells) the lyrics in to the microphone, then pulls away and repeats the lyrics to himself. You can read his lips but you can't actually hear him. It's pretty great to see live in person.

They did this throughout their roughly 15 song set which featured songs from each CD but had more from Boys and Girls in America than any other.

They came back on stage for encore with "Positive Jam," the leadoff song from their first CD. They killed it as expected. I'm pretty sure they didn't do another song before closing it with "Killer Parties." As the song ended, the guys in the band started pulling people standing up front up on to the stage. Then people who just got pulled up on stage started pulling more people up on stage. Pretty cool, you could definitely tell everyone was stoked to be up on stage. I've seen bands do this before but I've never seen them put the guitars on the shoulders of the fans like did tonight. It was such madness up on stage I couldn't tell if the guitars were still plugged in or not. But the rhythm section carried on regardless. This odd cross section of fans filled the stage and everyone was hugging and carrying on, etc. The set ended and eventually the fans came down off stage.

With my face Completely rocked off, I closed my tab and made my walk back down Santa Monica to head back over the hill. I knew as soon as the show started this was gonna be a great show and they definitely came through. Some of the other shows I had been to I enjoyed but ultimately left disappointed. Not this time. The Hold Steady came through and wrecked it.

The whereabouts of Agent Bauer is unknown at this time.