amelia, listen.

the hold steady did indeed play olde club. i watched from the balcony, with rob and heidi and my sister and k-cham. it was fun. craig finn seems to have mellowed out a bit since i saw them two years ago when separation sunday came out - his dancing is less spastic, and he's got a beard now, so he comes off more like a dad and less of a total geek. but his band still rocks, no question.

look, here's a movie of them playing "you can make him like you":



(for those unfamiliar, the line immediately preceding the part in the video is "you don't have to deal with the dealers, let your boyfriend deal with the ..." this is possibly my favorite song from the new album. my least favorite song is "southtown girls," except for the part where he says "take nicolette out to the vietnamese," because it makes me think of going to get vietnamese food with my friend nicolette.)

as you can see, the crowd was pretty much going crazy. i think it was the wildest, rowdiest crowd i've ever seen at olde club - and the band commented at one point that they'd never seen such a crazy audience at a college show. (unfortunately?) i'm pretty sure that the primary bunch of rowdies, the group of 8 or so people convulsing in the front row, were not actually swatties. they certainly had a lot of energy, and a possibly unhealthy amount of holdsteady love. they were passing around a handle of bourbon. i'm not sure, but i think they might have brought the confetti that ended up scattered all over the place (just like on the album cover!) they were a lot of fun to watch, but it might have been somewhat dangerous to be downstairs in the crowd adjacent to then.

so it was a good decision to be in the balcony. except that one of my earplugs somehow fell out of my ear and over the railing - after diligent searching at the end of the set, we were able to recover the custom-fit rubber part (thanks to heidi), but we couldn't find the tiny filter among all the confetti. anyway, it was a fun show, even if they didn't play "certain songs."

so what's new with you, anyway? how long are you going to be out in california? should i come visit you there? (maybe i can get that friend of ours to come too.)

hey, did i ever tell you that the flour we use at my work (metropolitan bakery) comes from grand forks? (the kind i use for my danishes and croissants is "north dakota champion.") i thought that was kind of funny.

so i gather you're into the hold steady. do you feel like they sold out by moving to brooklyn even though they still front like they're repping the midwest in their lyrics? do you wish you had been more into indie rock when you were at swat and all those indie rock bands played at olde club? who else are you listening to these days?

Labels: confetti, earplugs, flour, i can be a complicated communicator, music, the midwest, xpost