LIVE ROCK REVIEW: For being my first time seeing a show at Warsaw in Brooklyn and The Hold Steady it was pretty damn good time considering the low opinion of the venue on City Search. Their obscure location(definitely drive if you can), makes it a weird commute in and stay away from the food, although I didn't try, the people were friendly enough, not sure if that had to do with live nation or not but the sound was pretty damn good and the price was reasonable; and I have to say the polish bottled beer was pretty good. From the moment THS were ready to rock, and it was obvious the kids were there to have a blast and get-down or kicked out, the energy was a like a mist. I dug the music of the first opening band, the singer needs some work but she'll get there. The Constantines [mp3s from torture the garden], were groovy, musical and echo and the bunnymen-esque and better than some of their recorded material i've heard. They had this Talking Heads thing mixed with a bit of gang of four and were not afraid to get a little slow and dirgy, wah-wah out some guitar solos and keep some Who inspired rock fills in-between.
Once they were done, I scooted my self close enough to smell the Jameson from the stage and look into the eyes of the local stage hands, who were eagerly sizing up the audience and getting ready to pick-off the kids and throw them out. I think the singer was pretty much oblivious to this, enjoying himself a whole bunch, and guzzling budwesiers down faster than his twin city brethren from the punk days long gone he references. The past was a glossy glean as he stared into the future kids. A preacher-man, arms extended giving the kids the lessons from his dense storylines, crumpled brow, he said, and said, riff after riff. They certainly started out pretty sober and actually held it together as good as any first-half of a Guided by Voices set. The rock was steady, there was a bunch audience soccer hand-clapping participation, but I think this is what the kids are doing these days since there is no smoking anymore(clapping that is) as the drinking age is still applied, so they gotta do something with their energy and get down to the classic rock. The bouncing around was a refreshing thing to see actually, so if you can catch them while they are out this time around, it will be important for you to grab your bar stools you call friends and drag them away from their misery. These gentlemen are in 'tip-tap' shape and I can't see them being able to keep the drinking pace-up for too many years without some serious AA but I have the sense that the words and stories will be there for a long time to come; long after they've hung up their livers and kidneys and need for some enablement and you're still mumbling here comes a regular and I should have when... I was impressed, from my 10,000 foot Bukowski view, is the realness of this band. There is nothing faux about the hold steady, this is a real rock band once you get past the fact there is not much singing and more of the middle part like any decent ac/dc or Zep song.
