For as long as I can remember I have been waiting for something that I actually want to see to play at the casino in Hayward. My family owns a cabin in Trego, about 30 miles away, and every summer I watch the billboards along highway 53 hoping for something other than a washed-up rock band or cheesy country group. It hasn’t happened yet. Normally at least one day of the Fourth of July weekend is spent at Fitzgerald’s annual American Music Fest, the day that Jon Dee Graham is playing of course. As much as I love the festival, and as much as I adore Jon Dee, when I found out that the Hold Steady and the Whigs were playing the LCO on July 2 I knew I was going to miss him this summer.
I’m still not sure exactly how it happened, but the music director for WOJB, a local community supported radio station, was obviously behind it, as it introduced the bands it was obvious how excited he was about tonight’s show. As well he should be, the Hold Steady had me from the first time I saw them at the first Pitchfork music festival. I was walking over to the stage where the Wrens would be playing and stopped to watch the non-rock star guy in the button-up shirt walk around the stage, guitar hanging from his shoulder, unplayed, gesturing frantically as he talk-sang songs about saints and high school. It made quite an impression and I was hooked.
Their new record and fifth release Heaven Is Whenever was a bit of a surprise. Lead singer Craig Finn was actually singing this time around and flamboyant keyboard player Franz Nicolai had left the band. Once I got used to it, I found I really, really liked it. I wasn’t sure what his new voice was going to mean for the old songs live, that ones that had been so obviously spoken instead of sung. Turns out he sings those now too. The gesturing is still there, and he still repeats the last half of phrases off mike, but there’s actual singing on older songs like “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” and “Everyone’s a Critic and Most of Them Are DJs.” Even more amazing was that these songs from the first couple records were in the set list at all, and it made for a very entertaining evening. I had no hope if hearing “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” which wasn’t a regular part of the set list even when it was new, but they played it tonight. Finn’s frantic repeating of the line “cigarettes where they’re supposed to have eyes” as he pointed to his eyes and pretended to puff a cigarette was among my favorite moments of the show.
Only to be topped by the absurdity of his enthusiastic “Thank you Hayward!” to end the evening, which may honestly be the strangest thing I have ever heard. Never in my life did I expect to hear those words out of Finn. There was still a pocket of obnoxious fans, and we found ourselves moving further and further back from the stage, but it was nothing compared to the crush at frat boys at the last several Hold Steady shows. There was also a surprising amount of folks older than me, almost as if they just came because something was going on and they were curious about it. That was pretty cool, I wonder what they thought.
At the very least they had to have been impressed with the three piece from Athens Georgia who occupied the middle slot. The Whigs have a remarkable energy, blazing through songs at lightning speed. Lead singer Parker Gisbert is hypnotic to watch, his guitar strapped high up under his arm as he hops around the stage on one leg, the other stuck straight out in front of him in some sort of bizarre duck walk. The bass player and drummer have just as much energy; the latter’s explosive style making his hairs a blur and his long hair into a fuzzy halo around his head. Opening band Jaill (they added the second “l” after finding out there was already another band named Jail) had a number of things going for them, like the cutest drummer ever and Ryan Adams formerly of the Midwest Beat on guitar, but ultimately I found their songs to be a little samey. The recent Sub Pop signees (congratulations!) played a little too long, but it probably only seemed that way since they were separating me from two bands I really wanted to see.
Jaill
The Whigs
The Hold Steady
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