Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Hold Stead Last Night

Un-fucking-believable.

I can't remember the last time a band made me rock out like this. Even though I don't like their new album as much as the other two, I was still dancing and singing and clapping and screaming all the way through. At the end, they pulled a bunch of audience members up on stage. Yep, that was me up there, smiling and singing.

Side note: There was a small, younger girl dancing like crazy next to me too. There was also a line of people standing at the stage, not moving, not dancing, just watching (which I personally hate). Well, the small girl bumped into a much bigger girl standing at the stage and the bigger girl shoved her away. I was kind of horrified, so I danced my way over near her. I figured that the bigger girl wouldn't shove her if I were there too. And I was right. The next time the small girl bumped into her, she turned around, saw us both, and didn't do anything. Later, at Dee's, the small girl told me that the bigger girl apologized and bought her a drink.

I was thanking the guys for playing such a great show (and telling them that I had been begging them via email to come to Pittsburgh for the last year or so) when Galen told me that they were all heading over to Dee's post-show. M&M took a cab home and let me go hang with the band!!!

When I got there, they hadn't yet. I ran into a handful of people I had seen at the show and talked to a guy who had been playing Craig Finn's guitar at the end. He then came up and talked to me while I was sitting at the bar. Nonetheless, he kind of kept me hostage for a while after the band (Tad, Galen, Franz) got there. We walked over to the other side to meet them. When he left/got bored with the situation, Tad asked me if that guy was my boyfriend or something. No, I explained, I had just met him at the bar.

So I talked with Tad a bit about how people's all-consuming involvement in politics is overshadowing their personal interaction. Talked with Franz for a while - a little about the moustache and sadly didn't get to hear the Cindy Lauper story. Then I talked with Galen and make a bet, which I lost, so I had to buy him a drink. Damn it - isn't the rock star supposed to be buying me a drink?? Anyway I think it surprised him when I actually did it. So then we talked about music, literature, hometowns, etc.

It was dreamy. But it was also one of those situations where the guys sort of know that I'm not trying to sleep with them and am just interested in talking, and that was very cool. I really liked hanging out with those guys and wish they lived here, they would make really great friends.

2 comments:

Kono said...

Hey sorry if i held you up from hanging with the band, i genuinely didn't mean to, the easist thing to do is to tell me to shut the fuck up, you'd be suprised at how well that works. They were cool guys but having been to enough shows i know that most bands prefer to hang out with females then males and when i left it was more the fact that certain chemicals were wearing off and other kicking in. Besides it doesn't look good when i drop my son off at daycare and reek of booze. So take it easy and read more Celine, Nelson Algren and if you haven't already read Fay by Larry Brown. later.

Kono said...

The one about your boss taking a manservant to S.F.? What's so strange about that. 300 is the number one movie in the country right now and from what i understand (i don't see many movies)the homo-erotic subtext is deafening. I didn't try to explain that to my friends who saw it and raved about it cuz i didn't feel like a fistfight that night.

Don't get me wrong either the guys from the Hold Steady were great and i had good time talking to you but sometimes i hit "the wall" and i've learned that instead of becoming a blithering idiot or slobbering moron i quietly go to were i can roll a smoke and pass out. which makes me feel good cuz at least i've managed to learn something in these 36 odd years.