[ATTENDED: January 31, 2017] Craig Finn
The universe has insisted that I see Craig Finn perform. Last year he opened for My Morning Jacket, but my friend Jay and I arrived late and missed his whole set. Well, here was a second chance.
Back then I had assumed that Craig Finn was one of the Finns from Crowded House. It wasn’t until that MMJ concert that I discovered he was the guy from The Hold Steady, a band I’d never listened to. I didn’t know much about him beyond that except that his delivery was kind of spoken/sung and there were comparisons to Bruce Springsteen.
I had gotten up pretty close to the stage, and I was surrounded by diehard Finn fans, so I felt like a bit of an imposter. But he didn’t seem to mind and he played a really enjoyable set.
Given how raucous the Japandroids were he seemed like a bit of an odd match, but he certainly has a punk vibe, even if his songs are not very loud.
The band was Finn on guitar and vocals. To his right was a bassist who sang occasional backing vocals. To Finn’s left was a guitarist playing an old school guitar with a really old school cable attached. And then the drummer behind. They played nine songs, with Finn being very amiable and chatty between tracks. He introduced most of his songs with stories–and I enjoyed those quite a bit.
The music was overall really good. Although I can’t really remember anything specific from them, but I enjoyed the whole set. Finn is most known for his lyrics and, as such, the music is a little quieter so you can hear everything he says. I was really pleased with the sound at the show.
His lyrics were interesting–stories of various people down on their luck, like in “Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son.” There was often alcohol involved. Despite the downtrodden and sad points of view, there were often splashes of humor.
He had a nice mix of old and new songs (he told us his new album was coming out on the last day of the tour). And after a couple of older songs, he told us that he would play a new song that they hadn’t played yet on this tour “Jester and June.” They followed that with three more new songs. He told us that “Preludes” was a about when he was younger and there were these gangsters living on his street and they all drove Honda Preludes. Book ending those songs were two from his first album and three from his second album (and the crowd sang along to those very nicely).
Finn himself was animated an interesting–posing and really talking to the audience. I also enjoyed that he seemed to do his own echoed voices at the end of each line–he would mouth the words practically inaudibly (inaudibly).
People spoke of Finn as a legend, and I expect he is (although I’d never heard of his first band Lifter Puller), but I was surprised to find out he’s actually a couple years younger than me (he looked like an elder statesman up there for sure).
So I’m glad the universe caught me up to Finn and I’m sure it was more fun seeing him up close rather than much further away at the MMJ concert.
When the show was over the guys all around me were comparing stories (and photos) of all of th etimes they’d seen him.
SETLIST
-
Apollo Bay
-
Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son
- Jester and June
-
Preludes
-
Be Honest
-
Tracking Shots
-
Newmyer’s Roof
-
Terrified Eyes
-
Trapper Avenue
Leave a Reply