The Hold Steady and The Thermals - Music Mill, Indianapolis, IN - March 16th 2007

When I saw that The Thermals and The Hold Steady were playing 7 shows together, I was very excited. The Thermals’ The Blood, The Body, The Machine was my favorite album of 2006 and The Hold Steady’s Boys And Girls In America made number 11 on the list. The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday was also one of my favorite albums of 2005. This seemed like a great opportunity to see 2 of my favorite bands in one night.

Friday night of the tour was scheduled for The Music Mill in Indianapolis, IN. Saturday night was scheduled for The Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH. Both venues are about a 2-hour drive from Cincinnati. Since I’ve seen a number of shows at Newport Music Hall (from The Shins to Buddy Guy) and my girlfriend spends a fair amount of time in Columbus for work, we decided to make the trip to Indianapolis.

The drive gave us enough time to listen to The Blood, The Body, The Machine and Boys And Girls In America in their entirety. Mapquest gave us the directions. As we approached the venue, we couldn’t help noticing the fact that the area was full of new strip malls. Then we saw The Music Mill. It was in one of these strip malls, a few doors down from a Barnes & Noble and an Office Depot.

In Cincinnati, the main music venues are not in the suburban areas. There seem to be some opinions that the people in suburbia don’t come to the downtown venues for original music. This venue in Indianapolis is taking the music to the suburbs.

The Music Mill had a sit down restaurant on one side of the building, the ticket office in the center of it, and the venue on the other side. Here we were seeing a Sub Pop punk band and one of the best bar/drinking bands in a strip mall. The building used to be a Discovery Zone before it converted to the restaurant/venue. It was a little surreal. Of course, the music started exactly at 9PM, as advertised. I can’t remember the last time I went to a music concert that started on time.

The Thermals took the stage as Joel Burrows hobbled on crutches. His left knee appeared swollen and had an ice pack on it. There was a chair setup in front of his amp. He moved it aside, picked up his guitar, and played the whole show standing. The band started their set with the first three songs from The Body, The Blood, The Machine before moving on to the three chord punk songs from their first two albums. During their 45-minute set, half the songs were from the 2006 release. Highlights included “Power Doesn’t Run On Nothing” and “No Culture Icons.”

The band steadily progressed from one song to the next with fervor. Lorin Coleman’s timing was impermeable on the drums. The front man, Hutch Harris, took three or four breaks between songs to take a quick sip of water. Other than that, the band raced through each song. Burrows appeared to be in pain at certain points, but he played a great show and moved as much as his left knee would allow. Overall, the band played a damn good set that left me hoping they’ll come back to the Midwest soon as a headliner.

This was the second time I’ve seen The Hold Steady. During the first show the band collectively drank enough to draw alcohol consumption comparisons to Guided By Voices. They seemed a little tamer this time. Guitarist Tab Kubler still swilled from a bottle of Jim Beam throughout the show. Keyboardist Franz Nicolay drank straight from a bottle of red wine all night. Singer Craig Finn guzzled Budweisers from his personal on stage cooler. But the band did not reach Guided By Voices levels at this Indianapolis show. Perhaps it was because “This is the cleanest stage we have ever performed on,” as Kubler noted.

Collectively and individually, the band created a strong appeal on stage. As a unit, the band was high energy and explosive. They performed bar anthems and repeatedly got the audience involved. Separately, each member of the band had his own personality and stage presence. Nicolay seemed to channel a level of sophistication by being dressed in a tie and vest, drinking straight from a bottle of red wine, and acting out lyrics with his hands when he’s not playing the keyboards. Galen Polivka, played his bass with strength and power. Kubler appeared to be a long lost child of Steven Stills, but played guitar with much more showmanship that Stills. Bobby Drake was solid on the drums, hidden in the back, but sometimes privately sang along with the lyrics. Craig Finn spouted an ambush of lyrics, wit, and references – like a cross between Woody Allen, Jim Morrison, and Robin Williams, but with musical style.

During their 1½-hour set, they performed most of the songs from Boys And Girls In America and Separation Sunday. The 300 people in attendance sang along with many of the tracks, especially “Massive Nights,” “Southtown Girls,” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend.” Finn took breaks between songs to tell stories about a few of the songs. He explained a late night of drinking that led to the title of “You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came To The Dance With).” He announced one song by saying, to the Indianapolis crowds’ approval, “This next song is for Tony Dungy. It’s call ‘The Swish.’”

For their first show in Indianapolis, The Hold Steady proved they put on an incredible live show. Boys And Girls In America is full of rock anthems that sounded even better in a live environment than they did on record. Even if the band was playing in a strip mall.

www.theholdsteady.com
www.myspace.com/theholdsteady
www.thethermals.com
www.myspace.com/thethermals

Back to The Wheel's Still In Spin Mainpage.

Submit this story to:

Del.icio.us | Digg | Blinklist | Furl | Reddit | Newsvine

Comments

[Terry]

Great site. Music Mill in Indy sounds awesome; I've had similar ideas in the past esp for an all ages venue since it can be hard for the kiddies to get downtown. Just never had the bucks or business acumen to get it going. Oh well. Rock on, true believer.