Monday, November 3, 2008
The Spin The Spin: The Hold Steady & Drive-By Truckers at The Ryman
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Photo by Tanya Wright.
For more photos, check out the slideshow at nashvillescene.com.
Downtown. On Halloween. A Friday night. A perfect storm to hinder us from arriving to the Ryman in anything resembling a timely fashion. With smaller pay lots already filled and the availability of street parking laughable, we settled for the path of least resistance and parked in a lot for the Sommet Center, which on this unholy night was playing host to goth-industrial rabble-rousers Nine Inch Nails. At first we thought this might be a perfect place to get in the holiday spirit, but when we found ourselves in the middle of the goth gaggle, we realized that the crowd looks like this at any given NIN show—hot topified.
We next descended upon the cultural train wreck that is Lower Broad, where scores of people had coincidentally decided to dress up as douchebags for Halloween. All this meant we didn't make it inside the Ryman until 8:45, missing Bobby Bare Jr. The scene inside the building was only slightly better than that outside. We know the Ryman is legendary and has that special stained glass, pews and churchy flair but it can also be a pain the ass. There is only one bathroom in the lobby, the smoking area is the size of a horse coral, and the bar lines are egregiously long and slow. Next time we come here we're gonna be sure to insert catheters, stock up on nicotine patches, and pre-game it over at Rippy's.
Luckily we were able to make it inside for The Hold Steady, who were decked out in forefathers garb, with white wigs, triangular pirate hats, and pantaloons. Proclaiming this to be their first time in Nashville, they played their literate bar rock with a special determination to win over the crowd, half of which were Drive-By Truckers fans passively sitting down while the Hold Steady fans rocked the fuck out in scattered factions around the auditorium. It was an odd dynamic that made us only wish we could have a seen the band at a standing room venue with "people touching people they don't even know."
The end of The Hold Steady's set saw a mass female exodus. (There weren't many women to begin with.) What's the deal? The Drive-By Truckers must just have that thing that appeals to the 35-year-old lonely male types, because during their set we found ourselves standing in the middle of a crowd —over 90% dudes— who are all totally gay for this band. They sing along to every word and appear to be on the edge of tears and/or fainting like teenage girls at a Back Street Boys concert circa 1998 or Eastern Europeans at a Michael Jackson concert circa 1988. And over a band that sounds like The Wallflowers, but with credibility and a pedal steel player. They played a song that sounds like Garth Brooks' "Thunder Rolls." (You know, the foreboding, domestic violence-themed opener to No Fences.) And vocally, Patterson Hood is a dead ringer for John Mellencamp. Yawn.
Comments (22)
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Why didn't the spin review the NIN show? You always review the Drive By Truckers shows, I feel like I know them personally now.
You do know that the NIN 2008 tour is being hailed by live music critics as the tour of the year, right? Did you see that cover story in Wired magazine a while back regarding the technical specs of their show? Did you guys at least send a rep out to see what the big deal is? I read they play a lot of instrumental lo-key stuff along with the classics with AMAZING visuals and have interactive state of the art screens that the music and band controls.
I would have like to have seen a review of it, but then again maybe I get a little tired of the same old same old. At least I have that Spin review of the Girl Talk show coming up to look forward to.
Hopefully they'll have a review of that show in the print edition. Did anyone else read the interview that Dave Paulson did with Reznor? Pretty cool.
And I'd like to hear the low down on that "hallowedding" party.
This article has rock snob all over it. Actually, make that wannabe rock snob. You praise the Hold Steady's literary rock and then complain the audience was "totally gay" for DBT? Ouch, it's gonna take a while for your credibility to heal from that one. Aren't both these bands about appreciating the passion for rock music without pretension, let alone fake pretension. So any concert where people are singing along and hanging on every word is like a Backstreet Boys concert? I hope you're having fun acting cool. I was at the Atlanta show and thought Creative Loafing did a much better job of describing the scene: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/cribnotes/2008/11/03/live-review-the-hold-steady-the-drive-by-truckers-at-the-tabernacle-sat-nov-1/
It's when you pretend to be above something. But really, only in my mind does it mean that. Poor word choice. I was referring to how this guy wants to sound like a know it all but comes across as ignorant. Kind of like I just did by using that phrase.
Overall, I just couldn't take the review seriously b/c he seems overly concerned with coming across as too cool for the DBT crowd. The Hold Steady say over and over in interviews that they're making unpretentious rock music. This blogger or reviewer or whatever is being pretensions. Not fake pretentious, I was just trying to be mean I guess. That never works.
I don't know ben,
I've already forgotten how I stumbled across this nashvillescene and I've stayed around long enough to read a handful of reviews/rants (an entire article bitching about getting a CD-R stuck in your computer... seriously??), but apparently being mean works fine. Whether it's towards your local club, it's patrons, the local bands or the touring acts.
Mind you, I also understood what "fake pretension" would allude to without aide of any charts. And I thought you were exactly right.
I have yet to find one article that is pleased with anything except the undeniable deadliness of it's author.
My guess is that Spin was standing in lines to pee, get more booze or smoke for most of this show. The Truckers show I saw not only had rocking females in the crowd but one in the band, too. They were dressed in 'Classic Country' garb in a nod to the show's setting. They seemed to be having a great time and played for several hours. And if you didn't like Patterson's voice (I don't really get the "Mellencamp ringer" tag - but Hood might be pleased with that), there were three other singers to ejoy that night. In fact, how can you write a review of this show and not mention Cooley and his purple finery, and the appearance and rare-vocal performance of rock legend Spooner Oldham (look him up, Spin).
Yeah, I don't particularly like any of these bands, but this review is really petty. 2 paragraphs out of 4 are dedicated to complaining about parking and goth kids. And there's always the inevitable "douche" reference. That word really needs to die on here. Did Tracy write this, oh Creammaster?
thanks, high on life, for mentioning the douche issue. It makes me think the cream writers lack any kind of substantial vocabulary or a thesaurus. not that douche is a curse word or anything, but my grandma used to say that people who curse do so b/c of a small vocabulary...
in the end, it's sad that it took a review of THESE bands to show that the cream has it's head up its a$$. i knew long ago that the cream was an insular crew who tout the bands with whom they are friends. the cream's lack of credibility is old news...
Yeah, the Cream is good friends with The Hold Steady, and one of us was the best man at Deerhoof's wedding. You found us out.
HighonLife and no douche, you are two of the douchified douches who have ever douched in the annals of douchedom. Douché!
Jack, you're never one to miss a chance to stick up for your cream folks. But it's always in this whiny, sarcastic tone, and you never consider the bigger picture when you comment. aren't you too old to be giving a sh*T about this stuff anyway? don't you have a HIBTB CD to review or a scofield lick to rip off or something...
and i take it you're in complete agreement with this blog's less than judicious use of the word 'douche.' like i said, aren't you too old for this???
I say douche when I get dirt in my vJay. If I said douche any other time I would be vulgar...or would I...
Douche bag, or simply douche, is considered to be a pejorative term in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United States. The slang usage of the term dates back to the 1960s.The metaphor of identifying a person as a douche is intended to associate a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance and malice.
I'd argue that Lower Broad on a given night has a shit-ton more authenticity going for it than most of the shows performed (more than played) by the derivative alt.rock bands da cream loves to tout. So they don't wear girl jeans and fitted shirts, and like their belts both leather and brown. Why bag on 'em? They're at the very least not worrying about fitting in the broom closet that's the hipsterati scene.
That said, go Obama!
You are so weak. The whole point of these guys touring together is so that both fanbases could try out the other band, it's not a competition. So you don't like Nine Inch Nails, one of the best selling completely independent original bands ever, and you don't like the Drive By Truckers, another completely independently successful band, and you think all of the fans of both bands basically need to get a life.
Wow-- you must be a fun guy to be around. I have no doubt that whoever your favorite band is-- sucks.
Nine Inch Nails and Drive By Truckers aren't on tour together. Also, Nine Inch Nails wasn't independent when they had hits they were on Interscope Records, they used millions of cooperate dollars promoting that crap to high school goth kids for almost a decade.
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