The Hold Steady Throws a Killer Party at The Basement East

My big toe is throbbing, my hair smells like beer, and I found a piece of confetti stuck to my thigh this morning. Yup: Last night’s show, the first night of The Hold Steady’s three-night stand at The Basement East, was perfect. 

Things did get off to a slow start, though. Shortly after 9 p.m., when garage-y Georgia rock outfit The Rock*A*Teens was starting its opening set, the Beast was strangely uncrowded. Folks in the back of the room milled about, some pacing back and forth between the bar and the merch table. More than one person was watching a livestream of the Packers-Bears game on their phone. When even the dedicated smattering of onlookers toward the front of the stage mustered little more than reserved head bobbing and polite end-of-song clapping for the longtime Merge Records signees, concern started to settle in: Was this crowd worthy of The Hold Steady?

The Brooklyn-residing headliners are and always have been a party band. They’re delightfully consistent: Frontman Craig Finn, as much a showman as he is a singer, leads the crowd in passionate bursts of clapping and singing along, Franz Nicolay delivers sparkling piano and harmonica solos, and Tad Kubler peppers each party anthem with immaculate guitar licks. I’ve seen The Hold Steady half a dozen times and they have never — not once — delivered even a mediocre performance, much less a poor one. 

What makes or breaks a Hold Steady show — just as what makes or breaks a good party, I suppose — is the people. At its best, there’s dancing and the fanatic revelry that pulses through a Hold Steady fan’s veins once Finn starts to sing about townies and tragedy and liquor. And then there are times when the crowd isn’t on the band's level, and it’s just awful. When I saw The Hold Steady open for Drive-By Truckers in Seattle back in 2008, everyone around me was wearing a trucker hat, drinking PBR and practically begging Finn & Co. to get off the stage. I AM STILL MAD ABOUT IT.

But just as The Rock*A*Teens came into the homestretch, the crowd started to fill in and the excitement became palpable. Two guys, strangers, caught sight of one another’s matching Hold Steady tattoos — the infinity symbol from the cover of THS' Stay Positive — and they laughed and took photos with one another’s phones. One pulled his shirt up and over his back to reveal more ink: the silhouette of a water tower and an ode to the Hold Steady song “Constructive Summer.” 

I should’ve known: No one likes to be early for a party.

The band waved to the crowd and said very little when they first took the stage. Finn might’ve introduced the band, or maybe they just went straight into “Denver Haircut.” I can’t remember, because from that moment on, it was a blur.

Strangers were dancing with each other, grabbing one another’s hands or arms and singing the words to every song in one another’s faces. After the band warmed up a bit, they made their way from “Party Pit” through a couple of newer tunes into “You Can Make Him Like You” and then “Chips Ahoy!” The throng of fans in front of the stage pogoed in unison and threw their hands into the air like they were trying to catch the words as they fell out of Finn’s mouth. Finn fed off of their energy, leaning over the crowd, widening his eyes and yelling the lyrics over their heads, gesticulating like a Southern Baptist preacher trying to ensure his message made it to the back of the room loud and clear. 

The set list was a mix of old (perennial favorites like a late-set run of “Stuck Between Stations” into “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”) and new (songs from this year’s Thrashing Thru the Passion). One guy nearly succeeded in picking another guy up off the ground, attempting to play his body like a guitar. Someone passed around a gallon Ziploc bag full of tiny bits of colorful confetti and urged everyone to get a fistful and throw it in the air during the most climactic moments. When the confetti was gone, people began thrashing their drinks through the air to make it rain sudsy, stinky, sparkling droplets of beer.

After the triple-decker sandwich of “Yeah Sapphire” into “Massive Nights” into “Southtown Girls” closed the main set, The Hold Steady left the stage and gave everyone one minute to catch their breath, tie their hair back in a ponytail or grab a sip of water. Then they returned for a four-song encore: “Blackout Sam” into “Ask Her for Adderall” into “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night” into “Killer Parties.” There was more confetti. More beer. More dancing. And by the end, the packed house was exhausted but not empty. Everyone was smiling and saying goodbye to new friends, looking forward to doing it again for two more nights.

Tickets are (inexplicably!) still available for Friday’s and Saturday’s shows — Daddy Issues opens tonight, Big Ass Truck opens tomorrow. Go. Bring bags of confetti. Wear shoes that’ll shield your toes from bumbling, well-meaning pogoers. It’ll be a hell of a party.

See our slideshow for more photos.