Traumatic Tales of Insobriety
Just got back from Brooklyn. Saw the Hold Steady at Warsaw with my friends Paula and Chris. The show was great. If I understood Craig Finn correctly, they are going into the studio in a couple weeks to record their next album. He introduced one new song by explaining that it was about John Berryman, the poet who committed suicide by jumping from a bridge into the Mississippi River (a body of water that plays an important role in Craig Finn's lyrics). Craig talked about Berryman's poetry, and how he struggled to maintain sobriety. There's another new Hold Steady song called "Curves and Nerves" on their Myspace page. Thanks to Gregor at Captain's Dead for posting the link!I felt affirmed on many levels by the Hold Steady show. As a band, they show by example that it's OK to be literate, and it's OK to be from the midwest. It's OK to rock out when you're forty years old, bespectacled and slightly paunchy. And it's OK to still have a taste for arena rock. You can represent all of those unhip things and still rock a club full of hipsters in Brooklyn. I guess I needed to know that.
What else did I do in New York? I sang karaoke at the Hope & Anchor in Red Hook (where my 10 year old son saw a transvestite for the first time! Holla, Ms. Dropsy!) I saw the Upright Citizens Brigade perform at their theater. Ate pizza at Grimaldi's and Totonno's. Drank at the Park Slope Brewery. Visited Coney Island on the opening day of the Cyclone, and saw the Hungry Marching Band and the Brooklyn Polar Bear Club emerging from the sea to the boardwalk. Took my son to Central Park, Nintendo World, the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Chris and Val, you are the perfect hosts.
1 Comments:
Dropsy says holla right back at you. Well, thats what she would say if she wasnt twirling the baton for the Hungry Marching Band.
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