Photos by Philip Cosores
One of the first things that you’re likely to hear about Craig Finn’s main band, The Hold Steady, is that they’re often touted as “the World’s Best Bar Band.” West Hollywood’s Troubadour is more or less a bar that happens to have a stage so it would have been the perfect setting for that band, but even before they took to the stage you knew damn well the Craig Finn & Some Guns (as they’ve decided to call themselves) were going to have a damn good shot at topping that, and even if they ended in second, well, hell, at least they damn well gave it their all.
Opening for this whole tour is Mount Moriah, a female-led foursome from North Carolina. At this point in time it’s rare to find a band that comprises two guitars, a bass and drums that does something entirely original, and while Mount Moriah didn’t exactly do that, they managed to remain interesting by switching up their style and injecting a lot of passion into their music, due greatly to their singer Heather McEntire. At times the band went straight for the jugular with Death Cab-worthy pop rockers, while sometimes they opted to take a more scenic route, producing slightly country-tinged numbers – and in either instance they were calm and captivating. The band members struck quite different appearances on stage, with McEntire and drummer James Wallace seeming relaxed in their performances (Wallace was comfortable enough to tell jokes between songs – one about moles had the punch line “all I smell is molasses” so I’ll let you judge the quality), while bassist Casey Toll and guitarist Jenks Miller seemed a little more rigid and concentrated. No matter of how their bodily appearances may have seemed, by looking at each one’s face you could tell that they were confident in their performance, and if that confidence carries through this tour and onto their next record then we’ll probably be hearing more about Mount Moriah very soon.
From where I was watching, it appeared that the ratio of beer to water onstage for Craig Finn’s set was about 4:1, which only seemed to support the idea that these guys were here to have a darn good time. Rather than start off with a fast, rocking number, Finn led his band through a subtle start with a performance of Clear Heart Full Eyes opener “Apollo Bay.” This may not have been the immediate knock-out blow that we were expecting, but by tenderizing the atmosphere through use of pedal steel (expertly played by Ricky Ray Jackson) and some of Finn’s most strung-out lyrics, the audience was immediately captivated. Finn’s album only comprises 11 songs but he and his band are clearly used to playing decent-length shows, so they threw in a bunch of non-album tracks, starting with the second song of the night “Keep On Running,” which was the energetic burst that brought the show into full life, with Finn usual charisma out in full force, dragging his mic stand left to right and gesticulating like a mad man.
Each of Finn’s songs is already a story in itself, but between songs Finn gave us the stories behind the stories, each one as interesting as the next. Whether it was about seeing a date kissing another man (“Balcony”), the horror of living with other grown men (“Rented Room”) or about how phony people can be on social media (“When No One’s Watching”), Finn engaged the crowd and partook in a dialogue with them, never for one second leaving their mind to switch off. And, if they somehow did, there was always a song like the crunchy “No Future” or the swaggering “Honolulu Blues” to jerk them back to attention. The best showcase for Finn’s lyrics was the middle portion of the set where he played solo (aside from some additional pedal steel on the gorgeous “Jeremiah’s Blues). These acoustic songs don’t feature on Clear Heart Full Eyes, but performed in this manner unfamiliarity with them was not an issue due to Finn’s ability to paint a picture as he plays.
Following “Not Much Left Of Us,” Finn and his band were due to leave the stage for the traditional call-back for the encore, but Finn decided against going off, declaring that he thought it was a bit of a sham to do that – a frankness that felt completely natural given how honest he’d been all night through his songs. The band finished with a cover of Bobby Charles’ “Save Me Jesus,” which saw Finn setting aside his guitar for the first time in order to just sing, which allowed him even more freedom to move around and get in the audience’s faces. Watching Craig Finn perform the cover just as excitedly as any of his own songs – if not more so – it became crystal clear that no matter what, where, or with whom, the man is born to perform, and will continue to do so until he physically can no longer.
