The Hissing Choir, live at the Talking Head, 2003

Violent Noise Party #1 (flier by Eric T. Neal)

I remember this being a stressful, yet ultimately fun show.

I started booking shows at the Talking Head for a few different reasons. I wanted to be able to have a drink if I was going to be stressed during a show, and I'd gotten roofied at Gallery One at least twice during CCAS shows. I was also booking bands that would have been tons of fun at CCAS, but needed a little more room to move. When Blake asked if I'd do a show for Triac with a new Pageninetynine band, I jumped at the opportunity. It was New Year's Day 2004, it'd be an occasion to have some hair of the dog, it'd be loud as fuk. So I went about putting together a super-solid lineup to start the year off right.

Now, it all went pied shaped when, about 20 minutes before the show actually started, Rebecca from Flowers in the Attic came to me, a bunch of long-hairs in tow, and asked if her friends from Savannah could jump on the show. I said, "sure, do three songs after Shitdogs of War," figuring, "how bad could it be?" and away we went. Shitdogs ripped it, the changeover went quickly, and then...nothing. Bupkus. Zilch. I think 30 seconds into their first song, someone's guitar or amp shit the bed, and everyone stood around for almost 20 minutes trying to get the issue fixed. Once it finally got settled, I'd had two more whiskeys, and Baroness played two songs, both of which destroyed everyone.

The bands afterward weren't anti-climatic, but it set a really high bar for the rest of the night. The Hissing Choir were J.R. was Pig Destroyer, as well as Jake from Triac on drums and Mike from Pageninetynine on guitar. They were doing their best Swans impersonation, which fit wonderfully in with the rest of the night and had me thinking, wow, this is a really great show.

I had no clue anyone was recording any of it, but Andy Low of Robotic Empire apparently did, and a few years later posted it up on the R.E. page with some background. It sounds exactly like you'd expect a bootleg recorded to minidisc would sound; just ugly and cheap and dirty. It's a great encapsulation of what that night was. If memory serves, the Hissing Choir only played another few shows, none of which happened in Baltimore.

Click here to download.

The Hold Steady - demo

(Editor's note, 9/11/08: I changed the title of this post. Why? Do you have any idea how many goddamn people beat me to the punch when it can to referencing "Certain Songs"? How dumb do I look? Pretty goddamn dumb. Oh, well...on with the show.)

I can't talk about the Hold Steady without talking about Craig & Tad's former band, Lifter Puller. I'll go more in depth on Lifter Puller at some yet-to-be-determined date, but, simply put, I was and still am totally gay for Lifter Puller. While I thrilled to get to see their penultimate show at Brownie's in NYC, it broke my heart to know that I'd never get to see them again. I listen to Lifter Puller now, 5 years after they broke up, and it still sounds fresher than most everything out there now. What a gang of total, complete fucking bad asses.

A few months after L.P. broke up, Dave Voyles told me he'd gotten ahold of the demo for the new project. Said he'd burn me a copy. So what you have here is what he handed me at the Ottobar sometime in the fall of 2002: the Hold Steady demo. I haven't really seen this online to date, but I really haven't been looking. The thing I like most about this recording is that it's recorded as a 4-piece. Franz Nicolay doesn't play keys here, so the E-Street Band influence isn't quite as pronounced. I kinda dig it more that way. Also of note is the appearance of Choking Songs (for Smoking), also known as Milkcrate Mosh. To the best of my knowledge this only appeared on a 7" released by Empirical Recordings, but, again, I could be wrong. What the hell do I know?

Oh, yeah, below's a picture of the Hold Steady at their second show ever, playing to about 100 people at the old Talking Head in Baltimore. I was there, up front and singing along, acting like some hipster scumbag. The Hold Steady smoked my ass. The Oranges Band played that night, too. They also smoked that ass. I figure this show is top-five all time, easily. Do you remember that Simpsons quote, "They'll never know the joys of a monkey knife fight."? Yeah, you'll never know the joys of Craig Finn sweating whiskey onto your cheapo digital camera. And if you do, well, god bless ya.



Yes, what I'm implying basically is that I'm better than you, in this one, insignificant thing.

The Hold Steady - 6 song demo

RIYL: Lifter Puller, Bruce Springsteen, Ellen Foley, Dillinger 4