On the way to work today I heard a great segment on NPR about the band “The Hold Steady” (link takes you to interview, but there’s other cool content on them on the NPR site if you do a search).

The Hold Steady
Tuesday, March 16th, 8pm - with EZ-T and Left is West. THS are members of the great Lifter Puller and EZ-T has a member of Bonnie Prince Billy
- $5 day of show.

But if you’re reading this, you’re not here. But you should be. I got the impression that Left is West plays around here entirely too much from an offhand bartender comment, and they ain’t doin’ nothin’ the Spent Poets hadn’t already done a decade and a half ago. Didn’t come to see them though.

I’m all over EZ-T. I plan to write a disc review soonish of “Goodbye Little Doll.” Needless to say, this has been burning itself into the flash memory of my iPod. Just hit Amazon and noticed that Bonnie “Prince” Billy gets compared to 16 Horsepower (which right after Nick Cave and the Tindersticks is my favorite band).

Something so wrong about stealing wireless, charging drinks, and posting live while you watch a show. By the way, the Mews is a smokefree bar.

The Vaudeville Mews

All bars in DM are now smoke free. I got tired of waiting for a follow up to EZ-T disc, and I still think the The Hold Steady rules. Great semi-spoken word stuff. Just the other day I pointed out to my girlfriend I wish I could do stuff like this. You know, if I had a band. I’m unsure if the The Hold Steady guy can actually sing, but I don’t care. NPR compares them to Bruce Springsteen, I think a better comparison is Jim Carroll.

I asked if their singer if he’d ever been compared to Carroll. He said “No, never,” but in that tone of voice that said he was sick of that question. They opened for EZ-T. At the end of the show there was me and some underage kid. A freaking private concert. I doubt if The Hold Steady will be playing any tiny bars with no audience again any time soon.

Oh, and I don’t remember if I ever wrote a review of “Goodbye Little Doll.”