Jersey Mike

Lefsetz mentioned our favorite band in last night’s and then again in today’s Lefsetz Letter.

I’ll paraphrase, but it started with one of his “This Week’s Sale’s” reports where he chooses a few artists from (presumably) the Billboard 200 and offers his quips about each.

Here’s what he said about THS:

71. Hold Steady “Heaven Is Whenever”

Sales this week: 6,595
Percentage change: -71
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 29, 734

A press story.

And if you believed the press, they’d be multiplatinum and touring arenas.

Alas, you don’t.  So another mediocre band that looks like those who write about it slug it out before giving up and getting day jobs.

And then the feedback:

2. Brian Koppelman wrote in to tell me that the Hold Steady are the best band in America right now.  He told me to listen to “Sweet Part Of The City”, that it explodes on the third listen.

I got it on the first listen.

But I also had to say the guy’s vocal worked against the track.  Oh come on, I’m not saying his words are bad, but…I am saying they’re bad.  The final line of this track is “”We were bored so we started a band”.  Now if that isn’t far too inside, if that’s not cliched, what is?  Then again, it’s the fifth full set, so I guess they can be self-referential, but…WHO HEARD THE PREVIOUS RECORDS?

And the reviews of this album are uniformly…disappointing.  I know, I checked.

“We’d like to play for you, we’d like to play for you…”  Even the Boss doesn’t issue lyrics that hackneyed.  And give the Boss credit, he’s got a sense of humor.  Come on, how many points do you give Bruce for insisting “Don’t Stop Believin’” close Sting’s Rainforest show?  Bruce is one of us.  Craig Finn of the Hold Steady is not.

And if you want to hear this same thing done better, check out the Iron City Houserockers’ “Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive)”  The title track of that album is better than anything on the Hold Steady record, and it wasn’t a hit either.

It’s not that the Hold Steady are bad, they’re not.  I can enjoy them.  Well, not all the tracks, but…  The point is, in a world with so many diversions do I CHOOSE to listen to them?  That’s the challenge bands face.  Can I not wait to hear your music?  Is it driving me to my computer, to my iPod.  If it’s not…it’s just part of the endless morass of ignored music.

“The Sweet Part Of The City”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmx8N6CC64Y

What’s your take?

So, naturally, I replied. Partly to defend my favorite band of the past ten years, but also to remind Lefsetz that he ain’t as hip as he sometimes thinks he is. Sure, I agree with him 75% of the time and have been an avid follower of his newsletter since first reading it about five years ago and even got a chance to meet and briefly chat with the guy at Pollstar in LA this year following his panel about “All In” ticketing. But sometimes he’s just SO off base that it’s hard not to respond.

And in what appears to be his parting-thoughts on The Hold Steady, he quoted my email – but it sort of seems out of context, so I felt compelled to publish the complete email here-

My reply-

Not unlike your late arrival to Twitter (c’mon..admit you were late to that party) you’re three years late to The Hold Steady.

“We were bored so we started a band” is a revisit of the opening track to the bands first record, “Almost Killed Me” where he sings “I got bored so I started a band, gonna start it with a Positive Jam, man”

ALL THE TIME you talk about how when a band grabs someone and moves them that they evangelize and shout it from the rooftops – The Hold Steady IS that band, Bob.

Those of us who’ve been adamant supporters of “the best bar band in America” have slews of friends who, not unlike you, are absolutely sick of hearing about how great this band is.

We buy the tee shirts. We go to the shows in an almost Deadhead-like frequency and spin the records for anyone who will listen.

Isn’t that what you say is the way music is supposed to spread? Organically? The guys started with very little ambition to record a proper album, much less play out and now you’re gonna rail them for their placement on the charts? (BTW- Billboard had HIW at #26 this week.)

Sold out shows in almost every city they play including the 9:30 Club in DC, First Ave in MN and an October play at the Beacon Theater in NYC-

As for the back-catalouge- the next time one of your car-reviewer buddies takes you on one of your jaunts up the coast in one of those hundred-thousand-dollar speed machines, pop on “The Swish” from Almost killed Me and tell me you don’t feel the need to hammer the gas pedal to the floor and get the hell out of town.

Awhile ago, you mentioned in one of your newsletters something along the lines of “I don’t hate The Hold Steady, I hate their FANS”

To that, I must extend the finger in the middle of my hand to you, Bob, for that statement goes against almost everything you say is necessary from a band today. Interactivity, clever videos and a fucking RABID fanbase that will go to the ends of the earth for their favorite band.

You asked for it…and I’m sure you’re getting it. I can almost bet that your inbox is getting hammered with a fairly equal number of “Hell yeah, I hate that band” and “Fuck you, Bob…The Hold Steady rules” emails.

It’s sort of like the band Ween for me….I can’t STAND them. Never got em. Maybe they’re too far over my head. But there are legions of fans who swear they’re the second coming of Christ.

“Eye of the beholder”, right?

I often find myself in conversations with people that begin with something along the lines of “Man, I’m so bummed that the music scene sucks around here.”

Normally, this conversation is at a show that I’ve put on.

And usually, there is a nice, healthy-sized and enthusiastic crowd in front of the stage.

To which I rhetorically reply “What do you mean? I think it’s pretty good.”

And then the other end of the conversation rattles off some opinions about how great things usedta be…or what they could be if there were better clubs/bands/people/weather/etc, etc.

I was one of the subscribers to the notion that the Harrisburg music climate was lame. Cheezed out on top-forty cover bands and hobbyist garage rockers that play out once a month and at their company’s holiday party.

You see, when I moved to Harrisburg almost seven years ago (to the day), I absolutely hated it for what it isn’t.

It isn’t a hotbed of social or cultural inventiveness. It doesn’t have a big four year university that normally acts as an incubator for a thriving live band circuit. Shit, we only have one sushi place on Second Street.

Of course, we don’t have an all-ages venue like Chameleon or the 8×10 or The Silo.

But after about eighteen months of a furrowed brow and a shitty attitude, I realized that- if I wanted to make it past the age of thirty (I did) I’d have to change my outlook. And if I learned one thing from selling speakers out of a minivan in the nineties, it’s that attitude is everything.

(Don’t worry- I’m not about to get all Dale Carnegie on you.)

I began to ignore the things that Harrisburg isn’t and began to embrace what it is.

It is a Capitol city positioned on a glorious waterway chock full of amazing people with lofty visions and a hearty appetite for partying and imbibing. It is central to Philadelphia, Baltimore, State College, DC and even New York City. And we do have a smattering of decent places to see live music.

Now, what the venue bookers decide to do with their calendars is a different topic altogether.

When I began booking the music at Appalachian Brewing Company five years ago (!!!), the calendar was limping along. No digs against the former booker (Eric and I are chums), it’s just that booking music was only part of his job- along with managing a 50,000 sq foot building. I was hired strictly to book the music. So the focus was different.

And sure, for the first year, we trial-and-errored a mixture of genres and series’. For a good two years, we were pigeonholed as a “jamband room”. Which wasn’t wholly incorrect. But at the time, jambands were bringing the crowds. But for the past three years, I’d like to think that we’ve developed a fairly robust programming schedule that hits on all of the bases- everything from Folk to Hip Hop, Indie Rock to Electronica.

And yes, if I may toot my own horn for a moment, I’d like to think that we’ve enhanced the nightlife options for show goers of the Greater Harrisburg Area.

So when someone says to me “Man, the music scene is really lame around here” – I take a mild amount of offense.

Look at the demographics- we’ve only got 47,000 people in Harrisburg-proper. Barely a quarter-million in the immediate surrounding areas. And it’s a heavy government-employer region. Many of the 25-35 year olds who do go out aren’t accustomed to seeing a new band that they haven’t heard of or isn’t played ad nauseum on terrestrial radio. So that works against us as well.

So what are we left with?

Plenty.

All things considered, there are plenty of great bands playing great shows to great crowds- considering what we’ve got to work with. If there are 100 people out on a Friday or Saturday night to see a band at Gullifty’s or ABC or Dragonfly, everyone would say that show is a success.

And why not? Certainly, if that show was in Philly or Baltimore or even State College, expectations would be much higher.

I had unattainably high expectations for this little city when I began in this business back in early 2002. And it would anger me to no-end when there’d be so many shows where nobody comes out. But I’ve always believed that attitude (and perspective) is everything.

Now don’t get me wrong- I’m not implying you should lower your expectations by any means. Sure, shoot for the moon. Keep your eye on the prize, etc.

But don’t expect something that just isn’t there to begin with.

Do the best with what you’ve got.

Here’s one more quick example: this past weekend, we presented Cracker at ABC. Probably the biggest band that we’ve ever done. 20 year career. Millions of units sold. Immeasurable amount of airplay. And they were coming to play the little ole Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Company. My production partner and I battled over what we’d bring in for a PA system. I told him “Dude, don’t worry. We’ll just have to do the best with what we have to work with.” But it wasn’t enough. I thought he was going to choke me on more than one occasion. (He still may)

In his mind, our production budget was half of what it should have been. I told him that more money simply was not an option and that we’d have to get the best that we could for the budget allowed. Weeks went by where we grappled over who to contract and what to bring. And in the end, we went with Now Hear This Audio with Ed Pennypacker and Dave Neale at the helm. The support staff was Chile (my production guy), Bob “Zouba” Hooker, Jake and Jason of The April Skies (our back up/crowd control/runners), Mike Zinn on lights,  and myself at the steering wheel. In the end, we had a gigantic PA system, a blank room that could hold four hundred people and a multi-million selling iconic recording artist coming in to rock the party.

And you know what?

It couldn’t have went any better.

Sure, we’re not Philly, Baltimore or DC. We don’t have any all-ages, strictly-music venues. And Harrisburg might not be at the top of the priority list for many A-List bands.

But we’ve got great people, tons of passion and enough knowledge to make the sweetest and most refreshing lemonade out of the Lemon Tree known as Harrisburg.