Countdown in Photos #10: The Hold Steady
Over the month of December I am planning to delight you with tales of my adventures as a concert photographer in 2011. They may be the best shots I took, or the best moments I experienced. Either way, it would be a shame for those to fall by the wayside and be left sitting dormant in my feeble mind. Keep coming back, there'll be a new one each day.
Check out yesterday's post with Rhett Miller.
The Hold Steady at The Neptune for City Arts Fest
I have been a Hold Steady fan for ages, at least all the way back to the year I first moved to Seattle around eight years ago. The first show I saw them perform was at the old Crocodile leaning against the pole in the middle of the floor and occasionally picking up my feet so my shoes weren't permanently stuck to the floor.
The Cops were opening (also my first time for them) and by the time the Hold Steady made it on stage Craig Finn, the lead singer, was two sheets to the wind. It didn't help that people kept dropping off shots on the front of the stage for them either, that was long before the no-drinking-on-stage rule (and thank jebus that's been lifted). For some reason that made the show even better and I danced like a crazy person.
Then there was the time they played at Neumos and Craig smacked the girl right next to me in the face with the microphone (he was shit-faced and whirling it around). So every single Hold Steady show, there's been something weird, off-kilter and really awesome that happens. The Neptune show was a bit more tame and I'm a bit older now, but the crowd was intense. I have a feeling if I'd been in the center of it, something would have happened.
The shot I captured above felt like an amalgamation of all those shows smashed together in my brain, blurry as the memories may be, and laid out in a single moment. Plus, his propensity to spit while he sings his p's has always made me giggle.
