Weekend Wrap-up: Hold Steady, Beat Radio, Interpol

Hold Steady @ Maxwell’s –I was pretty happy-drunk on the Path train over to NJ, but got into a dipute about Columbus Day on the way, so that made me into an invert-drunk… you know, the kind that can’t stop thinking about Columbus Day. If there’s anyway to enjoy a Hold Steady show, it’s definitely not with that on your mind.

Anyway, they rocked out and played again for 90 minutes, which last time at Bowery only got more intense. This time, though, it seemed about 15 minutes too long.

Beat Radio @ Sin-e – Like Rachael, I arrived early to Sin-e to find the private party still in full swing. Had I known it was an open bar with free chicken pot pie I would have stayed… but instead I sauntered around the Lower East Side looking at all the kids all dolled up for a big Saturday night.

Luckily, Beat Radio was exceptionally good. They opened with a strong rendition of Elegy and from there went on to play a full set, only finding myself losing my interest once (A Million Miles still sticks out as the weakest of the bunch). When I wrote about them in August, I said that they seemed to have potential, so I was very happy to hear that they’ve gone and utilized that to create fuller songs. Of course, that will happen naturally when you add a full band with a real drummer. At times, they really throw a lot more energy into a song, and songs like Ancient and Mexico which were good, are now even better. While Elegy lost some of it’s delicate nature (on the demo, Brian softens the highest notes with dynamic effect), it still didn’t disappoint.

The vocals, that may have been slightly over-amped on the typically horrendous Sin-e PA, came across strong. Unfortunately the harmony vocals which are so nice on their recording weren’t mic’ed properly at all.

Beat Radio are playing a free show on Thursday, October 13th at Sin-e, at 7:00.

Interpol @ Webster Hall Good show. Not a huge fan, so not much to say. The lighting was really good, and I really liked half of the songs. The other half though weren’t up to my speed. The sound at Webster Hall was excellent. My main complaint about Interpol, that I hadn't realized before, is that the guitar lines that precede many of their songs are really simple. I mean like, “I’m in 9th grade and I just started playing guitar” simple. I took a closer listen this morning to a similar sounding band from England -who will remain nameless- and I thought the same thing. I guess on the recordings, such things aren’t as apparent.

I think Interpol is doomed in attempting to make a third record, just like Cold Play trying to make the same record three times. We'll see, but these New Yorkers have a tall order to fill.