REVIEW: Craig Finn is the Millenial’s Bruce Springsteen
5/20 @ Nine Pin Ciderworks, Albany
Photos by Dan Monick
“Seeing Craig Finn perform in a setting like this has to be what it's like to see Springsteen return to The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park for those mythical, unannounced sets.”
For millennials with music loving parents, Bruce Springsteen was undoubtedly a frequent topic of dinner table conversations. Every time their parents would make a comment about music these days, The Boss would be a point of comparison for how “they just don’t make it like this anymore.”
If you were one of those that bought into the hype train peddled by the boomers, you’ve probably seen Springsteen’s marathon live show at least three times. And since you’ve definitely started your own vinyl collection, you probably own at least five of Bruce’s records[1].
To those boomer parents, I see your Springsteen and present to you Craig Finn. Finn is the millenial’s Bruce Springsteen. It’s a lofty comparison for sure, and there’s definitely someone in New Jersey screaming their head off at the computer screen as they read this, but bare with me for a moment.
In his review of Finn’s 2012 record, Clear Heart Full Eyes[2] for Pitchfork, Stephen M. Deusner wrote “[Finn’s] a born storyteller who’s chosen rock as his medium.” That sentence is a pretty apt description of The Boss himself. Springsteen was born to run and he passed the baton to Finn[3].
Here’s a bulleted list of comparisons for you to consider:
Now, will Craig Finn and The Hold Steady ever have the same impact on pop culture that Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band had? Definitely not. Will Craig Finn and The Hold Steady still be performing three hour sets on sold-out arena tours well into their 70s? Certainly not. However, I think this is more of a function of the musical landscape that each existed in.
During the 1970s, coming off the popularity of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, rock and roll was pop music. During the early aughts, pop music was predominantly defined by hip-hop and electronic music conventions, which left Finn to operate amongst the alternative music scene rather than in the mainstream consciousness. If Finn had been around in the '70s, he’d be discussed with the same regard as Springsteen, Tom Petty, John Cougar Mellencamp and Jackson Browne. Instead, he’s a critical darling lauded by only the music nerds[6].
Here in the Capital Region, when the aux cable is malfunctioning in their vehicle, the millennial music nerds turn to WEQX, 102.7, The Real Alternative. As a part of the EQX Live Sessions series, presented by Bentley Seed Co., they brought Finn to perform an intimate five-song set at Nine Pin Cider Works in Albany. In front of an invite-only audience of 30 people, he sat down to perform and tell stories about songs from his latest solo record, Always Been.
Before jumping in, Finn told a story about his first time meeting the record’s producer, Adam Granduciel. Granduciel is the singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for The War On Drugs[7], and Finn’s band, The Hold Steady brought them out on their first US tour. The first show of that tour and, by extension, the first time he ever met Granduciel? Right here in Albany at the now-defunct Valentine’s (RIP).
He then performed “Bethany”, the opening track from Always Been, a song about a priest who joined the clergy despite a lack of faith in God[8]. After performing the track, Finn explained that “Bethany” was the first song he wrote for the album and he found the character so captivating that he wanted to explore him further. The next track, “People of Substance”—one of the album’s singles getting airplay on EQX—is a song about that same priest hanging out at the Delaware shore during the offseason.
In the song “Bethany”, it’s revealed that the priest has a sister and niece living “on the fringe of Philadelphia”. The next song Finn performed, “Crumbs”, captures a moment when the priest goes to visit his family on the outskirts of Philly and explores the struggle of a single mother.
Finn then took a quick detour to his previous record, A Legacy of Rentals, to tell the story of “The Amarillo Kid” taking a trip from the Texas panhandle to Buffalo[9]. At this point, between the songs and the stories, Finn was 30 minutes into his set and had the audience hanging on his every word. He correctly assumed that the enraptured crowd would respond well to a dramatic reading from Lousy With Ghosts, the companion book to Always Been.
He read from an exceptionally written chapter telling the story of a young boy being told by a teacher that he’d never amount to anything. The boy had accidentally stowed away snakes in the pouch pocket of his jacket[10]. Years later, the narrator encounters a group of “scumbags” at a high school keg party bullying a friend of his. It was that same boy with the snakes in his jacket. This chapter is the origin story of Shamrock, the titular character on the digital album’s closer[11].
Finn closed out the intimate acoustic performance with “Shamrock”, which visits the character years later as an apple that rolled “way down the hill”. Sabrina, a bartender at a wine bar in Minneapolis that “takes twenties from the till”, has a baby with Shamrock. She watches on television as Shamrock gets busted for robbing the county credit union. When coupled with the story from Lousy With Ghosts, the song becomes all the more heartbreaking.
Seeing Craig Finn perform in a setting like this has to be what it's like to see Springsteen return to The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park for those mythical, unannounced sets. It’s just a rock and roll legend with an acoustic guitar, telling stories and singing songs.
[1] I own eight Bruce records on vinyl. Seven of them I inherited from my dad.
[2] Ha! He’s so millennial that his debut solo album is a Friday Night Lights reference. “Texas forever.”
[3] Yeah, I just made that “Born to Run” joke. What of it?
[4] And everything that New Jersey encompasses (i.e. New York City, Philadelphia)
[5] Finn’s world eventually expanded to the entire Midwest and eventually any city that vaguely resembles Minneapolis (his new solo record spends a lot of time on the Delaware shore during winter).
[6] To illustrate this point, my beautiful wife’s favorite musical artist is Bruce Springsteen. When we met, she had never heard of Craig Finn. It was a major point of contention early in our relationship. We worked through it.
[7] Adam Graduciel and The War on Drugs also exist in the modern Bruce Springsteen conversation, although the connection is more musical than lyrical. Top five The War On Drugs songs, in no particular order: “Baby Missiles”, “Red Eyes”, “Burning”, “Holding On”, “Pain”.
[8] There’s that complicated relationship with Catholicism again. Granduciel rips a killer solo on the album version of this track.
[9] As an avid Buffalo Bills fan from Upstate New York, I feel a deep kinship with Minnesota Vikings fans and the people of Minneapolis. They also endure hellish winters and their football team has also been to, and lost, four different Super Bowls. They lost four Super Bowls in seven seasons. We lost four straight. We win the misery contest.
[10] This is 100% a Starter Jacket. I had a Seattle Supersonics starter jacket when I was a kid because I loved Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. I never stowed snakes in the pouch pocket.
[11]“Shamrock” does not appear on the vinyl release of Always Been. It was cut due to length restrictions for vinyl pressings.