The Hold Steady @ XPoNential Music Festival, 7/25, Wiggins Park, Camden

POSTED: Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 5:00 PM

Filed Under: Music | Show concert photos

Photos by Brian Howard and Carolyn Huckabay

You could tell that Craig Finn and his band of bar-rock all-stars didn't want to leave the stage. To that point, the set ' the closing Saturday set of WXPN's XPoNential Music Festival ' had been a vintage performance. Finn pogo-ing around the stage, clapping excitedly, making I've-been-naughty faces and pointing expectantly out to the crowd. Franz Nicolay holding sway at stage right. Tad Kubler grinding out the extra-chunky riffs.

There was "Positive Jam" into "Stuck Between Stations" into "Sequestered in Memphis."

"Chips Ahoy!" into "Massive Nights" into "Party Pit."

Then the wind picked up and the rain started to fall. Lightly at first as the band played the ballad-y "Southtown Girls"; more heavily and with gusts of wind through "Lord, I'm Discouraged."

It was during "Lord" that the stage hand first popped out and gave a signal that could have meant "one more and wrap-it-up" and could have meant "round third and head home." Finn may have seen it and then turned quickly away (or he might have never seen it through those thick, rain-speckled glasses) as the band launched into "Hornets! Hornets!"

The rain coming off the river gusted through the back of the stage and into the faces of the crowd, who very much lapped up this act of rock heroism. Like a scene from some late-'80s hair metal video (all that was missing were a smoke machine and fishnet-clad groupies), the band played, the wind and the rain at their backs, the confetti from the previous They Might Be Giants set kicking up and swirling about. The lighting rig above swayed ominously in the gale.

And that's when the stage hand couldn't risk Finn missing another signal. He walked out on stage in the middle of "Hornets! Hornets!" corralled Finn and said something in his ear, which prompted Finn to call off the band mid-verse, apologize to the crowd for having to stop the set due to safety issues and, like a true champ, promise to play more if the weather cleared up. Then WXPN's Roger LaMay broke the bad news that thunderstorms were expected for the rest of the evening and that everyone should get home and come back dry for more music Sunday.

According to a commenter on Facebook, the rest of the Hold Steady set was to include "Stay Positive," "Hot Soft Light," "Joke About Jamaica," "Constructive Summer," "Multitude of Casualties" and "Slapped Actress." All of which would have been great. But the set was plenty great as is.

Zach

Posted 2009-07-28 14:22:29

Knowing what a huge baseball fan Craig is one can only hope that the next show in the philly area will be treated as a rain make up/double-header type show.

Brian Howard

Posted 2009-07-28 14:47:22

good thinking, Zach.

Posted by Brian Howard @ 5:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Behind the scenes of local film A Man Full of Trouble
What we're trying to do this weekend
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Sunny, Tony and the return of Do No Harm
NOW SEE THIS: Salinger film trailer
CONCERT PHOTOS: The National/Dirty Projectors @ The Mann Center 6/7
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
CITY PAPER WRITING CONTEST 2013: Send stories! Send poetry!
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Hilary Jay on the move, Rit-Fit’s switcheroo, and a Theater Exile surprise.
REVIEW: Archer Live! @ the TLA 1/11
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Pink. Diner en Blanc 2. Breaking Glass and Milkboy at the movies. And so on.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

June
May
April

March
February
January

Past Archives: