our struggle still feels wonderful most days
in reading the band info about the hold steady on the showbox at the market's posting for their august 28th show, i was struck by this paragraph:
Our new record, Heaven is Whenever, is about struggle and reward. It's about accepting suffering as a necessary part of a joyous life. It's about how love can help us rise above these struggles. It's about faith. It's about how bad it hurts to settle for less. It's about not being scared to try. It's about four guys who still believe in the power and glory of rock and roll. Because even after a thousand soundchecks, a thousand load-in and load-outs, fifty missed birthdays, and a few hundred electrical shocks, our reward still vastly outweighs the struggle. In fact, the reward would not exist without the struggle. Thus, this struggle is inherently part of the reward. And in this way, the fantasy of playing rock and roll for a living is a lot like real life.
it's from an essay craig finn wrote about their new record, heaven is whenever, though i'm not sure where it was originally published.
i'm a new hold steady fan, but have known of them for a few years. i've heard of the drunken live show sing alongs, the fans who take the next day off of work. i only caught their last two and a half songs at sasquatch! because of the national's conflicting set. i'd never seen them live before that, but am now totally hooked. i WILL be seeing them at the showbox in august.
at the end of their sasquatch! set, people were high-fiving each other. strangers, i mean. people were just high on the infectious energy that must have pervaded their whole set, not just the songs i saw. i think this can kind of relate to my feelings about sasquatch! in general...
it's an amazing phenomenon, in many ways: 20,000 people a day, 25+ bands/performers each day, and scores and scores of great music and performances. and for three days, we were all in it together. from the insanely fun dance/blow-up animal party that was passion pit's set to the haunting beauty of the national, hordes of strangers were having fun while having the same experience together. it ends up being kind of hard to put into words, but when you're there, and immediately after it, you feel it. the fact that so many people will converge in one place in the middle of almost nowhere to enjoy all of this amazes and delights me.
i guess the paragraph by craig finn above just reinforces the romantic notions i have about music - rock 'n' roll in particular. my idea that it inherently matters. and for better or for worse, i know my life would be drastically different without it.
Our new record, Heaven is Whenever, is about struggle and reward. It's about accepting suffering as a necessary part of a joyous life. It's about how love can help us rise above these struggles. It's about faith. It's about how bad it hurts to settle for less. It's about not being scared to try. It's about four guys who still believe in the power and glory of rock and roll. Because even after a thousand soundchecks, a thousand load-in and load-outs, fifty missed birthdays, and a few hundred electrical shocks, our reward still vastly outweighs the struggle. In fact, the reward would not exist without the struggle. Thus, this struggle is inherently part of the reward. And in this way, the fantasy of playing rock and roll for a living is a lot like real life.
it's from an essay craig finn wrote about their new record, heaven is whenever, though i'm not sure where it was originally published.
i'm a new hold steady fan, but have known of them for a few years. i've heard of the drunken live show sing alongs, the fans who take the next day off of work. i only caught their last two and a half songs at sasquatch! because of the national's conflicting set. i'd never seen them live before that, but am now totally hooked. i WILL be seeing them at the showbox in august.
at the end of their sasquatch! set, people were high-fiving each other. strangers, i mean. people were just high on the infectious energy that must have pervaded their whole set, not just the songs i saw. i think this can kind of relate to my feelings about sasquatch! in general...
it's an amazing phenomenon, in many ways: 20,000 people a day, 25+ bands/performers each day, and scores and scores of great music and performances. and for three days, we were all in it together. from the insanely fun dance/blow-up animal party that was passion pit's set to the haunting beauty of the national, hordes of strangers were having fun while having the same experience together. it ends up being kind of hard to put into words, but when you're there, and immediately after it, you feel it. the fact that so many people will converge in one place in the middle of almost nowhere to enjoy all of this amazes and delights me.
i guess the paragraph by craig finn above just reinforces the romantic notions i have about music - rock 'n' roll in particular. my idea that it inherently matters. and for better or for worse, i know my life would be drastically different without it.