Went to see Craig Finn, erstwhile leader of The Hold Steady, playing live with his own band Some Guns, promoting his recently released solo album. Good venue on Brighton seafront - the Coalition club, holds 500 for gigs but Finn only attracted 100+ punters, mostly male and middle-aged fans of THS - like me. Dragged Mrs P along although it's not her thing. Finn played the whole album + some even newer tunes, all of which were rather good except one 'Dude from St Paul' which sounded like a song idea in development, work in progress.
The band were excellent, Finn was his usual committed self, despite the lack of atmosphere, and the strength of the songs came through, there's no half measures with Finn, it's all or nothing. He did a solo acoustic in the middle of the set when he played mostly new songs, it's strange seeing him with just an acoustic guitar, but it worked really well.
I still think the subtlety of the songs, both musically and lyrically, is somewhat lost when played live. They are introspective, narrative songs that deserve close listening. With THS live you don't mind losing some lyrics because of the power and energy of the performance, that doesn't really apply to Finn solo. Still, a really good night out.
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