Andy Gapin

I’m not going to go too much into depth about last night’s Lawrence Arms show at the North Star Bar in Philly, but it was awesome. As with the other four or five times I’ve seen them, they tore through an awesome set that only left something to be desired because the band has too many great songs to fit into a single night.

As usual, Brendan was solidly drunk and had plenty of banter to go around, but about a third of it was slurred and completely unintelligible. Chris was quiet, kind of looked like he could barely stay awake, and his voice sounded a bit off. I couldn’t see much of Neil, but as a whole, the band was on.

I brought my camera, but the North Star Bar is pretty dark inside and I didn’t really have a good spot to take shots from so I kept the camera in my bag until the last few songs. I fired off a bunch of shots towards the end, but I wasn’t really in the position to get anything too spectacular. That and I was too busy enjoying the show to really worry about it, so here are a few photos that all look the same.

I went to see The Hold Steady in Philly last night. We got there late so we didn’t see the first band and only saw half of Art Brut which was good because I saw the one song of theirs that I like and then only had to sit through a couple others. Despite only having to see a few songs of theirs, they were a little annoying at the end when they drew out the end of the last song for about three minutes for no real reason.

The Hold Steady were awesome though. They played everything that I wanted to hear and had tons of energy. As per the norm, Craig Finn was all kinds of crazy. It ruled!

We left about a song early since we were pretty exhausted, but I hear that at the very end, everyone climbed over the barrier at the TLA and got up on stage. I wish I had been there for that!

Their set list:

1. positive jam
2. party pit
3. hot soft light
4. (slow-ish new song)
5. same kooks
6. chips ahoy
7. stevie nix
8. multitude of casualties
9. massive nights
10. ask her for adderall
    
11. stuck between stations
12. you can make him like you
13. your little hoodrat friend
14. first night
15. southtown girls
16. how a resurrection really feels

Encore:

1. citrus
2. the swish
3. girls like status
4. killer parties

I went to Philly to see The Lawrence Arms at the North Star Bar last night. I’d never been to the venue before, but it was pretty cool, except for the fact that it was way too hot. It’s on the smaller side which is nice for creating a more intimate setting. There’s a balcony thing as well, but it’s practically right over the stage so you have to be in the very front row and you’re looking pretty much straight down on the bands as they play.

The lineup was pretty awesome, it was the Lawrence Arms, The Falcon, Sundowner, and American Steel. Since The Sundowner is Chris McCaughen of The Larry Arms and The Falcon is Brenden and Neil, those guys spent a lot of time on stage. Chris had Neil come out and play with him for the Sundowner and since Dan Andraino from Alkaline Trio couldn’t make the tour, Chris played with The Falcon as well. Dudes must have been tired as hell, but it was kind of neat to see the same three guys on stage most of the night. They made a lot of jokes about The Lawrence Arms and made fun of them a lot which was kind of funny, but it seemed like something that they do for every show on the tour.

The Sundowner and The Falcon were both pretty awesome, but American Steel played way too long. I had never really heard much of their stuff before, but always heard good things. They played well and the first few songs really made me want to check out their stuff, but their set started to drag a bit after a while.

The Lawrence Arms, as per the norm, didn’t really play any of the songs that I really wanted to hear. I think I could easily make a list of a dozen songs that I wanted to hear that they didn’t play, but it’s alright since I like pretty much everything they have. They played really well, which isn’t always a good thing for them. Something about playing a little sloppy makes that band sound a lot better. It’s weird how it works out. The one thing that I didn’t like was that Brenden talked way too much and they stopped after every single song for him to talk. They played a pretty good mix of stuff from all over their catalog which was cool though.

Both The Lawrence Arms and The Sundowner played Boatless Booze Cruise which was kind of silly, but they acknowledged the self-indulgence factor of it. It was kind of neat to see one version with Chris taking the lead and then another version with Brenden taking the lead.

Overall, it was a pretty good night, except for the fact that the show went until after midnight.

I just had the craziest ten days of my life. I was busy doing awesome crap everyday from the moment I woke up until I went to bed and with not much time between going to bed and waking up again. It was awesome though. Lots of fun.

I think I got to spend at least a little time with all of my friends, family, and people that are important to me which is always great. I think that was the best part actually. Though, now I’m completely exhausted. I did tons of driving and most of the time only had time to run home from one thing, grab some clothes to change into, and run back out the door to go do something else. I definitely packed too much into not enough time…and didn’t get to shower nearly as much as I would have liked to have.

The only thing that really sucked was driving to and from Wildwood by myself…well, that and getting slightly lost in Philly causing me to miss my friend’s band. Two+ hours in each direction on the highway really gives you a lot of time to just think…which is about all you can do when you’re in the the car alone that long.