Craig Finn was on the roof of an apartment building in Brooklyn on September 11, 2001. He watched the towers fall with a friend while the two shared beers. Finn and his buddy were not trying to be callous. They just did not know how to react to such a horror; and having a beer seemed neither appropriate or not.
As Finn told it in Jacksonville recently, at the same time that he was watching the World Trade Center burn from Brooklyn, a secretary in one of the towers was ordered to stay put. She ignored that order, a decision that saved her life. As fate would have it, the secretary and the bandleader met at a party a short while later and have been together since. The story sent chills down the spine of the crowd at the Florida Theatre and made us want more of Finn’s incredible yarns.
For a moment, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s forthcoming set was an afterthought. The Hold Steady frontman stood on an island with just a guitar and his voice, and commanded our rapt attention. The Florida Theatre is one of the state’s most beautiful rooms. It is the kind of room where a guy with a guitar singing hilariously clever lyrics can take over. Any fan of The Hold Steady will find Finn’s solo work familiar, with its rich, often down on their luck characters. But the experience of him playing a guitar without his excellent band is not as recognizable.
Finn acknowledged that he was nervous about playing alone. A fact that came through in his humble, unassuming approach to performing. Still, he seemed completely at home on the Florida Theatre’s huge, ornate stage. His apprehension was as charming as one of his characters. Here’s a guy who has been playing and touring of the better part of fifteen years in critically acclaimed bands. A guy who can incorporate the word avarice into a song about Jesus and make it sound like a perfectly reasonable thing to do in a rock n’ roll tune. Yet, Craig Finn clearly respected the opportunity to play for us in support of “one of his favorite songwriters.”
Make no mistake, the crowd was there to see Jason Isbell. But for about thirty minutes Tuesday night, The Florida Theatre belonged to Craig Finn. He is an unassuming rockstar whose whiskey-fueled songs with The Hold Steady belie a humble self-awareness. And he was the perfect compliment to perhaps the best songwriter going right now.
Craig Finn Live Review by Jason Earle.
Thanks to our Sponsors, Kingfish Records in Clearwater, FL! Check out our South Florida SIGT Website! Shows I Go To South Florida Giveaway, Reviews, Photos, and more
▼ SHOWS TO GO TO ▼
Please support our friends who support us! Tell them Shows I Go To sends love! 🙂
- The Commission Beer Chamber
- Kingfish Records (Clearwater)
- Nora's Sugar Shack!
- Park Ave CDs
- Montgomery Drive Presents
- RT-Art Printing
- The Mary Jane 'High-Quality' Art Gallery
- The Owl's Attic Vintage Shop
- Broken Strings Brewery
- American Combat Club
- Lazy Moon Pizza
- Ten10 Brewing
- Leguminati
- Mutiny Ocala
- The Tipsy Skipper
- Conrad's Beer Shanty
- AKT Shirt Printing
- Smartpunk Records & Shop
- No Clubs Presents
- DaddyKool Records
- Galactic G Skateshop
