a perfect game

As if this nick cave album, recorded in quarantine, weren/t emotional enough for the current state of affairs, what makes magic these days? I mean it is not the news or Netflix or a trip to the farmers market , though 2 outta 3 aint bad. Nope, it was something as simple as 6 days and nights in a windowless Brooklyn bowl with the hold steady, and a select group of individuals, massive nights gone virtual. i/ve been lucky enough to be involved In a few events that have felt bigger than the moment, transscendantal as it were- those nights were rock was piece of a far bigger puzzle. I can remember a 48 hour trip to tel aviv with mercury rev that was book ended by a sunrise from the dan hotel on one side and a trip to Jerusalem on the other, actually the unedited 40 year old virgin on the tel aviv /heathrow flight 3 drinks in a scant few hours from standing at the wailing wall , where half the plane was howling in laughter. Or a trip to mexico city with the yeah yeah yeahs in 2002 where the crowd was so amped up that they out yelled a very substantial p.a., I can never hear the ramones again without thinking of those shows. Or maybe the day after the 2016 election, again in mexico city, with primal scream, where bobby Gillespie lead the 2000 strong crowd into a spirited chant of ‘fuck trump’ before launching into a scintillating version of ‘swastika eyes’. There are more that come to mind, like standing in the midst of 30,000 partied up Brazilians at a strokes gig at 3am in an amusement park in sao paolo, screaming ‘new york city cops’ at the top of my lungs, a never ending caiprinha in my hand, arms around aaron brody or chris bell for 90 minutes 20 again- or maybe the 3 hour broken social scene last show in rio a couple of nights later, their last show for years, and the last time I ever drank cachaca or cane sugar or ate a shrimp and cream cheese pizza with a bombshell Brazilian promoter rep and a bunch of Canadians. And again in Manchester afew years later with broken social scene the day after the bombing at the ariana grande concert where most of the city had been locked down and kevin drew managed to coax johnny marr onto the stage. Maybe more, dancing like a fool to kylie minogue in a field on Halloween 30 miles outside of bogota with the young and the beautiful of Colombia in some wild ass costumes. Or every night for 2 weeks one December in japan with jon spencer blues explosion, where there were 50 people waiting for the band wherever we went- hotel, venue, train station- that whole trip was a sobering affair , on the powers of rock and roll , whilst the world went to shit. This week felt altogether different. I have been working for the hold steady for about 7 years , and we have been doing these residencies for about 5 years. This year was going to be a great year for the band- London/Melbourne/Nashville/Atlanta/Denver/los angeles/Toronto/ and then the 5 year massive nights 4 night stand at the bowl. These shows have been an amazing part of the year for me- really the only touring I look forward to anymore, these Brooklyn shows being more special still, as you get to walk to work everyday and sleep in your own bed, and see people from all over, whilst enjoying the Christmas lights of manhattan avenue. But thanks to a a global pandemic, a feckless government and an astoundingly ignorant populace, this year was different. No confetti, no beer breath , no sweaty and boozy throngs, no guest lists or fried chicken. No late nights and no pretty women to admire from up close or afar. No small talk or big hugs. But there would be rock, and rock there was. 6 nights of glorious guitar riffs and booming bass, 6 nights of back up vocals and timely drums. 6 nights of tinkled ivories and glorious words. Choruses for the ages from 6 feet away. America’s greatest bar band playing in one of its great small venues to the zoom room in the sky. Now I am not one for the zoom room, you wont catch me dressed up for the marketing meeting or toobin at trivia. i/ve begged off of every possible meet up or hang as possible. I can zoom for the kids teacher conferences, marveling at those 20 somethings ability to keep their kids engaged for 35 hours per week from the confines of their airy living rooms or darkened alcove studio apartments. Nor have I lined up to watch some haircut in a fitted designer shirt singing earnestly into their Iphone whilst banging away some semblance of a chord progression on their hummingbird. Not for me. I prefer it all IRL, and in the case of 2020, IRL has been fewer and further between. This was altogether different, inspirational and cathartic. Real rock and roll surrounded by video monitors of fans flung far and wide, with the band in the fishbowl, but was the script flipped? For three nights I found myself choked up and crying behind my mask , at the scenes playing out on computer screens around the globe – it was this beautiful amalgamation of g rated chat roulette, a ball park kiss cam, and a silent room rater sound tracked beautifully by your favorite rock and roll band. People in their pjs with their pets, or in their tees with their toddlers or their teens- faces familiar or foreign, alone or together, ear buds in the basement, speakers cranked and drinks drank. Signs of hope and strength emanating from the mother in laws basement or the music room at home, unity and compassion. Beauty in numbers. I was enthralled by the scenes from the screens. 9 months of our respective lives spent staring intently and intensely at some device or another looking for a connection. Here the curtain was pulled back on the fans , an open book in the lives of the devoted whilst their heroes reeled off 78 songs in 6 hours over 3 nights to 7000 people sequestered the world over. Through the monitors we ran the gamut of the 2020 experience with great artwork and bad lighting. Messages scrawled on pizza boxes in Pennsylvania and Iphones on the beach in Waikiki and every variation on the theme in between. The messages from the fans , these wonderfully loyal and irreverent goofballs, was simple. We are not alone, we will get through this together, there is no salve greater in dark times than the healing powers of rock and roll. And for a select and discerning demographic, there are no better purveyors of this message than these 6 fellas belting it out to the back of the zoom room in the digital fishbowl in which we now live( and two turtles in the Canadian outback get it on. ).. The hold steady suited up at the Brooklyn bowl and rolled a perfect game, heroes to many, for more than one day.