Craign Finn 2019 Tour
Craig Finn Setlist
Craig Finn Tour Dates
13/06/2019 Joe's Pub, New York, NY
14/06/2019 Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA 15/06/2019 Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington, DC 22/06/2019 Crossroads, Garwood, NJ 11/10/2019 Exchange, Bristol, UK 12/10/2019 The Bodega , Nottingham, UK 13/10/2019 King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, UK 15/10/2019 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK 16/10/2019 The Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK 17/10/2019 Oslo Hackney, London, UK 19/10/2019 Jacaranda Records Phase One, Liverpool, UK 20/10/2019 The Sugar Club, Dublin, Ireland 22/10/2019 TRIX, Borgerhout, Belgium 23/10/2019 Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands 24/10/2019 Molotow Skybar, Hamburg, Germany 25/10/2019 Privatclub, Berlin, Germany Read More
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Uptown took over downtown as Edina-raised Craig Finn and the Uptown Controllers played a homecoming show at the Fine Line Music Cafe in downtown Minneapolis.
The evening started with Long Island, NY singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson who we have seen a handful of times (here, here, and here) as an opener, and who had just played her own headlining show five days prior, at the nearby 7th Street Entry.
Stevenson has a new record out, her fifth full-length, The Big Freeze (on Don Giovanni Records) recorded appropriately in the dead of winter, and with themes many of us living in the frozen tundra can easily relate to. Stevenson sounds more confident and upbeat (though many of the songs can still be categorized as sad themed) than previous and seemed positively gleeful at the strong response she received.
With his third solo album in four years, I Need a New War (on Partisan Records) Craig Finn completes his own musical trilogy which finds him still painting narrative pictures with enriched character studies that explore a gamut of emotional highs and lows. As with his other solo work, the musical spirit is much more subdued than with his role as frontman for The Hold Steady, which made everyone attending this club show, listen that much harder to the character-driven lyrics.
Finn’s touring band is The Uptown Controllers (the name derived from a hilarious Craigslist ad from someone purportedly selling a Sony PS4 controller Finn may have once used after hours at an Uptown apt.) and the latest incarnation (playing only their fourth show together) assembles longtime sidemen Will Berman- bass and Falcon Valdez-drums, alongside Stuart Bogie- sax/horns/flute, Parker Shper- keys and MGMT guitarist James Richardson.
Finn and band began their ninety-five set amid pale red and blue stage lighting with a cut from their 2017 previous album, ‘Be Honest’ with the crowd woo-ing every Twin Cities reference in his lyrics, following next with the opening two songs from the new record, ‘Blankets’ and ‘Magic Marker’, with arms outstretched on the latter as Finn sang, “some nights it just feels good to write your name”.
“You could have stayed home and you could have been under the illusion... that you were connected to people” Finn said, eschewing the isolation of modern technology, “It’s going to become more important that we do this” referring to an interactive real world experience.
‘Bathtub in the Kitchen’ gives insight into a character that never made things work when leaving for a bigger city and the upbeat tempo of 2015’ single, ‘Maggie, I’ve Been Searching for Our Son’ belies its dark references to ATF raids and guns inside movie theaters.
Finn introduced ‘Grant in Galena’, the centerpiece of the new album, as being originally a Fitzgerald quote which likened failure to a period of former President Ulysses Grant’s life in Illinois, with Stevenson returning to the stage to give Finn a vocal hand on the song. Returning to staying positive, Finn’s new Springsteen-like ‘Something to Hope For’ let a downtrodden woman know she could count on someone, as Bogie’s sax punctuated the song.
Finn stopped to verbally admire the so-far season performance of his still-favorite baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, mentioning an online poll had solicited nicknames for the Cinderella-season team, calling New Power Generation his favorite (but alas, non-winning) choice - “I hope they Hold Steady” a fan then yelled, to collective laughter.
‘Christine’ was the only song Finn has written (to his recollection) about a person who was too careful, fans cheered during the Twin Cities-set ‘Preludes’, and ‘Newmyer’s Roof’ briefly re-visited watching the towers fall during 9/11.
“In 2019, the truth has become a moving target” Finn remarked, “the truth is the most important thing” seguing into 2015’s ‘Trapper Avenue’ to end the main set.
“It might be weird to listen to a lot of sad songs on Saturday night” Finn said, re-emerging along with Stevenson for their two-song encore culled from 2017 album We All Want the Same Things, “but when you listen to sad songs in a room with a bunch of other people, it’s an acknowledgment that we all suffer” introducing the spoken piano ballad, ‘God in Chicago’.
“Sometimes I can push ahead, some nights the wheels just spin” Finn sang in the night’s closing ‘Ninety Bucks’, a somber lyric that questions the sincerity of a friend’s financial need, set against an upbeat piano rhythm that kept the song from submerging into darker territory, another musical character study of an amalgamation of a familiar type of person we all seem to know.
Reflecting modern times and the constant change in New York City where he’s lived for nineteen years, Craig Finn turns his songwriting mirror both around and also back at us, like the best authors that shine a spotlight on the everyman and their basic desires to just keep pace, to hopefully move forward, and do the best they can, qualities that everyone can identify with.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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Craig Finn and The Uptown Controllers at Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (08 June 2019) |
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