'Chos and Shows Festival

This weekend is wicked crazy for live shows in the city. In order to celebrate The Avett Brothers playing at Irving Plaza and The Hold Steady wrapping up a week of shows before heading upstate, I declare this The ‘Chos and Shows Festival. For the next four days I will be recapping the concerts I’ve been fortunate to attend and the nachos I’ve shoved in my face.

Call Thursday night a false start if you will. I was pumped to hear that my prolific status as “Senior Correspondent” merited VIP passes to The Hold Steady’s last show on a four night run in the city. Silly as of sounds, the band has probably never heard of NachosNY. Instead, I would like to thank one Mia Greene who has attended many nacho events prior to this self-proclaimed music festival. She made tonight’s addition to the concert schedule happen. Now onto the food.

So I failed in my quest for nachos. The Music Hall of Williamsburg is near 5th Ave. where we held a previous nacho crawl so my choices were limited. I couldn’t feast upon the 4 nacho serving establishments if I already knew their cuisine. I though to myself, “The Taco Truck! Nachos? Maybe!” Oh I was disappointed upon looking at the menu. Then as I placed my order for fish tacos (going to seafood-town where Lee doesn’t dare to go) I was informed that fish wasn’t an option at the moment. Instead, I paid my $2.50 and ate a pork taco. Soft-shelled and garnished with a radish, the taco was quite tasty. I hate to report on this truck’s food because it doesn’t fall in our jurisdiction but I felt obligated to admit my failure to find nachos on Thursday night. Also let this be a warning that the taco truck does not carry nachos. I made a mistake in not adequately researching my terrain prior to my arrival. Didn’t Alanis say, “You Live, you learn?” She was talking about nachos by the way. Nachos and Dave Coulier. That’s all that woman writes about. I think that’s as good as it’s going to get for a lead in for The Hold Steady.

THS have an interesting fan base. Simply yout, there’s a bunch of white boys out there who couldn’t carry a tune and rely upon the lyrical cues from Craig Finn and the driving drum beats of Bobby Drake to keep them in check. Mia giggled like a little school girl as the crowd was just half a beat behind the band on some songs. The double time clap is just Finn’s friendly way of letting the rhythmically challenged attempt to play along.

The band’s albums don’t really do their music justice. Since seeing the band live the first time back in November, any song I listen to since, I imagine it played upon a stage. Never is this more true than with the song “Slapped Actress.” Listening to the CD, the “whoa…..whoa whoa’s” sound border-line gimmicky. After seeing the song played live, you get the feeling that this band wasn’t meant to be contained by your stereo speakers. Instead, songs were written with the audience in mind. Anthemic, yes. Gimmicky, hell no. The band dodges thrown beer cups thrown out of white boy angst while keeping the crowd enthralled with sick guitar licks (like in “Lord, I’m Discouraged”) and a gong, used wisely and sparingly by aforementioned Mr. Drake.

Again, I can’t thank Mia enough for the last-minute invite. Tomorrow night was a tough decision. I thought about going to Josh Ritter in Central Park. But in doing so, I would have had to sell my Avett Brothers ticket. I am lazy and inept as using eBay so I held on to my ticket. Friday and Saturday night will be spent with nachos in my belly and the Avetts music in my ears. If anyone goes to the Josh Ritter show, you are allowed to rub it in my face and praise his musical talents. Just make sure you eat nachos before the show or your opinions won’t matter to me.

Keep coming back to NachosNY for further ‘Chos and Shows updates.

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