Emphasis On Intonation

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 18, 2005 6:27PM

Day 1 of Intonation offered several acts worth mentioning. Chicagoist's faves on Saturday were Head of Femur who hang with depressive indie god Conor Oberst and have opened for Wilco, Magnolia Electric Co. who emulate the Old 97s Fight Songs era, and Four Tet who is a mad mixer and got the evening rolling for all the acts following him.

Day 2 of Intonation definitely had more excitement and buzz surrounding it. From the moment we got on the train heading to Union Park everyone was discussing Saturday's outstanding acts and who they were eagerly anticipating Sunday. Out Hud definitely got the peeps dancing and reminded us that the only thing to do when it's this hot is to resign ourselves to getting even hotter. Out Hud are the perfect band to play a party where everyone is shaking their booty, but you don't want only a DJ.

After Out Hud's dance party, The Hold Steady were up and kept the energy pumping through the park. The Hold Steady play good old-fashioned loud rock-n-roll. At times evoking the Stones' bass lines and the scratchy voice of Shane MacGowan.

Originally from Minneapolis, The Hold Steady use Minnesota as the backdrop to many of their songs and reference the Mississippi River in "Your Little Hoodrat Friend", as well as in "Stevie Nix".

Craig Finn told stories between almost every song and made sure to give the names of their songs, a nice touch when playing a large fest where not everyone has heard of them. They ended their set with "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night", "Most People Are DJs", and "Killer Parties".

Lamenting the death of indie rock has never sounded so great. The Hold Steady survived the Minneapolis indie scene - both the good (clearly, the great music) and the bad (drugs). We hope that they continue to survive and can put all of us in the place where we can save ourselves from the pre-packaged profit first music industry.