fun.

Steel Train

Music Box @ Fonda - October 28, 2010

Live Review by Amber Henson

It seems that I only see shows at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater where the bands show more energy in their performance than I’ve ever shown in my life.  A couple weeks ago, it was Matt & Kim.  Last Thursday, it was Steel Train and fun.  What’s crazy is that the bands share a member, that is Jack Antonoff, lead singer for Steel Train, and lead guitarist for fun.  He did, admittedly, have a nice break in between, but nonetheless, both bands really rocked it.  Hard.

Although they were also known to slow things down.  Steel Train had a fun song wherein the whole band crowded around Antonoff’s mic to sing, with Antonoff playing an acoustic guitar.  When it was time for just his bandmates to sing, Antonoff would lean forward, out of the way for them to sing, then pop back up to sing along.  But mostly the songs were anthemic, full of lights and a devoted audience swaying along.  Everyone was full of energy, and towards the end of their set, Will Noon, the drummer from fun had to come out and help Jon Shiffman with the crazy percussion they had going.  (p.s. Did you guys see Steel Train on Conan’s Show Zero?)

Then there was a short break where I overpaid for a couple of whisky and sodas.  But then the curtain rose back up, and there was Nate Ruess in all his skinny jeans glory.  He had accompanied his pants with a leather jacket which he proceeded to wear for the rest of the show.  Umm … what?  Isn’t that hot?  Oh well.  Didn’t affect his ability to belt out the songs, and they played four in a row before taking a break to say hello to the audience.  Some of the fans, though, weren’t having it.  “Come on, play in my face!” one screamed, which made Ruess laugh and he repeated it back to the rest of us.

But they didn’t heed her request; instead, Ruess began talking, for some reason, about movie premieres.  “Date Night premieres tonight,” he informed us.  He then proceeded to discuss the idea more, about how they hadn’t been invited … but no one corrected him, to point out that Date Night came out in April.  I began to get a strange feeling, and for one very real, very terrifying moment, I honestly thought that I might have traveled back in time, here, in the Fonda, with all these other people.  But then pianist Andrew Dost asked if he actually meant Due Date and all was well.  Phew!

The band played their entire album, Aim and Ignite, along with a couple of other tracks, one of which was titled “What the Fuck Happened to Us?”  Ruess told us that “Los Angeles has better hands than anywhere else we’ve ever played,” in response to our apparently good clapping skills.  One thing Ruess seemed to enjoy was taking lengthy pauses between his lyrics, causing those singing along (including, I’m sure, the odd request girl) to tumble past him, and (I’m sure) smile embarrassingly at their friends.

It was a delightful show, and the whole band, which comes to six members during this tour, was all high energy and smiles throughout their set and the encore.  There are still dates available after a brief run around England, I would recommend that you see this band, and Steel Train, before they end up in a stadium.