Fun fact: The members of the Hold Steady have all performed inside 7th St. Entry many times before – Lifter Puller might've even used it as their mailing address in the '90s – but the band itself has never performed inside the 250-capacity former coat room and bus-station dinette.
That's going to change Oct. 14, when Craig Finn and his New York-based crew will load in for two gigs in one day there, the day after they headline SurlyFest outside the Surly brewery. The dual booking includes a 4 p.m. all-ages show, just like the matinee Entry gigs of the late-'80s that Finn has repeatedly cited as vital to his rock 'n' roll incubation.
Tickets for both Entry shows go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. via eTix.com for $45, and you can bet they'll sell out faster than a bus ride up to Penetration Park.
An "underplay" in concert-biz terms even under normal circumstances, the Entry gigs follow a rather inexplicable four-year lull between the Hold Steady's Twin Cities dates. The last one was their opening set with the Replacements at Midway Stadium in 2014. Hard to top that in Minneapolitan rock-lore thrills, I suppose, so the band must've just figured it'd go back to Square One in the Entry.
The Hold Steady played its first Twin Cities gigs at the Triple Rock in 2004 (less then a year after Lifter Puller reunited to open the club), and from there it went straight to the First Ave main room. The guys still managed to slip in a shout-out to the Entry in the 2010 song "Barely Breathing."
Tickets are still available but have been selling swiftly to the prior day's SurlyFest, a five-band affair on the so-called Surly Festival Field set-up that will also feature sets by Bad Bad Hats, Mixed Blood Majority, Static Panic and Rachel Kurtz as well as DJ-ing by Shannon Blowtorch. Entry options for that event start at $40 and are also available via eTix.com, First Ave outlets or the brewery.
