After a “fantastic show in NYC” (his words), Craig Finn made his way south with Katy Kirby on Sunday for show number five of the U.S. segment of his “This Is What It Looks Like: Solo Songs and Stories” tour. From the beginning, geography and people were the two main recurring themes of the show, in both the stories and the songs shared. Finn released his recent solo album A Legacy of Rentals in 2022 but shared that he is working on a new album to come soon.
Katy Kirby | photo by Ellen C Miller
Katy Kirby started things off with the title of track of her new album Blue Raspberry, which she released earlier in 2024. The room was silent as Kirby made her way through the opening set with songs from both the newest record and her 2021 record Cool Dry Place. She made sure to reassure the audience after the opening track that “Blue Raspberry” is by far the longest song. However, fast forward to mid-set when she decided to perform an unreleased song and shared that it’s still unreleased because “it feels too long, but you all seem tolerant.” Before ending her opening set with “Portals,” she made a joke about covering a Craig Finn song to lead into a cover of “No Children” by The Mountain Goats.
Craig Finn is so punctual that he stepped on stage two and a half minutes before 9 p.m. He did acknowledge at the end of the night how we’ve spent the night celebrating an Eagles victory (over Dallas) by listening to a bunch of sad songs. However, while the sad song count may have been high, there was plenty of humor mixed in to keep everyone smiling. Through the songs and stories shared throughout the show, we learned the differences between the two places Finn has ever lived (Minneapolis and New York), how to know if someone is a “real punk” or “fake punk” (have you ever seen Black Flag live?) AND that Finn will never be able to move from “fake punk” to “real punk” (according to his own rules). We also got to bond as a group over the great, midwestern, late-night eatery, Perkins. And there wasn’t even a test we had to pass to exit the show!
Craig Finn | photo by Ellen C Miller
The set included a mix of Finn’s solo songs from his solo albums along with a few brand new songs, and also included “Certain Songs” at the end to represent The Hold Steady. Check out more photos and Finn’s setlist down below. His tour picks up tomorrow night in Ann Arbor, Michigan; find full tour dates here.