I made the trek down to Club Hell last night to see Steel Train, who currently is headlining their own tour. To cope with the freezing rain and heavy winds, I filled my head with the melodies of Steel Train’s most recent album, Trampoline, in hopes of an energetic concert.

I made it in time to catch the tail end of Paper Rival’s set, having missed Stealing Jane’s set entirely. Their decent performance was interrupted on a few occasions by technical difficulties, delaying a show that was already running quite late. They had the musical talent to make for a good show, but the depressing tone of the music, vocals especially, and the entirely lack of subtlety in the drumming detracted from the performance.

Next up was Person L. A beautiful first song led into a solid set, marred by intermittent, out-of-place, sort-of grungy songs. The percussion and guitar were composed eloquently together and flowed in and out of melodies and crescendos, meshing well with the keyboard, bass and vocals. They finished the set with a song with an entirely different sound, “Goodness Gracious,” which killed.

The show was already running really late. Person L had to cut their set short, and only played the last song at the request of Steel Train’s drummer, Jon Shiffman. Steel Train didn’t take the stage until shortly before the show was originally intended to end, and more technical difficulties delayed the start of their set for another ten minutes. We waited as Shiffman and bassist Evan Winiker fooled around, vamping and making jokes. Finally, they decided to start, despite an obnoxious hum from the amps and loud noise from the bar next door.

They jumped straight into the first track off of Trampoline, “I Feel Weird.” At first I was unsure of how their performance would be; Jack Antonoff vocals sounded different from the recorded tracks, and the music didn’t seem too tight. My concerns were immediately dispelled, however, as the band continued into their second song, “Black Eye.” The sound tightened up as the band loosened up; Shiffman’s drumming carried the sound as Antonoff and Winiker danced about, shoeless. Scott Irby-Ranniar, on keyboard, and Daniel Silbert, on guitar, were more stable figures, not moving much from the outer fringes of the stage, but they too seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Steel Train played straight through the first half of Trampoline. A crowd of 30 or 40 was there from the beginning, but as the night went on, it grew to around 100 strong, packed into the small space of Club Hell. Chants of Steel Train emanated from the center of the crowd, and a few girls right behind me spent the entire show jumping up and down and rocking out. Halfway through the show, you could look around the room and see glowing faces smiling up at the band.

After reaching the midpoint of Trampoline with “A Magazine,” Steel Train broke out “Road Song” off of Twilight Tales from the Prairies of the Sun, with one acoustic guitar in Antonoff’s hands and the band crowded around a single microphone. They went from there into a Smashing Pumpkins cover which Antonoff seemed to forget the words of halfway through. It wasn’t a problem though; as soon as Antonoff stopped singing “1979,” the band started into “School is for Losers,” and the crowd ate it up. They ended with a bang, and as the concert had already gone way over the scheduled end-time, they promptly left the stage.

However, a resounding chant of “Steel Train!” silenced the bar’s announcer, and forced Steel Train back on stage for one last song. They brought the saxophonist from Stealing Jane with them, and began a song I didn’t recognize, but that I believe was a remixed version of “Twinkle Your Toes.” It gave Irby-Ranniar one of his few vocal parts of the night, which he performed very well. They began to improvise; solo followed solo, first bass, then sax, drums and finally Antonoff on guitar. The song was filled with a jazz-funk sound, different from the rest of their set, but the crowd loved it. The finale involved six or so would-be endings with ridiculous guitar and drum rhythms, over and over, until the song came to an end and the band said their goodbyes and left the stage. The show left me with a great feeling that kept me warm during the freezing, rainy walk home.

Setlist:
I Feel Weird
Black Eye
Kill Monsters in the Rain
Dakota
Alone on the Sea
Firecracker
A Magazine
Road Song (Acoustic)
1979 (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)
School is for Losers

Encore:
Twinkle Your Toes (?)