It’s not holiday season without The Hold Steady‘s annual Massive Nights run at NYC’s Brooklyn Bowl, and the 2024 edition is fast-approaching; it goes down from December 4 – December 7. Tickets are still available, and as always, you can expect different special guest openers each night, unique setlists, exclusive merch, and more surprises.
With Massive Nights 2024 approaching, Craig Finn told us about five of his favorite moments from throughout Massive Nights’ first eight years. Read on for what he had to say, and see some posters, photos, and videos from throughout Massive Nights’ existence…
1. 2016 – The First Year
The first year of the Brooklyn Bowl was a celebration of the ten year anniversary of our third album Boys & Girls in America. We hadn’t played much in 2015 or 2016, but we’d just performed BAGIA at Riot Fest in Denver and Chicago. We got the idea to do three shows at Brooklyn Bowl, and when they sold out quickly we added a fourth. It wasn’t even called “Massive Nights” yet, that came later. For us, the crazy thing was how many people travelled to Brooklyn and saw multiple shows. The evening before the Wednesday show, I met a couple that had travelled from New Zealand for the event. That made me feel like we were on to something. All of the shows were great and the Brooklyn Bowl management and staff were incredible to work with. After the last show, BB owner Peter Shapiro came in to the dressing room and proclaimed “Next year we do eight shows!” We thought that was too many, but we agreed this was very much worth doing again. Now that it’s become an annual event it’s become a running joke- each year at the end Pete suggests we do eight the following year, and I exhaustedly shake my head no.
2. Frank Turner Opening Set 2017
We’ve always wanted to have special openers at the shows, and so we haven’t been shy about trying to call in a few favors here and there. When we asked Frank Turner if he’d consider doing a solo show, we thought it was a Hail Mary, but he quickly agreed. We kept it under our hats until about the day of show. In typical Frank fashion, he didn’t make it easy on himself. He flew over from the UK, bowled with fans before his set, played a fantastic show that went over hugely with the crowd, joined us for “Constructive Summer” and then went to the airport and headed back to the UK. He said that when he left he told his partner that he was “going to church”. No sleep, just rock. International trans-Atlantic rock. He may have regretted the decision 24 hours into the trip, but the band and the audience were thrilled to have him, and it was a legendary Massive Nights performance.
3. Ted Leo & The Hold Steady perform Thin Lizzy’s “The Cowboy Song” 2018
We are all huge Ted Leo fans, so we were very psyched that he agreed to do a solo set opening for the first show of the 2018 run. Ted is a noted fellow Phil Lynott head, so we floated the idea of a cover of the Thin Lizzy classic “The Cowboy Song” with him. I was planning on splitting the verses with him but when we ran it at soundcheck, he sounded so much better on it that we let him do the heavy lifting. We brought it out in the encore, Ted crushed it, Tad and Steve’s dual guitars were blazing, people went nuts, and I was particularly proud when I changed the “It’s okay amigo” line to “It’s okay Ted Leo.” By the end of the show I was so charged up that I stayed out way too late celebrating post show at Lake Street, making for an uphill Thursday. I’ve since learned to pace myself a little better.
4. The Pandemic Shows 2020
For part of 2020, the possibility of a 5th annual Massive Nights celebration was looking bleak due to the global pandemic. But where there is a will, there is a way. Alongside our wonderful partners at the Brooklyn Bowl, we devised a plan to do a three night livestream. We actually rehearsed a few days at the empty club and then turned the cameras on Thursday night. A ton of people tuned in, and the technology allowed viewers to opt to have their cameras on. So while we played, we could look at monitors around the club showing people from around the world singing and dancing in their living rooms. We had more young children watching those “shows” than any other THS event. People held up signs to say where they were watching from. Some others showed off their pets. A pair of turtles got into it and inspired a classic THS shirt. At the end, the director toggled through all of the viewers as us and the sparse BB staff stood on the bowling lanes and watched in awe as we saw The Unified Scene assembled remotely. While we will always prefer the real live thing, those livestreams were one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever had as part of this band. Not so much a reminder of what we were missing, but also a reminder of all that we have.
5. Knowlej Ra Tribute 2023
Knowlej Ra was a Brooklyn Bowl sound engineer who started working monitors at an early Massive Nights. He immediately hit it off with the band. The monitor desk at the Bowl is on stage, and during our sets Knowlej could be seen at the back of stage right smiling ear to ear and enthusiastically moving to the music. Over the years Knowlej became an important and integral part of the Massive Nights weekends. In 2022 he moved to Florida, but he assured us he’d be back to work Massive Nights that December, and sure enough, he was true to his word. In June 2023, Knowlej suddenly passed away and the band and the Brooklyn Bowl community were heartbroken. Massive Nights would never quite be the same. The Bowl put up a plaque at the monitor desk to honor him, and when people started sharing their Knowlej stories, we learned that he would order a Grand Mariner shot when hanging out with co-workers at the end of a shift. So, on the last night of Massive Nights 2023, we conspired with the Bowl to hand out hundreds of shots of Grand Mariner and raise a toast to Knowlej and all his contributions to THS and Massive Nights. Of course, we remember him every time we take that stage. A bittersweet memory, but a testament to the friends and community that has come up around Massive Nights.
Again, this year’s Massive Nights goes down December 4-7 at Brooklyn Bowl in NYC. Get tickets now. Here’s this year’s flyer:
