It seems music festivals are a dime a dozen nowadays — whether they be of the glitzy, ultra-headliner, Instagram variety, or a humbler, local attempt, there’s definitely a surplus. In 2006, when Minneapolis bar band The Hold Steady released “Chillout Tent,” they were addressing the latter, with lyrics and instrumentals that remain relevant nearly 20 years later.
Boys and Girls in America is a concept album by the band and, fittingly, “Chillout Tent” follows those two characters: a nameless boy and girl in America, specifically attendees at an imagined Boston music festival. After indulging in festivities a bit too hard (shrooms), the characters meet at the titular chillout tent. Dave Pirner and Elizabeth Elmore join on guest vocals to play their respective roles, while lead vocalist Craig Finn provides narration.
With the backdrop of the medic tent at an insignificant music festival and three minutes and forty four seconds of runtime, the band creates a brief yet beautiful love story. The characters have time to meet, flirt, and kiss because: “They had the privacy of bedsheets / And all the other kids were mostly in comas.” The instrumentals are the driving force for the words, perfectly balanced against the three disparate voices. It all just sounds so huge — each instrument, each line, it commands attention. This isn’t a song for background entertainment while studying or working out; it’s one I personally have to simply sit and listen to just to attempt to take it all in. Booming ballads are familiar to The Hold Steady’s catalogue, but this song in particular continues to stand out.
In one moment of narration, Finn describes the boy as: “Tennyson in denim and sheepskin.” It’s something only Craig Finn could write, and it perfectly sums up the band. Their songs are akin to poetry, pure poetry, yet they carry that Springsteen style with the drawl of your average Midwestern guy. 19 years and six studio albums later, as the band continues to intertwine their poetic persuasion with good old rock and roll, “Chillout Tent” remains a perfect example of The Hold Steady doing what they uniquely do best.
