 "Photo: Alma Hernandez/The Pan American")
 "Photo: Alma Hernandez/ The Pan American")
According to Jack Antonoff, a lot of bands often don’t get the chance to tour the country with ‘90s pop sensation Hanson (of “MMMBop” fame) and then open for Sire Records’ Tegan and Sara immediately after. But that is all a part of the “exciting year” his band, Steel Train, has gone through.
“We feel really honored that we get to tour with different bands across the spectrum and that we’ve been somewhat embraced by different scenes,” said Antonoff, standing in the lobby of the 2,900-seat theater known as The University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall. The five-piece group just performed a sold out show Friday night in Austin opening for Tegan and Sara and Detroit-born Holly Miranda.
To continue their exciting year, the band will play festivals like South by Southwest, Coachella, and Bamboozle as well as release a full-length album June 15. Before then, Steel Train will return to Texas on a short headlining tour, taking the stage at the McAllen Creative Incubator Saturday, March 13. They will be joined by Seattle band Barcelona. Rio Grande Valley musicians D_Minor and Aaron Stephens will open the show.
Steel Train’s sound has evolved from an alternative country, jam band, blues, and rock type of music to a more refined Indie rock sound. Antonoff, the group’s lead vocalist and guitarist, describes their music as very candid, aggressive, energetic, and non-benign. The music tells about life experiences because he feels it is the only thing he can offer to the world that isn’t contrived.
“I think if everyone just tells their story, it would make the world a better place,” said the 25-year-old. “I get very inspired by hearing what other people have gone through. It makes me feel less alone. Just like in this tour, I think it’s so important to be political about certain things, like Tegan and Sara, if they weren’t out of the closet, completely open about being gay, like literally they probably changed thousands of people’s lives. For me, that’s talking about bad things that I’ve been through and sort of trying to carry on with my life.”
Steel Train was formerly a part of the Drive-Thru Records label roster. They shared the honor with Indie/pop/punk bands like Hellogoodbye, The Starting Line, New Found Glory, and Dashboard Confessional at some point, but now Antonoff says that not being signed to a label is actually a really great thing.
“There’s going to be tons of EPs, vinyl, remixes, and a lot of really exciting stuff, some of which I can’t really talk about yet, a lot of things you can’t do if you’re locked in with someone who is calculating every move,” he explained. “We’re really looking at this as our chance to make up for a lot of lost artistic time.”
Local promotional group Goodbar Productions is responsible for booking the band’s McAllen gig. In its history, the two-piece team has brought other Indie acts like Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club, Miniature Tigers, and, most recently, Cursive to the Valley, in an effort to whet the area’s appetite for bands in this particular genre of music.
Patrick Garcia, one half of Goodbar, said the duo is going back to the basics with Steel Train, after having focused on thematically based shows in 2010 so far.
“There’s a market for out-of-town groups and major label groups that come in that have kind of been in the hardcore and the screamo scene, which is fine,” said Garcia, a graduate student in cultural and literary studies at The University of Texas-Pan American. “I definitely think there is a pent-up demand for this Indie style of music. I think this is a show all the kids have been waiting for.”
He says that this deprivation has an effect on show-goers, making them more energetic, exciting, and enthused than a crowd from a major city that is exposed to such shows on a more consistent basis.
“Cursive has openly stated that their show back here in November was one of their top three best shows out of a 30-day tour,” he noted. “Miniature Tigers said on their blog that McAllen, Texas was definitely their most surprising show of their tour throughout the summer because they were not expecting people to be not only receptive of their music, but excited, enthused, and expressive about it. I think Steel Train will be pleasantly surprised because they haven’t played down here in five or six years.”
Antonoff has similar expectations.
“What I’m hoping for from McAllen is the same thing I hope for from a non-major city. When we go to places like that is that it’ll be more exciting because less people go through there,” he said. “That’s always a fun thing to look forward to when you go somewhere that’s not Austin or Dallas. We’ve had some of our best shows in St. George, Utah, because not a lot of bands go through.”
Steel Train’s 2007 release “Trampoline” was lauded by Entertainment Weekly as “so relentlessly sincere and introspective that it’s downright enervating.” Two tracks from their untitled follow-up album are available as free downloads on www.steeltrain.net and www.myspace.com/steeltrain. Steven McDonald, who produced Steel Train’s next album, also produced The Format’s critically acclaimed album “Dog Problems.”
Barcelona’s song “Please Don’t Go” was featured in a video of the Kuroshio Sea aquarium in Japan, one of the largest aquariums in the world, and has garnered over 4.1 million views on YouTube since July 2009.
Tickets for the show are $10 and can be purchased at Ambrosia Coffee Shop at 1000 Martin Ave. in McAllen. The McAllen Creative Incubator is located at 1001 S. 16th St.
For more information on this show, visit www.goodbarlovesyou.com, www.steeltrain.net, or www.myspace.com/barcelona.
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