The Hold Steady were in town for a show at the State Theatre on Friday. I have yet to understand the appeal of going to a rock show at the State Theatre. The music is best appreciated in a dark, smoky, crowded bar where you have to dodge the lit cigarette of the drunk guy next to you, and there is a constant and reassuring ebb and flow to and from the bar to order another round of drinks.

And don’t get me started on the wrongness of assigned seating at a rock show.

Anyway, I didn’t go to either the actual show or the show as imagined in my head, but I did listen to Boys and Girls in America a lot this weekend. Especially Southtown Girls, named after a small disused strip mall in the suburban wasteland that is Bloomington.

And although I don’t recall Southtown (or the girls that frequent said mall) being quite as nostalgically wondrous even in the olden days, that doesn’t make it any less of a decent anthem. 

Maybe it also doesn’t hurt that I can say, “I totally know where all those places are.” And feel like that makes me a little cooler. 

‘Cause I totally know where all those places are.