Separation Sunday Turns 20

Tad Kubler tosses his guitar over his shoulder. He’s in the middle of a solo. The instrument spins around his body like a helicopter blade before coming right back to his hands. The solo keeps going; he doesn’t miss a beat. It’s a beautiful summer day in 2005, and Kubler and his band the Hold Steady are up onstage in front of what might be the biggest crowd that they’ve ever had. This is the Intonation Music Festival, the Chicago one-off that, one year later, will return as the Pitchfork Music Festival. It’s a magical weekend because it represents something new — the internet intruding on real life, a bunch of blog-friendly indie bands who are used to playing tiny dive bars getting the chance to play for actual crowds. Maybe this is nothing new for some of them. Maybe they’ve been playing festivals like this in Europe for a while. But for those of us in the crowd, it feels like something entirely new is happening. When the Hold Steady hold down that mid-afternoon slot, these veteran weekend warriors don’t necessarily seem like they’re playing around with the signifiers of old-school arena rock stardom. They start to look something like rock stars.