The Hold Steady - T-Shirt Tux lyrics

There's that girl from your work and
She's here with some guy
He's got a t-shirt tux and piano key tie
The rest of us were rolling our eyes at
The handshake he did with the doorman
But that's how he gets the stuff
That makes him feel so important

And we all need something to
Get through the night
'Cause the kitchen gets hot and
The fingers get fried
A Pontius Pilate played to the crowd and they
All thought they knew what he wanted
And everyone's sorry when they
See that it's dawn
I assume that's the reason we do this
And me and the guy with the piano key
Tie are probably gonna play
Right through this



Tiny little triumphs, massive bloody failures
I heard that there were sailors
Who dread coming to shore
I guess it's true, it's true I guess
But tonight I fear my sensors
Aren't receiving at their best

And everyone's acting like they
Hate that they're here
Baring their teeth and sharpening spears
The stuff that they put in
The punch bowl tonight
Makes it too hard to pay much attention
But, your war of attrition turned out
To be a major attraction

A boy and a girl were draining their beers
He said "Stalin was a weatherman
To start his career
And Johnny Cash was in the service when
The news came through the wire
And it's weird how you feel
When bad people die"
She said "yeah, I guess, whatever
All your fun little facts are never
Going to keep us together"

We'll all be doomed once we leave this room
We're spinning through the turnstiles
And we're sleeping in our shoes
While we're sad and stoned
While we're all hooked up at home
But when we leave the house, we're homesick
Got the disconnection blues
There were multiple dispensers and some
Friends we couldn't use

There's a candle on the table
There's a photo on the fridge
There's a bunch of things we said we
Were gonna do then never did
And sometimes it's all slippery sidewalks
And trying to find a place to park
Turning on a burner that never catches spark
They said everything's perception but
That's not really right
Let's all try to tell a little truth tonight
Let's all try to tell a little truth tonight