BY DAISY SCHMITT

In print | Published November 13, 2008

Last Saturday night, the Electric Factory was lit up by the hot, soft light of the Hold Steady, one of the only true rock bands alive and kicking in today’s music scene. The venue was hardly packed, as most ticket-holders were there for indie southern-rock ensemble Drive-By Truckers. The Hold Steady fans, however, were easily identifiable. Squished like sardines at the front of the stage an hour before the show began, they were a motley crew: middle-aged men and their sons, bespectacled hipsters, mustachioed and leather jacket-clad men who’d clearly been rocking for years, awkward twenty-somethings and giggling, flannel-sporting teenage girls. What did they all have in common? A palpable and urgent adoration for the honesty, simplicity and musicianship of the band about to take the stage.

Starting off with the effervescent “Stay Positive” from their latest album of the same name, The Hold Steady began the show on a blazing note of rock and roll that set off a surge of jumping, chanting fans toward the stage, each one of them belting along to lead singer and guitarist Craig Finn’s calls of “Whoa-oh-oh.”

Finn’s showmanship was a definite highlight—his unique hybrid of singing and storytelling made for a performance that was intimate, engaging and earnest. In the especially narrative “Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night,” Finn spoke the lyrics, “I met William Butler Yeats, Sunday night dance party … I think it was … 1988?” as though he were telling the tale to a friend. And there was never a moment where Finn’s hands were at his sides—they were in the air, they were miming the words he was singing, they were flailing. He was like a rock and roll preacher, enlightening his head-banging, jumping, screaming congregation.

Living up to the promise Craig makes in “Constructive Summer” that the band’s “psalms are sing-along songs,” The Hold Steady seemed to turn music, especially the experience of live music, into something of a religious experience. This was, perhaps, the most beautiful part of the show: the band’s ability to unite 14 and 41-year-olds and everyone in between, all of them singing along to the same words at the top of their lungs while moving to the beat of the same music, fists pounding in the air as they “raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer.”

Charlotte Gaw ’12, who saw the Hold Steady for the first time last Saturday night, felt overwhelmed by the passion that the band brought to the stage: “I would just say that the energy at the show was really incredible. It was clear that Craig and the rest of the band was really excited to be there, which made it so much better. The crowd was so into it,” she said.

Equally impressive was keyboardist Franz Nicolay, also of World/Inferno Friendship Society (who, by the way, Hold Steady fans, is coming out with a solo album Jan. 13). The exultant piano in “Stuck Between Stations” and “Sequestered in Memphis” complemented Finn’s narrative style and showcased the band’s seasoned musicianship. In true “less talk, more rock” spirit, Finn spoke to the audience in only a few instances — once to tell the tale of how The Hold Steady was formed: a story particularly appropriate for their current tour, as it was at a Drive-By Truckers show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom in 2002 that Finn was inspired by the realization that good music was not, in fact, dead. “I wanted to be in a band again,” Finn said.

As the night closed with “Slapped Actress,” fans nostalgically once again sang along with Craig’s “Whoa-oh-oh’s”—only this time, sans instruments, until the “Whoa-oh-oh’s” became a sort of punk rock kumbaya that captured the spirit of The Hold Steady’s particular brand of intimate rock and roll.

At the end of it all, the boys and girls of America were impressed: “I think the Hold Steady are the best band in America,” Hold Steady veteran Joel Mittleman ’09 said. “After seeing them 10 times now, they only get better each performance. I thought they were dead on, maybe the best I’ve ever seen them.” It was, truly, a massive night, where every song was right.

« RETURN TO LIVING & ARTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »