A Positive Rage

Listening to the 11-minute closer, ‘Killer Parties’, it becomes absolutely clear what The Hold Steady do that no-one else in the world really does. 

No, it’s not bringing back E-Street Band-era Springsteen with extra grit and punk (– more than The Arcade Fire could ever manage) or indee d, being the first band to namedrop The Replacements who actually make you (as a UK-citizen) want to give the critically-fellated Minnesotans another chance. No, what Craig Finn does is to extend the Between-Song-Banter until it becomes the song, until it becomes the music, until it becomes The Hold Steady (that epic, un-evolving, fashion-transcending bar-band playing in Heaven). Actually, this becomes clear halfway through the first listen to this, the band’s first live-album, even before getting to ‘Killer Parties’, on – say – ‘Girls like Status’, which begins with Finn telling the audience what his father told him (“boys like looks, but girls like status...”) and ends with the whole band singing the punchline (“the Hold Steady... the Hold Steady like status!”)