Elly Roberts reviews
The Hold Steady: Boys And Girls In America
Distributed by
Vagrant
- January 2007
- Rating: 10/10
Three buzz words this year – The Hold Steady.
Big things are expected of The Hold Steady in 2007. One audience member
on Later.. with Jools Holland – Hootenanny 2006 predicted Mika would be
a hit and he is already. Another said 2007 was THS’s time too.
So what’s all the fuss about then?
Well, this Minneapolis-bred/Brooklyn-based quintet – Craig Finn (vox), Ted
Kubler (l/guitar), Bobby Drake (drums), Franz Nicolay (keys etc) and Galen
Polivka are basically a no-nonsense band of rustic rockers. There’s something
refreshingly old-fashioned about them too.
In many ways this is a kind of ‘tribute’ to The Boss – Bruce Springsteen,
especially his sonic outfit the E-Street Band.
The Hold Steady certainly know how to kick up a storm, though it’s not what
can be called gratuitous rock, as such – they’re far more subtle than that.
Banging it out from the off, rusty chords and splashes of clunking piano
turn Stuck Between Stations into their calling card, and it’s cool
stuff as well – with Finn’s equally Boss-like vocals being the icing on the
cake.
Chips Ahoy - more dirty chords and rippling organ boosted by some
"Oooah Oooahs" make it a firm concert favourite. It rolls neatly in
to more of the same on Hot Soft Light, another stomping rocker, this
time layered by whistling guitar picks by Ted Kubler, with the pedal-on-the-metal
for a blistering Same Kooks as Kubler goes ballistic with some fine
bluesy solos. Strewth…. the PC’s burning up already!
After a near exhausting 13 minutes, things calm down, nicely. First Night,
a Bob Seeger-type ballad shows they can really mix it too, with the pace
picking up again rapidly on Party Pit, going even faster with anthemic
rocker You Can Make Him Like You. Now comes the clever stuff – awesome
funky basslines and '60s tinged organ with plenty of chanting could make
Massive Nights their breakthrough track – a great single in the making.
It’s not a complete white knuckle ride either – a gentle acoustic guitar leads
us into Citrus, a bar-like Irish sing-along. Penultimate Chillout Tent
is again, more like the Boss than the Boss himself. Blimey, it’s an a capella
intro for the their first Americana song - Southtown Girls, but we’re
soon back into dirty riffs (a la AC/DC), blues breaks, organ and harmonica,
making it the classiest track of the lot.
Tracks include violin, viola, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and lap steel.
See if you can find them.
The Hold Steady are as hot as hell – watch them burn up 2007 quite soon!
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
