Camden Music: The Hold Steady

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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 11 December 2008

Ready, Steady? Bar-rockers in welcome return

PREVIEW: THE HOLD STEADY
Roundhouse

A COLLECTIVE sigh of disappointment rippled through fans of bar-rock storytelling when The Hold Steady cancelled their UK tour in October.
So this month’s rescheduled dates are a welcome festive gift for the band’s following.
The American
five-piece have carved out a reputation for songs about sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and the hangovers that inevitably follow.
Often compared to Bruce Springsteen because of their no-nonsense sound and portraits of fast-lived lives, the band actually inhabit their own lyrical landscape.
Last year’s breakthrough album, Boys And Girls In America, chronicled the thrills and spills of being young, while this year’s Stay Positive takes a look at growing older.
Shot through both albums, and the band’s earlier two, are Craig Finn’s stories of love, drinking, addiction and Catholicism.
Guitarist Tad Kubler has thankfully overcome the pancreatitis which scuppered the original tour; good news for the band since their sound relies heavily (literally) on his crunching contribution.
The show should give welcome relief from the season’s sickly soundtrack of reheated Christmas “classics” and undercooked reality TV leftovers.
ALAN STAFFORD
* The Hold Steady play the Roundhouse on December 17

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