For the last 2 years, THE HOLD STEADY have been “that band” for me. I’ve been unable to contemplate a better band existing on this planet, none with better songs about adult debauchery and those moments where alcohol and relationships mix. It was the album Boys And Girls In America that elevated a band I once thought of as a poor man’s Replacements to a band that is clearly the only one worthy enough to take the ‘mats crown, put it on and drunkeny dance around the stage slurring the words. It took a few records but I’m now bitten by THS, and they show no signs of letting go.

This past Friday I finally (and after many missed opportunites) got to see them live. The band was part of a showcase tied into the Tribeca Film Festival that was being held at Webster Hall. The crowd was a weird mix of aging hipsters, and youngsters in hoodies. Taking a few glances around the room I didn’t expect much from the crowd, being at shows in NYC almost automatically makes it uncool to move and “the standing still” becomes the dance of choice.

It seemed like it would be any other rock show…and then the band took the stage! Frontman Craig Finn took no time leading the charge. Jumping around and flailing his arms in a manner only really un-rhythmic white boys would appreciate. But unlike the ridicule you got for having no rhythm in grade school, this made Finn the coolest guy in the room as the band ripped through their first song, “Stuck Between Stations”.

The more Finn danced and gyrated, the more the audience seemed to let go, returning the favor of more than a few dances, jumps, pogos, and finger points. It was one of the most lively crowds I’ve seen at an NYC show in a long time. They were older. They were drunk. And I couldn’t help but smile. Because I realized Finn and the rest of The Hold Steady had achieved what half the failed musicians in the audience wanted at some point. They became the successful bar band that made it AFTER what most industry norms deem to be as “old”. The crowd was dancing for their anti-rocks star, who was up on stage at a venue like Webster Hall, and he was dancing back.

And what a great anti-rock stars the crowd has in THS. The songs are amazingly hook-laden, the lyrics are funny, sweet, amazing, raunchy, and complex at the same time. The band performed the entire night loose enough to fit the mood of the party, but tight enough to warrant them all the “best live band” accolades they always seem to get.

The band will be putting out their 4th album this summer on Vagrant. And if it’s half as good as Boys And Girls… it will indeed be the best album of the year. I don’t know how the band does it but they do. I have to echo a review I once read about the band, it simply read, “Damn you, Hold Steady. How can any band be this good?”

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