"Anyone who doesn't think rock and roll can save you has never been to a Hold Steady show," a fan said on the documentary DVD that accompanies "A Positive Rage," The Hold Steady's live album recorded during the 2006 Boys and Girls in America Tour. The combination of the album and the documentary tries to capture the essence of the band's live set during an era when its music was first gaining a widespread following and its performances were graduating from smaller bars to larger clubs.
Formed in Brooklyn in 2003, The Hold Steady initially coalesced as a classic-rock revival project in reaction to the prevailing trend towards dance-rock and synth-pop in New York at the time. The band released "Almost Killed Me" (2004), "Separation Sunday" (2005), "Boys and Girls in America" (2006) and "Stay Positive" (2008), garnering critical acclaim and a wider following with each successive record.
The live recordings and documentary footage of "A Positive Rage" were taken during the tour following the release of the band's third album, but only half of the songs on the CD come from "Boys and Girls in America." The remainder includes a sprinkling of mainstays from the first two albums, including "The Swish" and "Your Little Hoodrat Friend," as well as some previous B-sides and a few songs that would eventually show up on "Stay Positive," such as "Ask Her for Adderall" and "Lord, I'm Discouraged." All told, this single live set, which was recorded at the Metro Chicago on Halloween night, 2007, includes 17 well-mixed tracks.
The gregarious and gruff-voiced Craig Finn pumps energy into The Hold Steady's live show, and that liveliness comes across both on the documentary DVD and on the album. For listeners uninitiated to his rough, often spoken word-like delivery, this album is probably not the best introduction to the band. On studio recordings, Finn focuses on making his singing more melodic, but in the live shows, he works on the assumption that the energy, enthusiasm and the phrasing of his delivery should frequently take precedence over the song's tune.
What is fascinating about this trade-off is that what he does works. In the documentary, he admits in an interview that he's not a particularly good singer, yet the very next minute he connects instantly and intimately with an audience. Finn's secret lies in the authenticity of his words, which are written informally, the same way he speaks. The narratives of his songs might not come entirely from personal experience, but one gets the feeling, listening to his tales of sex, drugs, booze and rock, that he's seen it all first-hand.
Finn, however, would be little more than a drunken poet without such a skilled band of musicians backing him. All of The Hold Steady's songs depend heavily on the band's unsung heroes, the rock-solid rhythm section of drummer Bobby Drake and bassist Galen Polivka. On top of this foundation, the classically-trained pianist Franz Nicolay and the unabashedly classic-rock shred-guitarist Tad Kubler lay down intertwining riffs.
What's great about the members of The Hold Steady is that, by rights, they shouldn't even be doing what they're doing. With the youngest members of the band exiting their thirties, they are all, by conventional wisdom, too old to be rock stars. The short, pudgy-adorable Finn looks the exact opposite of the traditional image of the hard-rocking, long-haired, tight-pants-wearing lead singer. Nevertheless, he dances and struts around the stage, gesticulating spastically, too ridiculous for audiences not to share in his joy.
Indeed, that joy is what The Hold Steady is all about. The band's success is built on extensive touring -- they played 270 shows in support of one album -- and on connecting to the audiences at their shows, one person at a time. This is by no means a flawless album, but there is little doubt that every member of the audience had a fantastic Halloween night and received Finn's genuine gratitude at the end.
As an introduction to "Killer Parties," The Hold Steady's traditional show-closer, Finn declares, "I say the same thing every night. I know I'm not fooling anyone, but I only say it because it's true ... There is so much joy in what we do up here. I want to thank you for being here to share that joy with us."
