The Hold Steady at Shepherds Bush Empire 02/07/2007

The gig started with us being deafened by The Steers, a band who obviously grew up listening to the same records as the Ordinary Boys (with some Blur thrown in). The volume (God, I sound old) and the mix made it hard to decide if they were actually any good or not, and made a number of their songs sound the same. I think this is probably a shame, and that they may be worth keeping an eye on over the next 18 months.

And so to the Hold Steady. Playing to a capacity crowd just over 2000 (singer Craig Finn claimed it may have been their biggest headlining gig audience anywhere in the world. As he said - after apologising to those in balcony ("not used to having anyone up there") it's not bad for a band that were deemed 'too American' for an UK audience) they kicked off with the powerful threesome of: Stuck Between Stations, The Swish, and (new single) Chips Ahoy. My companion for the evening, Alison (who replaced Pete who seemed to think a holiday with his girlfriend was more important ) was immediately bopping around and smiling. And the great songs just kept a coming. The band played the whole of the Boys and Girls in America album (including 'Chill out Tent' which had been missing from the Borderline gig earlier this year) as well as Barfruit Blues, Little Hoodrat Friend, How a Resurrection Really Feels and of course, Killer Parties (although we missed on the dragging people onto stage - a downside of bigger gigs?) . Highlights? Hard not to enjoy the natural sing-a-longs of Chips Ahoy, Massive Nights, and You Can Make him Like You; but great to hear Chill Out Tent and How a Resurrection Really Feels live.

All in all, a lot of fun, with the band, lead by the manic Craig Finn, seeming once again to be really enjoying the process of playing live for people. A great band.

Let there be Geek!

Evening Standard/This is London review and it seems the band had time for a warm up gig last night too.