Holdin' Steady

Jaded Insider shrugged off a St. Patty's Day hangover and pressed on last night to catch the Hold Steady at the Rolling Stone Live party at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe.

We'll start off by saying we're big Hold Steady fans, and for what it's worth, every time we've seen them we've been more than a little out of it and our memories of said shows are sort of an amazing fuzz. But getting f*ed up is what makes this band so much fun, right? Cause the Hold Steady is that booze-loving bar band that'll drink you, your friends, your aunt, your dog and your ex-best friend from high school under the table. Yeah, OK, whatever. That might be the case, which is totally cool with us, as the Hold Steady is one kick-ass live band and more or less why we love ‘em, but it seemed last night the crowd took that notion a little too far for the not-so-dumpy Hard Rock venue.

Perhaps the open bar and two-hour build-up to the performance was to blame. But whatever the case, there was far too much flinging of SoCo mojitos and Coronas and stage diving (including a late-50-year-old jumping in after the first couple songs) going on. It was as if the crowd felt obligated to indulge in the too-much-beer behavior the band "represents," to the point where the bass player stood at the edge of the stage and encouraged cups of liquor dumped on him just to get it over with. J.I. got completely doused at one point, only to have the 18-year-old next to us repeatedly try to "dry us off," forcing us to relocate.

Aside from that, we don't have many complaints. We half-thought the group's performance would be toned down a bit (since we'd never seen them outside a dingy, dive-bar setting), but such was not the case. Craig Finn is one helluva frontman, encouraging hand claps, fist pumps and sing-along "whoa-whoa" choruses. The crowd was stirring through choice cuts of good and dirty rock 'n' roll such as "The Swish," "Party Pit," and "Stuck Between Stations," and the energy was kicked up considerably after the group launched into "Chips Ahoy!" and "Southtown Girls." The band previewed a few tunes off their forthcoming effort, and judging by the meaty riffs and Finn’s ever-intriguing storytelling, we have a big production to look forward to. Hopefully we’ll be dried off by then.