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Elly Roberts reviews
Vagrant
- January 2007
- Rating: 10/10
Three buzz words this year The Hold Steady.
Big things are expected of The Hold Steady in 2007. One audience memberon Later.. with Jools Holland Hootenanny 2006 predicted Mika would bea hit and he is already. Another said 2007 was THSs time too.So whats all the fuss about then?
Well, this Minneapolis-bred/Brooklyn-based quintet Craig Finn (vox), TedKubler (l/guitar), Bobby Drake (drums), Franz Nicolay (keys etc) and GalenPolivka are basically a no-nonsense band of rustic rockers. Theres somethingrefreshingly old-fashioned about them too.In many ways this is a kind of tribute to The Boss Bruce Springsteen,especially his sonic outfit the E-Street Band.
The Hold Steady certainly know how to kick up a storm, though its not whatcan be called gratuitous rock, as such theyre far more subtle than that.Banging it out from the off, rusty chords and splashes of clunking pianoturn Stuck Between Stations into their calling card, and its coolstuff as well with Finns equally Boss-like vocals being the icing on thecake.
Chips Ahoy – more dirty chords and rippling organ boosted by some“Oooah Oooahs” make it a firm concert favourite. It rolls neatly into more of the same on Hot Soft Light, another stomping rocker, thistime layered by whistling guitar picks by Ted Kubler, with the pedal-on-the-metalfor a blistering Same Kooks as Kubler goes ballistic with some finebluesy solos. Strewth . the PCs burning up already!
After a near exhausting 13 minutes, things calm down, nicely. First Night,a Bob Seeger-type ballad shows they can really mix it too, with the pacepicking up again rapidly on Party Pit, going even faster with anthemicrocker You Can Make Him Like You. Now comes the clever stuff awesomefunky basslines and ’60s tinged organ with plenty of chanting could makeMassive Nights their breakthrough track a great single in the making.
Its not a complete white knuckle ride either a gentle acoustic guitar leadsus into Citrus, a bar-like Irish sing-along. Penultimate Chillout Tentis again, more like the Boss than the Boss himself. Blimey, its an a capellaintro for the their first Americana song – Southtown Girls, but weresoon back into dirty riffs (a la AC/DC), blues breaks, organ and harmonica,making it the classiest track of the lot.
Tracks include violin, viola, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and lap steel.
See if you can find them.
The Hold Steady are as hot as hell watch them burn up 2007 quite soon!
Weblinks:theholdsteady.com /divisionpromotions.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Stuck Between Stations
2. Chips Ahoy
3. Hot Soft Light
4. Same Kooks
5. First Night
6. Party Pit
7. You Can Make Him Like You
8. Massive Nights
9. Citrus
10. Chillout Tent
11. Southtown Girls
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.