The Hold Steady – ABC, Glasgow

In these austere times, the prevailing logic of government seems to be ‘do more with less’. As services get cut, there is a promise that it’s the inessential which will go, that we’ll still have a recognisably efficient public service on offer. Only time will tell if this is achievable. Can you really cut back [...]

Franz Nicolay Leaves the Hold Steady

Recent ELM interviewee Franz Nicolay announced his departure from The Hold Steady yesterday. On his website, the multi-instrumentalist said “”You should know: I’ve left the Hold Steady. I told the band I’d be leaving in early September, played my last show with them in Minneapolis around Thanksgiving, and dotted the t’s and crossed the i’s [...]

21st Century Renaissance Man – Interview with Franz Nicolay

Rock stars these days are, not to put too fine a point on it, dull. They come from nice homes and do Business Studies at the local ex-poly before getting on the Radio 2 playlist and starting to pretend to care about Fair Trade farmers. Their uniform blandness is offensive. Thankfully, the odd few still [...]

The Wednesday What’s New? – Franz Nicolay

Ah, dear Franz Nicolay. Erstwhile keyboard player/soul of the Hold Steady, he released a very wonderful solo album recently and supported Eitzel on his recent tour. It is undoubtedly the best one-man guitar/accordion/banjo show you will see. Here he is performing ‘Jeff Penalty’, a song detailing the time he was asked to support the Dead [...]

The Hold Steady – The Cockpit, Leeds

‘It’s cool to do these shows’ muses frontman Craig Finn. ‘We’ve been out on tour supporting Counting Crows and that’s been great. But it’s really nice to play in front of…’ he pauses and thinks for the most appropriate term ‘…your own people.’ That this literate, ambitious barroom band inspire such devotion among their fanbase [...]

The Hold Steady – Oxford Carling 2

E-Streeter checks out the ELM favourites; Quite simply, it is a crime against the Gods of Music that a band as good as The Hold Steady are playing a theatrical armpit like the Oxford ‘Carling’ (translation: plastic beakers and £4 per pint of fizzy dishwater) Academy on a Monday night in December to about 500 [...]

Trips of Faith and Devotion

The Hold Steady play Glasgow tonight and yes, of course I am going. I’m then, rather tragically, trooping round England to see them with my equally sad friend to such hotspots as Wolverhampton and Bristol. It is, as they say, 24/7 round these parts. What is it about rock music that does this to us? [...]

Truly Unknown Pleasures

By contributor Scant Regard; Simple, sometimes unknown, pleasures. People, I have some bad news. This will not be another of my misanthropic rants. There are no eff or c words here. I’ve just experienced something very unfamiliar; an epiphany, if you will. Let me explain. Through a series of SNAFUs too tedious to explain here, [...]

The Hold Steady – Newcastle Carling Academy 2

‘So you all up for a good time?’ asks Craig Finn laconically as his band take to the stage in the small but perfectly formed Carling Academy 2. It’s a redundant question – Newcastle on a Friday night is always up for a party, even more so when hosting the mighty Minneapolis combo. It’s a [...]

It Says Nothing To Me About My Life – Music and Issues

‘Where are the songs about boozers and builders, banning the bomb and abusing the children?’ Carter USM – Do Re Mi, So Far So Good (1992) ELM, musically speaking, has a sweet tooth. Things that are wrong for you, things you should know better, we are there. Mass produced, music for the masses? We don’t [...]

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