1/26/07, 5:55 pm EST

Assignment Three Finalist: Mike DiMaiolo on The Hold Steady (Asbury Park, NJ)

Think you can do better? Prove it, by entering our contest. Win prizes and get your work published. We’ll announce week four’s assignment Monday, 12:00 p.m. EST.

Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

THE HOLD STEADY - 1/19/07

by Mike DiMaiolo
Age: 25

There are nights when Craig Finn thinks Sal Paradise was right, “Boys and girls of America have such a sad time together.” But on this particular night, Finn did his best to prove him wrong. As the crowd and the band together chanted the lyrics to the regular opener, “Positive Jam”, the mood was set for an evening of sniffling indie kids getting down, but holding steady.

While the band worked its way through their setlist, mixing older songs (Banging Camp, The Swish) with ones from their newest album (Stuck Between Stations, Chips Ahoy), there was an omnipresent feeling of relevance hard to ignore. When Finn mentioned a British journalist was in attendance to research the similarities between he and another local legend who would frequent the same club, even the unassuming got the point.

The parallels were there. And as Craig Finn continued to perform on the same stage where Bruce Springsteen once got his start two or so decades prior, that feeling of relevance resonated through the audience maybe deeper than the music itself. The Hold Steady absolutely rocked, but Finn’s connection with his fans during songs like “Party Pit” made the comparisons substantial and the performance unforgettable. Bruce could write lyrics that captured the spirit of his fans’ everyday lives. Finn does him one better by living out his lyrics in front of his fans’ very eyes.

While the crowd sprayed beer and confetti onstage, Finn returned the favor with his own sweat and saliva, chugging beers and liquor in between songs with the rest of the band. By the time they returned for their second encore, well past 1am, they were noticably drunk. No one seemed to care though, so were we (obviously).