1/26/07, 5:52 pm EST

Assignment Three Finalist: Sarah Collins on The Hold Steady (Chicago)

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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 - 1/1/07

by Sarah Collins
Age: 18

As a general rule, New Year’s Day is a terrible, terrible day to see a concert. The hangovers were hanging in the air, and it felt kind of bad making a sound. Not like a little alcohol was going to stop the Hold Steady though, they’ll drink a person under the table and write a song about it in the same night. Which, one presumes, is what was going on the night before at the New Year’s Eve show. This was the after party.

They exploded onto the stage with “Stuck Between Stations” on the second night of their brief stint in Chicago. Three ACDC rejects and the best dressed gypsy anyone’s ever laid eyes on, describing themselves when they sang, “He was drunk and exhausted, he was critically acclaimed and respected.” Fortunately, they didn’t play like they were either one, they played like excitable children, throwing cigarettes into the audience, miming lyrics, and jumping up and down with fists clenched, grinning. They played the new songs with something more than gusto, sticking to them for most of the set. The old ones they tossed in occasionally with a knowing grin, as if to say, “Yeah, you remember these?”

To say they are a live band wouldn’t do them justice, their records are phenomenal as well. It’s just that where most bands fall short of the acclaim – playing the songs to a room full of people who already know them, staring that acclaim in the face – this band excels. These aren’t rock stars, half of them were in Lifter Puller for Christ’s sake. These are the guys you want to party with while their songs play in the background, only to wake up the next morning with a hangover and do it all again. Chicago wasn’t tired, Chicago was wired, and The Hold Steady threw the switch.