Turn down the frown
Steve Baylin
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The Hold Steady: Dealing away the bad cards
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The Hold Steady are living proof that happiness makes great art too
At its best, rock'n'roll without friction or conflict is akin to Mick sans Keith: Somehow, it feels incomplete. Craig Finn, the down to earth, bespectacled pilot light of New York's The Hold Steady, tends to agree, albeit with reservations.
"I don't think you have to be a tragic figure to make great art," says Finn while on the road in Oklahoma City. "But I think you have to be in touch with suffering and hurt as well as elation and joy to understand the range of human experience."
And in touch with it he most certainly is. In fact, precious few contemporary writers tap into that range of human experience better than Finn and The Hold Steady. His bruised, literate prose burns as cautionary tales take flight in anthemic, feverish sing-along psalms with equal parts sympathy, scorn, humour and hope.
If Saint Joe served up public service announcements with guitars, The Hold Steady, over the last six years, has seen fit to follow suit, delivering sonic scared-straight sessions with six strings. Still, at 38 (an age, he admits, "that suits him"), Finn is "relaxed and very content these days." But has he ever felt contentment to be antithetical to genuine rock'n'roll swagger?
"Absolutely," he says.
"A few years back I stopped drinking so much and I started exercising a lot. For a while, I was kind of like, 'Well, I'm feeling healthy, but I'm not writing songs.' I just kind of got through that. Being in a rock'n'roll band, that's hard enough - I should be able to find enough things in that
day-to-day world to be creative. But it was a challenge at first."And the challenges persist: When long-time keyboardist Franz Nicolay amicably left the band last winter, The Hold Steady chose to remain a quartet, exploring new space during sessions for their fifth and latest record, Heaven Is Whenever. Still, when Finn sings the line "a struggle still feels wonderful most days" on the sweeping crunch of A Slight Discomfort, he does so with a newfound sense of wisdom.
"Life is a struggle, there will be ups and downs, everyone is dealt some bad cards," explains Finn. "Understanding that and trying to persevere is what I meant by that line. We can step outside of our problems, and challenges, and reach this place of euphoria and joy, if only for little bits of every day."
The Hold Steady
@ Ottawa Bluesfest
Subway Stage, July 17, 7:45 p.m.
Not bad at all this year. I miss this show above but I did manage to make 7 out of 12 shows with only 1 i missed due to the heat. I sold my tickets to get my money back for the shows I didnt' want to go to when i bought the walk-in pass. All in all, you can't beat seeing all these acts for $22 a day. I even scored a free Virgin Radio T-shirt at the event. Mark Monaghan...dude you rock. I hope he can get us Grand Funk Railroad next year! Thanks so much!!!!!
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Ger Madden
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