Craig Finn could well be in with a shot for the most enthusiastic performer ever. Balding, bespectacled and on the wrong side of 35, he resembles more an amicable accountant than your traditional rock star. But get him on stage, and he’s like an over-excitable schoolchild- shuffling, dancing, bouncing, never standing still for a second. He sometimes gets so carried away, he forgets to sing into his microphone. Rarely do you see someone with such a obvious love of what he does, and his charisma carries a show that sometimes lacks in musical variety. That’s not to say that the Hold Steady don’t have a stable of fantastic bar-blues that’d do Springsteen proud, but with every song revolving around girls, drinking and the ingestion of illegal substances it does get a little samey after a while. Nonetheless, anthems like Chips Ahoy! and Sequestered in Memphis are great fun, and there’s not another keyboardist in music with as amazing a ‘tache as Franz Nicolay, the camp wine-twirling Frenchmen whose flamboyant synths give their melodies their sparkle.
(Photo: "Hoodrat" (Flickr))
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