Rabidly popular and derivative

Posted: Sunday, June 17, 2007 1:50 AM by John Roderick

The Hold Steady
These fellows have a rabid popularity that leaves me deeply conflicted. Although their live show is undeniably full of energy, full of engagement, and full of whimsy, their music is full of s--t.

I mean that admiringly, since most of rock and roll is similarly full of s--t, (Jim Morrison was 100 percent full of s--t). But after a song and a half, I’d lost track of the number of total rip-offs in their tunes, so much so that their set played like a medley of the greatest hits of the E Street Band, Bad Company, Foreigner and Styx. As played by your uncle’s friends.

The singer talk/sings like Bruce Springsteen during a breakdown, and although he may be saying insightful, hilarious things, the whole lot taken together is inconceivably derivative. This is heresy to say in certain circles, and I was stopped numerous times throughout the day by people I respect and admire who all exclaimed, “Weren’t the Hold Steady awesome?” but I couldn’t get past it.

I felt like I was at a dot-com Christmas party and a bunch of drunk webmasters got up on stage to jam, with the company cut-up rapping their mission-statement out of a three-ring binder. And everyone at the party said, “Whoa, those guys are actually good. They should form a band.”