Hold Steady - 4Music stage, V festival, August 16th
Monday, 18 Aug 2008 15:03
The Hold Steady took to the 4Music stage at V on August 16th
inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley sees his love for the Hold Steady grow at the southern leg of V 2008.
A raucous Constructive Summer crashes in, before a stirring Chips Ahoy and the breakthrough brilliance of Craig Finn at his most cynical on Your Little Hoodrat Friend.
He shivers about the stage like a 38-year-old ADHD sufferer - or "Hiro Nakamura with a Springsteen fetish" according to one
inthenews.co.uk correspondent - on Sequestered in Memphis while the ranks of Hold Steady devotees are vastly increased once Tad Kubler pulls out the double-necked, 18-stringed Gibson SG to elicit goose-pimples and adoring cheers with his solo on Lord, I'm Discouraged.
Finn and co might look like Microsoft staff but this is a band at the height of their powers, performing to an unfairly small crowd, at an unnecessarily early timeslot, forced to shoehorn their best works into 40 minutes.
Snap up tickets for the October now - it'll change your life.
Lewis Bazley
To read the inthenews.co.uk review of the Hold Steady's new album Stay Positive, click here
Check out the video for Stuck Between Stations, a bizarre omission from the Hold Steady's V set, below: