The Hold Steady: High Line Bash 2023

The Hold Steady have been such frequent guests of WFUV that we consider them part of our extended family.

The exuberant bar-rockers’ new album, The Price of Progress, was released in March, and arrives as this Midwest-bred, Brooklyn-launched band celebrates its 20th anniversary with sold-out shows spanning multiple cities.

The indefatigable lineup includes frontman Craig Finn, drummer Bobby Drake, guitarist Tad Kubler, keyboardist Franz Nicolay, bassist Galen Polivka, and guitarist Steve Selvidge. The Price of Progress, out now on the band’s own Positive Jams label via Thirty Tigers, is not only a benchmark of their longevity, but an affirmation of The Hold Steady’s refusal to be anything but themselves.

The band is a New York treasure: they excel at raucous euphoria, as storyteller Finn leads with the vivacious command of a moonlighting novelist and cool football coach. Little wonder why the sextet has such an ardent army of fans who passionately sing along to every twisty, wry lyric.

The band’s knack for songs that unfurl like a John Cassavetes film continues with The Price of Progress. “Sixers” is about a misguided hookup between messed-up neighbors, while the muscular rocker “Sideways Skull” is an acrid, woebegone tale of two musicians, on very different paths, meeting in a bar.

In 2021, following the release of Open Door Policy, their eighth album, Finn told Spin about his nascent vision for the group. “One of the crazy things Tad and I did at the beginning or talked about is we want to have a band that feels like there’s a community around. That feels like you can be a part of… And I’m kind of amazed that we did it.”

The Hold Steady have done it. And WFUV is privileged to be a part of their ongoing 20th anniversary blowout via their appearance at the 2023 High Line Bash.