Hold Steady to Thrash Thru the Crocodile
Hold Steady to Play 3 Night Crocodile Set this Weekend
Aug. 15-17, 2019 in Seattle
By Kevin Nelson
The Hold Steady’s new album Thrashing Thru The Passion drops this Friday.
The Hold Steady plays a three-night set at Seattle’s The Crocodile this weekend.
While both of the preceding statements are worthy of an article in and of themselves, that they’re centered around this Friday means they’re getting a dual-purpose post explaining why both are so important and exciting.
Coming five years after Minnesota band’s last album, Teeth Dreams, Thrashing Thru The Passion represents a return to form with tracks like “You Did Good Kid,” and “Entitlement Crew” that represent some instant classics. That t is saying a lot since I needed to Google the title of the band’s previous album for this piece… and remember I actually covered that release for this site.
Half of the tracks on Thrashing, like “Entitlement Crew” and “Star 18,” dropped up to two years ago, and the band compiled those five oldies with fresh tracks it recorded this January to create a brisk and breezy 10 song set.
Tracks like “Entitlement” seem like they could just be words run through a Hold Steady randomizer, but, since it’s The Hold Steady doing it, it makes for an incredibly fun track that kicks off with “Tequila take off, Tecate landing / Sorry about the centerpiece, thanks for understanding.” The type of lyricist lead singer Craig Finn has developed into over the previous six albums allows this type of fun track to work. Additionally, “You Did Good Kid” seems like a fun way for the band to reference some of the small-time crimes of their characters from previous albums (who are not name dropped in this one) while also commenting on their role as elder statesmen in the indie rock scene.
The Hold Steady of five years ago that made Teeth Dreams was down keyboardist Franz Nicolay but positive second guitarist Steve Selvidge. After Nicolay rejoined the band in 2016, they became what frontman Finn described as “The best we’ve ever had. It’s not really even negotiable.” And Finn definitely makes a strong case with the production on Thrashing. Selvidge has better melded into the band and Nicolay is always a welcome addition to the band’s harmony.
All six members will come to the Crocodile this weekend for three nights, Thursday, Aug. 15, Friday, Aug. 16 and Saturday, Aug. 17.
The band decided as they aged that they weren’t such fans of the grind of going from city to city, so they decided to play mini-residencies in key towns.
Last year, the band launched it “Constructive Summer” series of concert dates to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Stay Positive album with mini-residencies in a variety of cities that helped create the album (New Jersey/Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto) this edition of the annual event will see The Hold Steady also being constructive in Chicago, Boston and Nashville in addition to this weekend’s Seattle stand. While the series is designed to celebrate the… 11th… anniversary of Stay Positive, some tracks from Thrashing are definitely going to drop in the setlist. And they will be welcome additions.
Buy the album here. Get tix for the Croc shows here.