The Hold Steady At O2 Academy Islington

After last nights You Me At Six show left me feeling like a pensioner, tonights audience are so old I feel like a spring chicken! Sadly, the audience appears to be exceptionally tall as well as old!

Despite this, there is no way tonight is gonna be anything short of amazing. Quite simply, The Hold Steady don't play bad Shows! Tonight's setlist does fall a little short of perfect as the band drop a healthy does of new songs and obscure covers. The shocking omission of Chips Ahoy and Southtown Girls from their set is also nothing short of criminal! Regardless, the band still have the entire audience in the palm of their hands for the hour and a half they are onstage, and despite the already mentioned missing tunes, they still play an obscene amount of classic Hold Steady songs. From Party Pit to Stay Positive, there is a simple sense that this band can do no wrong. And as singer Craig closes their final song with his well versed mantra about what they do bringing so much joy there is palpable sense of celebration in the air.

Every time I see this band, it makes me want to play them to every person I meet who has never heard of them! So if you are such a person, go and buy Boys And Girls Of America and Stay Positive. If you don't love those albums, you have cocks for ears!