From Hold Steady, a barroom blast
Never underestimate the DJs at Great Scott. That was one lesson learned this past Saturday, as the opening strains of the Replacements' ''Left of the Dial" blared through the sound system when the Hold Steady left the stage. It was an inspired send-off, in part because of the song's celebration of 1980s college radio, which was where acts like the Hold Steady would have been able to find a haven from the taunting and cruelty of the mainstream. But it was also a playful recognition that the Replacements' ramshackle, we-could-fall-apart-at-any-minute charm seems to have found a new spiritual cousin in the Brooklyn band.
That is hinted at on the Hold Steady's album, ''Almost Killed Me" (Frenchkiss), but it snapped into focus onstage. With a more equitable mix, Craig Finn's vocals weren't as prominent as they are on the album; they were overwhelmed at times by the rest of the band as it churned through its megacharged bar anthems like a still-hungry E Street Band on the verge of collapse. That cranked up the power of songs such as the Cheap Trick-y ''The Swish" and ''Most People Are DJs," with its herky-jerky ''Sweet Emotion" groove.
Even with the new competition, Finn remained the mildly spastic center of attention, looking like a shlubby IT guy on the short side of middle age and sounding like Camper Van Beethoven's David Lowery with a head cold. Finn didn't sing so much as go off on wordy rants peppered by rhyme, spewing out lyrics with an indifference to such niceties as rhythm and melody. In a way, his delivery might be one of the purest, if most unintentional, incorporations of rap styling within basic rock music.
The relentlessness of Finn's vocals sometimes led to a sameness that, combined with the band's occasional tendency to segue directly from one number to the next without a break, made it hard to differentiate between songs.
At times like that, the Hold Steady seemed like nothing more than a bar band. But it could very well be the best bar band in the world.
Local bands the Bon Savants and the Beatings opened and closed the show, respectively.
The Bon Savants' echoing guitars gave them a vaguely psychedelic sound akin to the Church's but with a harder guitar attack, while the Beatings used their slightly nervous energy to leap a decade ahead to the Superchunk-style indie anthem-punk of the 1990s.
