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The Hold Steady – who recently started commemorating their 20th anniversary with intimate, sold-out shows in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC – will celebrate The Price of Progress with a wide-ranging live schedule including this weekend’s sold-out edition of The Weekender, the band’s annual multi-night live event for fans in the United Kingdom and European Union, set for this weekend at London’s Electric Ballroom (March 10-11) and Colours Hoxton (March 12). In addition, this week has seen The Hold Steady making sold-out in-store appearances – including live performances and signing sessions – at Rough Trade stores across the UK, in London, Bristol, and Nottingham.
The Hold Steady will replicate the in-store event in New York at Rough Trade’s NYC store in Rockefeller Center on Wednesday, April 5 at 7:00 pm – tickets for the live performance and signing session are on sale now. This Spring will see the inaugural We Can Get Together, a THS weekend curated for fans in Portland, OR on April 27-29 – the band’s first visit to Portland since 2014. The event kicks off Thursday April 27 with an intimate show at Mississippi Studios (sold out) before moving over to Revolution Hall for shows on Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29. A variety of special events are scheduled to celebrate their return, including We Can Get Together Saturday – three exclusive pre-show fan events at Revolution Hall on Saturday afternoon, April 29. The schedule for We Can Get Together Saturday features a live edition of lead singer Craig Finn’s popular That’s How I Remember It podcast featuring his The Hold Steady bandmates; The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay will be featured in a special one-on-one interview discussing his two critically acclaimed books, Someone Should Pay for Your Pain and The Humorless Ladies of Border Control; and an exclusive guitar workshop hosted by The Hold Steady guitarists Tad Kubler and Steve Selvidge, who will talk gear, demonstrate some Hold Steady songs, and take questions from the audience. Three-day passes for We Can Get Together are already sold out as is Night One at Mississippi Studios; limited tickets remain available for Nights Two and Three at Revolution Hall, including a special Soundcheck/Happy Hour event on Friday, April 28.
The Hold Steady’s 20th-anniversary celebration continues May 13 with a very special evening at Boston, MA’s Roadrunner, joined by special guests Dinosaur Jr. and Come. Additional dates include a sold-out two-night stand at Chicago, IL’s The Salt Shed, set for June 30 and July 1, joined by special guests the Mountain Goats and Dillinger Four. A further sold-out show at Chicago’s famed The Empty Bottle is slated for July 2.
The Price of Progress includes the previously unveiled singles, “Sideways Skull” and “Sixers,” both available now at all DSPs and streaming services. “Sideways Skull” – which The Hold Steady performed live at last year’s annual Massive Nights celebration at Brooklyn, NY’s Brooklyn Bowl – was greeted by critical applause from such outlets as SPIN, Relix, NME, Consequence, and Stereogum, which declared it to be “a big, meaty rocker…The Hold Steady are once again returning with a new LP. If the first single is any indication, we should get ready for another ripper.”
“Sixers” was met by similar acclaim from the likes of Stereogum, Under The Radar, and CLASH, which wrote, “A dose of helter-skelter indie rock, ‘Sixers’ is marked the band’s taut energies, and songwriter Craig Finn’s excellent lyrical stance.” “‘Sixers’ sees the band reclaiming some of their classic rock DNA,” wrote Far Out. “A welcome return to the kind of music that The Hold Steady excel at.”
LISTEN TO “SIDEWAYS SKULL”
LISTEN TO “SIXERS”
The Price of Progress arrives as The Hold Steady mark the 20th anniversary of their foundation, bringing new ideas, sounds, and textures to a still-evolving canon of nine studio album releases that began with 2004’s Almost Killed Me. The album – which featured front and back cover photographs by renowned Minneapolis-based photographer Alec Soth – was produced by longtime collaborator Josh Kaufman at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY, and mixed by D. James Goodwin. The Price of Progress stands as the band’s most sonically expansive record thus far while also remaining unmistakably The Hold Steady, showcasing narrative rock ‘n’ roll tales of ordinary people struggling and surviving in a modern world.
“These are some of the most cinematic songs in The Hold Steady catalog,” says frontman Craig Finn, “and the record was a joy to make. I feel like we went somewhere we haven’t before, which is a very exciting thing for a band that is two decades in.”
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