Video: The Hold Steady: "Stay Positive" @ Manchester Academy 2

The Hold Steady are known for putting on great live shows. I haven't been able to get my hands on a bootleg from any of their Irish gigs (they played Dublin's Academy a few times), but here's the closest I could get, from Manchester's venue of the same name. Academy 2 on February 26th, 2008. Setlist: 01. Hornets! Hornets! 02. Stuck Between Stations 03. Banging Camp 04. Chips Ahoy! 05. Massive Nights 06. Party Pit 07. Constructive Summer 08. Multitude of Casualties 09. Stevie Nix 10. You Can Make Him Like You 11. Cattle and the Creeping Things [...]

Returning home from work to find the new Hold Steady album sitting on our doormat, two months before its release and before any reviews have appeared on the internets, is just about the most exciting thing that's happened to this us since we started this blog almost three years ago. Things got even more exciting about thirty seconds later when we pressed play to discover that this is definitely not the album that I had feared it would be. Having become familiar with the title track, with its multiple references to other Hold Steady songs and Boys And Girls [...]

Time to make it all official: the photographed , named , and previewed new Hold Steady album has a release date, and if you know how to read post titles and are American, you are all set. (British folks, it's actually 14/7 for you.) Since their last one took home the Gummy for Best Album 2006 , we figure a few of you might already be scribbling notes on your iCal. Craig seems more than positive about the whole thing; he's sounding absolutely communal. From Finn: Possibly the most exciting aspect of [...]

The Hold Steady showcased the title track from their fourth album in that stream we posted last week . Now we have "Stay Positive" video evidence. Craig looks every bit the part of the hardcore singer with his frequent hand gestures, crowd riling hand claps, and positive youth (of today) exultations. Right, he always looks like that. The show's from 2/26 -- this past Tuesday -- the band wigging out at Manchester Academy. Anarchy in the UK, etc. We love the new hardcore Hold Steady. Amrit just put an "x" on his hand [...]

Roughly a year ago the Hold Steady played their first ever Manchester gig at Club Academy. It was full of men in their thirties and forties. In fact, it's entirely possible that Bricking Chick and I were the only two females in the place, not that I'd have noticed because I was too busy dancing. A week later and The Ledge was with me in Sheffield at a riotous gig that he refers to as "the greatest night of [his] life." Oh how things change and yet how they stay the same! [...]

• The Hold Steady - Hornets! Hornets!