Pitchfork

The story of the Hold Steady really is pretty inspirational: Midwestern indie lifers whose brilliant older band (Lifter Puller, act like you know) only really found an audience after it broke up give up on the idea of music as a living, form a classic rock bar band for the fuck of it, and then, after years, blow the fuck up with that. Plus they're all extremely funny dudes who know how to talk (Craig Finn in particular), and Tad Kubler's blasé rock star guitar moves are the sort of thing you could watch all day and not get bored.

All of which is to say that the Hold Steady are basically ideal subjects for a documentary. And that documentary is about to happen. On April 7, Vagrant Records will release a double-disc package called A Positive Rage. (In Europe, Rough Trade will release it on April 6.) The first disc will hold the documentary; the second disc will be a live album that the band recorded on Halloween 2007 at Chicago's Metro (we were there!). It'll be the Hold Steady's first live album, and given that this is one of the truly great bands out there tearing up the road right now, it should be pretty essential. The enhanced version will also include the three bonus tracks from the Stay Positive physical edition ("Ask Her for Adderall", "Cheyenne Sunrise", and "Two Handed Handshake") and two more unreleased joints ("Spectres" and "40 Bucks").

But the real reason to cop A Positive Rage will probably be the first disc, a 53-minute documentary that starts out with their first-ever London show and follows the band on their 2006 U.S. tour behind third album Boys & Girls in America. That means it'll show this band right around the tipping point where they became serious club-circuit headliners. The doc will even include footage of a Hold Steady show at Minneapolis's First Avenue, the hometown spot where Prince taped Purple Rain. This should be life-affirming.

In related Hold Steady news, they'll spend spring touring hard, since that's what they do. They've also got a few WTF shows coming up, including a few dates opening for Counting Crows in the UK and, reportedly, a gig at TV chef Rachael Ray's SXSW party.


Here's the tracklist to the second disc:

01 Intro
02 Stuck Between Stations
03 The Swish
04 Chips Ahoy!
05 Massive Nights
06 Ask Her for Adderall
07 Barfruit Blues
08 Same Kooks
09 You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)
10  Lord, I'm Discouraged
11  You Can Make Him Like You
12  Your Little Hoodrat Friend
13  Southtown Girls
14  Citrus
15  First Night
16  Girls Like Status
17  Killer Parties

Upcoming shows:

02-04 Sydney, Australia - Metro Theatre
02-06 Perth, Australia - Laneway Festival
02-07 Adelaide, Australia - Laneway Festival
02-08 Sydney, Australia - Laneway Festival
03-31 Albany, NY - Valentine's *
04-01 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall *
04-02 Grand Rapids, MI - Calvin College Fine Arts Center *
04-03 Urbana, IL - Illini Courtyard Cafe *
04-04 Bloomington, IN - Jake's Nightclub *
04-06 St. Louis, MO - Gargoyle *
04-07 Iowa City, IA - Picador *
04-08 Omaha, NE - Slowdown *
04-10 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre *
04-11 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge *
04-14 Stateline, NV - Harrah's Tahoe South Shore Room *
04-15 Sacramento, CA - Harlow's *
04-17 Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
05-10 Glasgow, Scotland - SECC ^
05-11 Manchester, England - Manchester Evening News Arena ^
05-13 Birmingham, England - NIA ^
05-14 London, England - Wembley Arena ^
05-16 Cardiff, England - Cardiff Arena ^
05-18 Bournemouth, England - BIC ^
05-19 Nottingham, England - Royal Centre ^
05-21 Brixton, England - Academy ^