Day ten in the photo countdown takes us to the newest venue in the city, the Neptune Theatre. City Arts was somehow pulled off another amazing festival lineup for the second year in a row. Morgen talks about one of her favorite groups pulling you into a show with the Hold Steady. more ›

As mentioned in our preview, we weren't sure what to expect from Friday's show, having lost Franz Nicolay, The Hold Steady's enigmatic keyboardist. We can happily report that it doesn't seem to have slowed the band down one bit. Craig Finn and Tad Kubler brought in the crowd with their playful and down-to-earth attitude and kept them there with easily accessible lyrics of teenaged angst. By the middle of their set, the Showbox was packed with fans young and old (and the very young, as evidenced by a tween boy right up front). The Hold Steady has to know by now, they'll always be welcomed back to Seattle with open arms. more ›

The Hold Steady dates back farther than many fans may realize. Their popularity exploded a few years ago with the release of Boys and Girls in America; however, having been around the block with them before, their sophomore album wasn't much of a surprise. more ›

Often met with comparisons to The Hold Steady, The Replacements and Pavement, Joey Siara of the up and coming Southern CA band The Henry Clay People describes the group’s music quite simply. “I usually just call it rock and roll. Sloppier than most. Hopefully fun.” Don Yates of KEXP sums up the group’s sound a bit more fully, by offering that Joey and co’s songs are greater than the sum of their parts by “transforming everyday subject matter into raging, celebratory anthems for slacker rock 'n' rollers and other folks just trying to make ends meet.” Agreeing with both takes, we recommend checking the band out at the Paramount tomorrow night as they open for the Silversun Pickups and Against Me! As we’re always fans of bands that (at least lead us to believe that they) don’t take themselves too seriously, we’re eager to see how the band’s good-natured outlook translates to the crowd who will no doubt be gathered for the headliners’ bleaker fare. When we asked Siara about it, he responded with an expected humorous nonchalance indicating, to paraphrase a line from our favorite sloppy rock band, the bar is really too low to fail. “Typically people don't care much for the opening act. I guess I hope that people come with an open mind. It's not rocket science or anything. I hope they leave thinking that the opener wasn't so bad.” While our predictive chops don’t measure up to that eight-armed German, we’re confident things won’t turn out so bad after all. more ›

HOLD ONTO YOUR DOUGH: Seems the folks at Southern Comfort finally want to make up for all of those awful hangovers with a free rock show. Deal. Tonight those sweet whiskey people present The Hold Steady at The Crocodile. Jump through a couple little hoops (register for a ticket), and you’re in. more ›

Volume One was pretty cool. Two was better. Three was great. Volume Four is hands down the best. Is it simply because it's new? Because the songs are still fresh? We don't think so. There's more more to it than that. more ›

Just when you thought that college campuses would be unable to handle any more scourges to their populations, with meningitis and date-rape rampant, a new scourge has reared its ugly head: severe, humorless sobriety. more ›

This Sunday, they return to Seattle for the fourth time (they most recently played Bumbershoot), with the Hold Steady at the HUB Ballroom at the UW. Art Brut's newest effort singles like "Modern Art" and "Bad Weekend," but it still delivers some memorable songs like "Direct Hit" and "Nag, Nag, Nag, Nag." more ›

We saw it first in this month's Seattle Sound magazine, but then we misplaced it somewhere, so we grabbed the current Stranger and -- ah, there they are: The stage times for all the performers at this weekend's Sasquatch Festival along with the inevitable, unavoidable conflicts that occur at all festivals. They did a pretty good job of staggering the times, but there are still some "What do we do?!" moments. more ›

Last year's Sasquatch line up was good, but not good enough to get us to spend three days at the Gorge. We still prefer the festival in its one-day, all-in-one-fell-swoop form, but with the lineup that's been announced for this year's two-day fest, we may just have to make the trip. Out of the two days, it was Saturday that really made us coo. Bjork *and* Arcade Fire? Consider us sold. There are still bands to be announced, but here's how things stand as of right now: more ›

Tuesday 17th more ›