The Hold Steady at Electric Ballroom

Every year, The Hold Steady return to London for their multi-night weekender, treating their most dedicated fans to everything from intimate storyteller sets to rowdy rock shows over a consecutive three or four nights. On night two, Camden’s Electric Ballroom is packed with devotees who have eagerly descended on North London to see the band; some just for this show, others for the full four nights.

This year marks two decades since the release of the band’s third album, Boys and Girls in America, and the room pulses with excitement as Blur’s Boys and Girls, a nod to the record’s title, ushers the musicians onstage. A heartfelt greeting gives way to opener Stuck Between Stations, and pure unadulterated joy radiates from the audience straight to singer and lyricist Craig Finn, whose trademark delivery is a cross between a slam poet and someone trying to have the last word while being dragged out of the bar.

Following the album’s running order, the band tear through Chips Ahoy!, Hot Soft Light and Same Kooks before Finn finally pauses to greet the crowd like old friends. Reflecting on the album, he jokes: “We kept being told we were too American, so we put America in the title.” As the rest of the record unfolds live onstage, it’s amazing how the entire room can recite Finn’s poetic, complicated lyrics word for word.

He conducts them, his flailing arms a perfect display of the energy the group is putting into this performance. There are much-anticipated swooners like First Night, and more exuberant sing-along moments during You Can Make Him Like You and Massive Nights.

But the show isn’t without some surprises, as London outfit The Golden Dregs join to sing the chorus on Chillout Tent. As the album’s 11 tracks wrap up with Southtown Girls, a collective question hangs in the air: is that it?

Of course not. “Wait, there are all those B-sides!” Finn laughs, launching into Girls Like Status (“The only advice from my dad I kept”) and Arms and Hearts. The second half delves into the band’s back catalogue, with favourites like Constructive Summer and Sequestered in Memphis, plus Teenage Liberation, which only made its live debut the night before. During Your Little Hoodrat Friend, Finn addresses the current political state back home, shouting out his hometown of Minneapolis and leading a chant of “Fuck ICE”.

But above all, this concert is a celebration, and it comes with confetti and a four-song encore. Hurricane J draws some of the gig’s biggest cheers, and the night ends with the fitting Killer Parties. As the crowd chants “We are all The Hold Steady,” the room clings to one last moment of togetherness, a reminder that, after all this time, this is a band that can teach younger musicians a thing or two about building and maintaining a community.