Hold Steady / Minutemen

The Hold Steady perform the Minutemen's "History Lesson Pt. 11" in 2008.

What if you encourage your fans to start their own band and your disciples start the Hold Steady?

I like the Hold Steady but am set on edge by their endless celebration/lament of the good old days. The typical Hold Steady song is a story of carousing and rehab set against a musical backdrop that ranges from Thin Lizzy to Bruce Springsteen. I am not surprised by their choice of the Minutemen's little ballad of nostalgic self-deprecation. The history of punk rock is best understood as a personal history of those who experienced it as a first hand fact in their lives. The music and fashion means little without the shared experience of punk rock as a community of outcasts.

Seeing the Hold Steady involves standing in a sea of people in their late twenties to their early forties raising their drinks and partying, egged on by beer saluting of the band. It ain't no punk show. It's a remembrance of a mythical punk show of the past. Are they celebration their own history of dissolution?

At best, the Hold Steady is about survival. You made it through your difficult years. Hoist a beer and give yourself a pat on the back.