Constructive Summer's End: The Hold Steady

An Ennio Morricone interlude from A Few Dollars More ushered the Hold Steady into the Exit/In, and that snippet couldn't have been more appropriate.

For a decade or more, Metallica entered its shows to Morricone's Ecstacy of Gold from The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. ... buncha assholes. The Hold Steady went with a difficult track from the least seen film in Sergio Leone's trilogy, a memorable nugget of glockenspiel, strings and one-note bass.

With their literary references (Sal Paradise and John Berryman's suicide in Stuck Between Stations), dense lyrics and bruising power-chord songs that hearken to 1970s rock, The Hold Steady are not for everyone. Hell, the near-capacity crowd surprised me; they might reside in Brooklyn, but the band has Minneapolis roots. Their blue-collar Midwestern flourishes don't always jibe with the American South or the coasts.

Onstage, leader singer Craig Finn could have used one of the Budweiser cans ceremoniously lined atop the amplifiers. When overdone, his gestures and ticks recalled Robin Williams (never a good thing). But Finn's embrace of The Hold Steady's status as America's best bar band more than compensated. Despite playing the Ryman during their last pass, the group felt more comfortable on the smaller Exit In stage and its 500-person room.

The Hold Steady didn't let up, mixing in tracks from their past four records, even Chicago Seemed Tired Tonight from Separation Sunday. Their latest, Heaven is Whenever, competed with their best known, Boys & Girls in America, for the spotlight. Luckily, their ability to write Springsteen-esque anthems and sing-alongs allowed for smooth transitions. From Chips Ahoy to We Can Get Together, they chronicled the albums and lives of 30-somethings. It might not be world-changing music, but it's nice to know someone else has lived Girls Like Status or Sequestered in Memphis.

They unleashed Our Whole Lives, a pummeling anthem from the new album with the unforgettable refrain of, "We're good guys but we can't be good every night, We're good guys but we can't be good all our lives." That line was in no way an apology for their manic night in Nashville.