Not too long ago a fairly rad dude pointed out to me the graces of The Hold Steady and explained the band’s live show as having the most energetic crowd participation that he had seen in recent memory. I took that to simply mean that I had made a huge mistake by not checking out last year’s Boys and Girls in America. Not only does this performance convey the crowd’s bubbling energy (which is fantastic for a studio audience) but it has one of the best lines that I’ve heard in some time, “he likes the warm feeling but he’s tired of all the dehydration.” Listen to it in context and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

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