Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
POWERHOUSE Arena
28 Adams Street (Corner of Adams & Water Street across from the Archway)
Brooklyn , NY
11201
This event will be IN-PERSON – masks recommended. RSVP here!
About the Book
On January 22, 2003, four men stepped onto a stage in Brooklyn and did something no one else was doing at that time, in that place. They played rock ’n’ roll: old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll with skyscraping riffs and sloppy solos, topped with extraordinary lyrics about an out-of-focus America, blurred by pills and powders, of crime and fear and desperation and redemption.
Twenty years later, The Hold Steady are one of America’s most beloved rock bands, famed for live shows that turn unbelievers into converts, and for a catalog filled with some of the most exciting yet poetic music of the twenty-first century. To mark those twenty years, The Hold Steady tell their full story in The Gospel of The Hold Steady: How a Resurrection Really Feels. An oral history, based on interviews with everyone who has played in the band, and those who have worked with them over the course of their career, The Gospel of the Hold Steady addresses all the triumphs and setbacks of The Hold Steady’s career in the band’s own words—from high times to near deaths, from the brink of splitting to their current renaissance. The volume also includes over 200 photographs and images.
The Gospel of The Hold Steady is completed by essays about America’s greatest bar band by writers Rob Sheffield, Laura Barton, Isaac Fitzgerald, and Michael Hann, as well as the thoughts and memories of “The Unified Scene”— the fans who have helped define the band’s identity over the years. This is a book for everyone who loves The Hold Steady, and anyone who understands that the magic of rock ’n’ roll happens on a stage in a small room, with voices raised from the crowd.
About the Author(s)
The Hold Steady is Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Galen Polivka, Bobby Drake, Franz Nicolay, and Steve Selvidge. Since forming in Brooklyn in 2003, they have released eight studio albums, most recently Open Door Policy in 2021. Their debut album, The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me, was named one of the 100 best albums of this century by Rolling Stone.
Michael Hann is a writer and editor based in London, who contributes to the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Economist, the
Spectator, the Quietus, and Uncut. He was formerly the film and music editor at the Guardian. He is the author of Denim and Leather:
The Rise and Fall of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
About the Moderator
Isaac Fitzgerald is the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts (winner of a New England Book Award). He appears frequently on The Today Show and is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He lives in Brooklyn and is currently working on his next book, American Dionysus, forthcoming from Knopf.