Video: The Hold Steady – “Grand Junction”

Directed by Lee Allen. From Price of Progress, out now on Positive Jams.

I poked fun at the crappiness of the previous Hold Steady video but this one is good. While both were compiled from footage shot at a single show, this new one is beautifully lit and its slow-motion cinematography perfectly captures the rapturous transcendence of a Hold Steady concert.

You have to set aside your cynicism when you go to a Hold Steady show. You don’t really have a choice. Before you know it, you find yourself believing that this is all you need. This is all that matters. All there is. It’s a spiritual experience and you can see it in the faces of the crowd in this video.

And the song is great. Almost a sea shanty. But it’s a tale of two desperate people on the road and about to get tired and turn on each other.

If we stretch out our funds we can get through the month
But at some point there must come a time
That we sell something shipped from the wishes you list
For the guys that you talk with online.

I mean, come on. How perfect is that? What a perfect encapsulation of the kind of fucked up kids that Craig Finn has been celebrating for the past quarter of a century. Here we are, all these years later and there’s still an endless supply of stories to tell about damaged lives and redemption.