Celebrated by fans as literary rock 'n' roll saviors and derided by detractors as a glorified bar band, Brooklyn's The Hold Steady divides its time between rousing tales of spiritual redemption and the American dream and more commonplace accounts of passing out at concerts, stumbling around drunk or making out at a detox tent—stories that lyricist and frontman Craig Finn packs with allusions to the works of Jack Kerouac and fellow Minnesotan John Berryman. The group's typically divisive latest album, last year's Heaven Is Whenever, is Finn's rumination on aging.
The Hold Steady w/ The Donkeys
Tonight @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 7 p.m.
