Craig Finn isn’t allergic to the word “comeback,” even if he knows it sounds like a cheap marketing hook. “It’s been five years, which in Hold Steady world is a long time,” he admits. “So yeah, it does feel like a comeback. And this is the first record with this lineup—the best lineup the Hold Steady has ever had.”
The album is Thrashing Through the Passion, and while the title could’ve been slapped on any record in their catalog, Finn knew this one needed it. “It was a lyric to ‘You Did Good Kid’ and I thought, oh, that’s it,” he says. “It felt right. Because we really are just thrashing through it.”
The band now operates more like a rock co-op than a gang of barroom bruisers, with songs coming from multiple directions. “Steve [Selvidge] and Franz [Nicolay] are both feeding ideas, so I’m writing lyrics over three different sources now,” Finn explains. “They even stand next to each other on stage. It took some work, but they figured out how to give each other space.”
And as usual, the songs are populated with Finn’s saints and screw-ups, characters who never learn but always entertain. “They’re people making bad decisions and following them belligerently to their logical conclusions,” he deadpans. Denver shows up again. Blackout Sam staggers in. “The characters are still having difficulties behaving themselves,” Finn grins.
For longtime fans, the Easter eggs are still there, with new songs talking to old ones. “I know if I was a listener, I’d love that,” Finn says. “It keeps people engaged. And it excites me, too.” When pressed if “Entitlement Crew” is a sequel to “Sequestered in Memphis,” he just laughs. “Sometimes the best thing I can do is let people have those theories.”
But it’s not just clever writing games. Finn believes the Hold Steady has become a community project. “We came back in December 2016, right after the election, and people said, ‘We needed that.’ That stuck with me,” he recalls. “The shows are reminders of what a beautiful community has sprung up around this band. They don’t even need us anymore—it exists outside of us. We’re just the destination.”
The band’s survival strategy has been simple: change the way they work. No more endless barnstorming tours. Instead, three-night residencies in major cities, giving both the group and its fans a chance to breathe. “We set up once, play multiple nights, and actually get to be musical instead of exhausted,” Finn says. “It’s supercharged the energy.”
Of course, rock history still haunts him. “You can look at a third record and say, ‘I want it to be like that.’ But the seventh? You’re in strange waters,” Finn says. “So you start admiring the bands that stuck around—R.E.M., the Stones. They always changed, always stayed cool, never got bad.” He pauses. “That’s the goal, right? To keep moving without embarrassing yourself.”
Which explains the grin when he hears the word “comeback.” For Finn, the Hold Steady never left—they just learned how to stick around without burning out.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the video below.
