Most People Are DJ’s – The Hold Steady

The most Hold Steady song of all Hold Steady songs? Maybe.

It blows my mind that the first album is basically two demo tapes squished together to make enough tracks for a release. Listen to the lightning in a bottle that is Craig Finn’s lyrics over Tad Kubler’s guitar work and tell me most bands wouldn’t sell their own kidneys to have something this hot.

The floor of this song is sticky with spilled beer, the air smells of sweat and cheap dry ice. You can almost hear cans opening and glasses clinking under the music. The sticker coated 200 capacity venue where next big things are about to raise the roof has never sounded more three dimensional as it does on Most People Are DJ’s. Every line startling in it’s originality and the accuracy of it’s keen observation. This is why scene’s capture the imagination. This song lays out why the clubs and bars have the epiphanies they do for the hot soft spots on the hard rock planet.

And if that’s not enough, then there’s the big barn buster solo at the end. Wildman rock that put’s Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick and Randy Rhodes on the back foot. And then it just stops. Dead. Like the power blew out. Mid flight it just disappears.

You’re fucking welcome