Approximate date
The Hold Steady
- Date
- Friday, Sep 13, 2019
- Venue
- The Sinclair
- City
- Cambridge, MA
- Went with
- Mickey
The Sinclair two-night stand, September 13 and 14, 2019 — John placed it on the first night, tentatively, so the date is marked approximate. Initially remembered as 'about three years ago'; setlist.fm's record of the room narrowed it. No ticket survives.
What they played
- Positive Jam
- Stuck Between Stations
- The Swish
- Entitlement Crew
- Hurricane J
- Navy Sheets
- Sequestered in Memphis
- Denver Haircut
- On With the Business
- Banging Camp
- First Night
- Yeah Sapphire
- Knuckles
- Chips Ahoy!
- Confusion in the Marketplace
- Constructive Summer
- Your Little Hoodrat Friend
- Massive Nights
- Stay Positive
- Southtown Girls
Encore
- Citrus
- Ask Her for Adderall
- Slapped Actress
- Killer Parties
24 songs, from setlist.fm. Contributed by whoever was standing there taking notes.
The moment
By 2019 the Hold Steady had reinvented how a cult band survives: fewer one-off tours, more multi-night weekender residencies where the faithful fly in — and the Sinclair stand was Boston's edition, with Franz Nicolay back on keys and Thrashing Thru the Passion fresh out. Thirteen years after John paid $12 to see them in the Middle East basement, the deal was unchanged: massive bar-band riffs, Craig Finn talking his way through everyone's misspent twenties, the crowd shouting 'we're all the Hold Steady.' The archive's fourth entry, with a fifth ticketed for 2026.
From the time
- Thrashing Thru the Passion
“The 2019 album of the residency era — Nicolay back, the institution running on devotion.”
The stub
No physical stub on file — this show was reconstructed from the
confirmation email. Drop a photo in public/stubs/ and add
"stubImage" to this show's record to attach one.