Review / 200 Words Or Less
The Hold Steady
A Positive Rage

When it comes to live albums, it has to be a band I love or a band that puts on a spectacular live show for me to want to buy it. In the case of The Hold Steady, their live album, A Positive Rage has them put on a pretty good show with a good, varied set that even includes a few rare songs like "You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)" and "Ask Her For Adderall." However, this is kind of lacking without the visual element with it. Most of the songs on A Positive Rage sound similar to the original cuts on their respective albums and you'd be better off listening to those. A Positive Rage also comes with a DVD documentary which isn't anything special. It's cool to see the members explain their biggest musical influences and to see how much fun they have when performing but other than that, the DVD is basically a series of clips of live shows and other footage that get a bit boring after awhile. A Positive Rage will make a great keepsake for those diehard The Hold Steady fans but as I mentioned earlier, you'd be better off just listening to their albums and finding the footage on Youtube.