The world according to The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady’s blend of hook-laden anthems and blistering live shows explains the group's broader appeal, but frontman Craig Finn’s labyrinthine lyrics have made deeply nerdy zealots of some fans. Finn regularly jumps from disparate topics—like Catholicism, William Butler Yeats, and Tusken Raiders—to create a dense, drug-infested world that’s littered with heartbreak and redemption. In advance of The Hold Steady’s sold-out show tonight, July 10, at the Majestic Theatre, Decider examines some of the mythology found in Finn's many recurring themes and characters.

Charlemagne: A sweatpants-wearing pimp and drug dealer who leads Finn’s protagonist, Holly, down a less than beatific path. The rugged Charlemagne is introduced in "Hostile, Mass.," where "he was gushing blood from wide-open wounds."

Controlled substances: Finn continually writes about drugs and alcohol with a mostly laissez-faire attitude that neither vilifies nor encourages their use—it’s simply the zeitgeist for the generation he’s portraying. Though, Finn’s not averse to telling a cautionary tale about the ills of binging. In “Killer Parties” Finn succinctly sums up these feelings: “Killer parties almost killed me.”

Gideon: One of Finn’s conflicted misfits from South Minneapolis. Gideon smokes his drugs out of Pringles cans in "Same Kooks" and "First Night" and rips scripture passages out of hotel Bibles (which are placed in said hotels by the missionary organization Gideons International) in "Cattle And The Creeping Things." Gideon crosses paths with Holly numerous times in far-flung locales like Denver and Ybor City, Fla.

Hallelujah, or Holly: Holly first shows up in Almost Killed Me’s third track, “Barfruit Blues,” where she’s kissing a girl who has “a bloody nose from sniffing margarita mix.” But it’s not until 2005’s loose concept album, Separation Sunday, when she becomes fully fleshed out as Finn’s prodigal protagonist. Here, Holly skips out on CCD, runs away from home, and does a shit-ton of drugs—all before ending up in church for Easter, with her “hair done up in broken glass,” to deliver a homily on the finer points of resurrection. Finn revisits Holly an album later in “First Night,” where she’s in a hospital.

Hoodrat: While there’s no perfect, agreed-upon definition for this snippet of street vernacular, it’s generally means a townie who’s promiscuous or hails from a ghetto. For Holly, it’s more the former. In her specific case, the reference in "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" also speaks to her lifestyle: “Your little hoodrat friend's been calling me again / and I can’t stand all the things she sticks into her skin / like sharpened ball point pens and steel guitar strings / she says it hurts, but it’s worth it.”

Minneapolis: The Hold Steady was founded in Brooklyn, but Finn’s deep roots in Minneapolis have shaped his ethos, even though in "Stevie Nix" he says "When we hit the Twin Cities, I didn't know that much about it / I knew Mary Tyler Moore and I knew Profane Existence." Nearly every song feels like a Twin Cities roadmap filled with pins noting his name-checks. Unsurprisingly, an overzealous Hold Steady fan Google mapped all the references.

Mississippi River: Much like the actual waterway that runs through Finn’s hometown, the Mississippi River cuts through many of his songs and is as much a character as Holly, Charlemagne, and Gideon. In “First Night,” Finn even paints it as some sort of baptismal fount: “The lord takes away and the lord delivers / washed it all off in the Mississippi River.”

Party pit: A “pit party” is a common term for a get-together held around a campfire or in a park. Finn’s innocuous-sounding party pit, however, takes on a weighty significance for Holly. The first time it’s mentioned in “Banging Camp,” Holly’s seen “half-naked and three-quarters wasted.” In “Party Pit,” an unnamed character—who we can safely assume is Holly—says “I think all those things I did” were directly related to what happened at the party pit.

Penetration Park: A nickname for Loring Park in Minneapolis, Penetration Park is known as a hotbed for cruising and drugs, which are captured in “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”—especially when Finn sings, “I’ve been dusted in the dark up in Penetration Park / I’ve been plastered.”

Religion: Finn's often spoken about being a lapsed Catholic, but many of his songs contain some sort of allusion to Jesus or Catholicism. “Cattle And The Creeping Things” is a line from the Bible, and in “Citrus,” Finn provides insight into his unique relationship with religion: “I feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers / I feel Judas in the long odds of the rackets on the corners.”

"Unified scene": It's a term recycled in songs like “Stay Positive” and “Sweet Payne.” It’s now been adopted by the band’s cult-like following as an umbrella self-descriptor, and it includes anyone who espouses Finn’s worldview of positive jams, having fun, and rocking like a motherfucker.

Ybor City: If pasty Minneapolis could have a polar opposite, it just might be Ybor City, Fla. It’s a nightclub-heavy neighborhood in northeast Tampa that was once home to a booming cigar-making industry, as well as a large Cuban, Spanish, and Italian population. Finn’s lyrics often circle back to this notorious city (“Most People Are DJs,” “Killer Parties,” “Cattle And The Creeping Things,” and “Slapped Actress”), which seems a fitting vacation spot for his characters, who live so much of their lives on the fringes of accepted (and legal) behavior.