I was going to post all these reviews in the order the performances went down yesterday, but I’m still far too excited about the Hold Steady to stick to that. Look at Craig Fin, for chrissakes! He is the world’s biggest spaz, happiest man, and most positive dude of all time. He did a kind of chubby running man. He shouted to the crowd off mic. He kept making that face and throwing his hands out to the side like he was giving the crowd a gift and saying, “ta da!” And I suppose he was giving the crowd a gift, as the Hold Steady are pretty much the perfect summer festival band—beer gardens and the Hold Steady go together like Tim Harrington and hot dogs. I didn’t notice what a giddy clown Finn is when last I saw the Hold Steady, on the jumbotrons at Sasquatch last year—maybe he wasn’t as giddy at that show—but the last time I saw someone looking that gleefully dorky on stage, it was Atom and His Package. So, well done, Mr. Finn.

The band played much of their latest album, Stay Positive, with highlights being “Constructive Summer,” “Sequestered in Memphis,” the title track, and “Slapped Actress.” They also played “Chips Ahoy,” “Stuck Between Stations,” “Party Pit,” and “Massive Night” off Boys and Girls in America, as well as “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” and “Stevie Nix” off of Separation Sunday. Everything sounded just right, if never quite loud enough in the busier corners of the beer garden. The crowd looked amped up in the front, but there was no way to get up there, and anyway there were even a few scattered “whoa-ohs” towards the back. I inadvertently taught some stranger about “metal claw.” It was one of only two sets I saw at Block Party that kept me grinning the whole damn time (Girl Talk was the other, but mostly for the crowd). You couldn’t ask for a better closing night headliner.