It’s been a while since The Hold Steady visited our shores. They are out here for the Laneway Festival, the very same fest they came out for four years ago. After that they were confirmed for Splendour in the Grass 2007 just after Boys and Girls in America was released, but sadly pulled out to record their latest effort, Stay Positive. It’s been a wait to see them live again, but damn was it worth it.

Opening proceedings were local lads The Vasco Era, putting on a commendable effort. One part blues, another part dirty rock and roll; this Melbournian trio soared between screechy highs and moody lows. For the final song, singer Sid rocked the steel guitar by turning it into a slide and screaming his head off. Good stuff. Loud stuff. Uh, good.

When The Hold Steady enters stage right, frontman Craig Finn surveys the scene before him for a few moments, walks to the side of stage and back and leans into the mic. “Woke up in the twenties, there were flappers and fruits in white suits…”, the intro to Positive Jam building up to a crescendo that sees fists pumped in the air, cymbals getting crashed and Finn stumbling across the stage like a drunken genius.

A few things become apparent straight away: The Hold Steady are fantastic performers. Craig Finn is probably the most unlikely frontman in a rock band: a middle-aged bespectacled man with a receding hairline who would not look out of place in your accounting department. He dances around the stage, does the pointing-to-the-crowd-thing a la Mick Jagger and doesn’t even sing the choruses over the mic – he just yells it from wherever he’s standing. The other-other frontman, Franz Nicolay, hovers over his keyboard in white dinner suit jacket and beret. With the mandatory bottle of red by his feet, he’s undeniably the coolest cat in the band. Of any band for that matter.

The Hold Steady play in short sharp bursts, with no rest between songs. There’s hardly time for applauding as they get pimped down at the Party Pit, get Stuck Between Stations and bet all their cash on Chips Ahoy!. The night is a juicy mix of all four albums, from The Swish off the first album to the title track of Stay Positive. Each song is played out in brilliant fashion and with seemingly little effort – when you’re this good it comes naturally.

Craig Finn could easily be the most intelligent person in the room tonight. His songs weave between the lives of Holly, Charlemaigne and Gideon on their apparent endless pursuit of happiness (see the concept album Separation Sunday for the full story). He also takes it closer to his hometown of Minneapolis by mentioning the Mississippi River, has swipes at the sniffling indie kids, skaters, bartenders and their hard-drug habits and the over-educated people who throw boring parties. This is indeed the thinking man’s rock band of choice.

They might be the world’s biggest bar band but they’re breaking out of that mould at a rapid pace. With Killer Parties ending the evening, it was a show worthy of the four year wait. And really, if The Hold Steady is good enough to be Daniel Radcliffe’s favourite band, then surely they are good enough for you. Don’t fuck with Harry Potter, man.