By Jacob NelsonThe Daily Northwestern

The first thing I noticed when The Hold Steady took the Metro’s stage last Thursday wasn’t the amount of alcohol the band brought with them, nor was it the enthusiasm that launched the catchy piano riffs of their first song in the set. Those were to be expected.

What caught me off-guard was keyboardist Franz Nicolay’s Super Mario mustache.

The first time I saw the ‘stache was hours earlier, when I watched the band’s video for “Chips Ahoy,” the single off of their new album “Boys and Girls in America.” The funny facial hair (which I thought was fake at the time) was just one of the jokes in the hilarious video, which followed lead singer Craig Finn around an old-fashioned motel as he tries to court attractive women while lip-synching the song.

“It shows another side of the band,” Finn said when I asked him about it over the phone before the concert. “People think we’re a little heavy; it was just a fun way of approaching it.”

But “heavy” is definitely not the word I would have ever used when describing The Hold Steady’s performance, much less its sound. Sure, the band hands out tidbits of advice throughout songs that could be interpreted as profoundly inspirational, but these songs are written in a story-telling fashion. Their style implies if anyone takes any meaning away from a lyric, it’s purely coincidental. Not to mention Finn’s hand-spasms and spitting while playing in the talk-sing style go a long way in making him seem much more like a normal guy who loves beer than a rock star.

It takes more than Finn’s enthusiasm and Nicolay’s mustache to make an awesome show, and that’s where the actual music comes into play. Before “Boys and Girls” was recorded, lead guitarist Tad Kubler found himself practicing much more as he often played for his newly born child. And in the smooth yet fast-paced chord changes or flat-out guitar shredding in songs like “Party Pit” and “Some Kooks,” it shows. The backup singers Kubler and Nicolay also make the show significantly more entertaining, if for no other reason than for allowing the crowd to join in. The “Whoas!” in “Massive Nights” made an already exciting song much more of an event, just because everyone was whoa-ing with the band.

“We’re trying to be more musical,” Finn had explained earlier.

Perhaps the most important aspect of what makes The Hold Steady such a fascinating band is that they’re not kids. Finn is 35 and looks it. Now, that might be an obstacle for a lesser band, and I think the very perception of age as an obstacle is what would make similar bands try too hard and look ridiculous. Finn uses his age to his advantage, as it allows him to reflect on events far enough in the past that he no longer feels a part of it.

“When you get older you can sort of see the forest from the trees and look back and see what was interesting about being that age,” he said.

And although The Hold Steady has toured heavily since forming in 2000, they don’t look tired when they play. They jump, they yell, they drink. They look happy. And that goes a long way. Especially when you are sporting a Mario mustache.

Reach Jacob Nelson at [email protected].