Hold Steady proclaim Oxegen 'perfect setting' for a festival

The Hold Steady drew an enthusiastic early afternoon crowd as the sun came out at 2008's Oxegen Festival today (July 13).

The Brooklyn-based five piece played the festival's Green Room Tent, where they mainly performed songs from their just-released new album, 'Stay Positive'.

However, the biggest cheers came when they dipped into 2006 breakthrough album, 'Boys and Girls in America'.

With the Oxegen site used as a racecourse during the rest of the year, frontman Craig Finn said he couldn't think of a better place to play fan-favourite 'Chips Ahoy!'.

Introducing the song, Finn declared: "This really is the perfect setting for this next song. This is about a girl, a guy and a horse."

Typically enthusiastic, the frontman prowled the stage as he belted out new songs 'Yeah Sapphire', 'Constructive Summer', 'Slapped Actress' and current single 'Sequestered In Memphis'.

Finn meanwhile explained that 'Navy Sheets' was a song "about how you should always buy white sheets," while the band encountered one slight difficulty during 'Stay Positive' when the venue's speakers briefly cut out.

The Hold Steady played:

'Constructive Summer'
'Hot Soft Light'
'Chips Ahoy!'
'Sequestered in Memphis'
'Navy Sheets'
'Yeah Sapphire'
'Stuck Between Stations'
'Stay Positive'
'Your Little Hoodrat Friend'
'Slapped Actress'

Keep up with all the action from T In The Park and Oxegen Festival this weekend (July 11-13) as it happens on NME.COM.

For news, pictures and blogs keep checking the NME.COM's T In The Park and Oxegen pages.

Plus make sure you get next week's issue of NME - on UK newsstands from July 16 - for the ultimate T In The Park and Oxegen Festival review.

NME.COM caught up with The Hold Steady backstage at T In The Park. You can watch the interview by clicking on the link below.

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