The Hold Steady (Horseshoe Tavern, October 28)

Chatting over a beer at the Horseshoe, a few hours before The Hold Steady were scheduled to take the stage, guitarist Tad Kubler enthused that he'd never expected the sort of commercial success his band has now attained - a spot at No. 124 on the Billboard chart for their third album, Boys and Girls in America.

It's understandable why the native Minnesotans, now based out of New York, would consider this a major triumph. Kubler and singer Craig Finn have been playing together for more than a dozen years, dating back to their days in Lifter Puller, and for most of that time they've been content to eke out a living as a touring band with a modest following. To be able to fill venues like the Horseshoe, move thousands of discs in an album's first week and garner the mainstream media attention they've earned recently - that was never on the agenda.

And yet, to watch The Hold Steady tearing through its live set is to wonder if No. 124 on the Billboard chart isn't absurdly low.

In many ways, their protestations notwithstanding, they're about as indie as an indie band can get. Unlike those that invest considerable effort in trying to appear unconcerned with aesthetics, these guys - fronted by a short, pudgy, bespectacled guy in his mid-thirties - genuinely don't care. Their lyrics - a maze of running narratives about youthful struggles with sex, drugs and religion - are so intricate and literary that they're almost inaccessible to listeners who don't devote copious amounts of time to their albums. And while getting slightly more of a push from Vagrant Records than they did on their previous two albums from French Kiss, they hardly have a massive publicity machine behind them.

But what the five-piece has in spades, more so than any of its contemporaries, is a populist charm that few fans of classic rock could resist.

It's not just the obvious and oft-cited Springsteen influence in Finn's vocals (imagine a more manic Boss yelling his lyrics rather than singing them), or the unabashed guitar and keyboard solos sprinkled liberally into their set - although those certainly help. It's the complete and entirely sincere joy that they take in hitting the stage every night.

They remain, even with their mounting success, the quintessential bar band - downing beer, occasionally dousing each other in it, and looking so comfortable that you'd think they'd been playing for years at whatever venue they happen to be popping into that night. But they happen to be the best bar band in the world - armed not with a set of covers or some derivative attempts at singalongs, but material from two of the best rock albums to be released in the past two years.

On this night, they were slightly less frenzied than at a smaller Lee's Palace gig this past July - possibly because they were moderately more sober this time. But having perfected their delivery of the songs from Boys and Girls, a few of which they debuted the previous time, they were able to avoid a single lull in their set - gaining momentum with the new material early on, and nearly bringing the house down later with standouts from 2005's breakthrough Separation Sunday.

The result was a fist-pumping rock 'n' roll revival - normally passive Torontonians putting their arms in the air from the opening notes of Stuck Between Stations, Boys and Girls' opening track, and barely taking them down until the night had ended in a second encore with Separation Sunday's climactic closer, How a Resurrection Really Feels.

Stopping by before the show as Kubler vacated his seat to shoot some pool, the affable Finn recalled what he considered the highest of compliments from a young fan: that along with the Drive-By Truckers, the Hold Steady are the only band he'd seen whose members constantly smile when they're on stage.

Considering the broad grins as patrons exited the Horseshoe Saturday night, it's fair to say it's infectious.