The Hold Steady have just announced that their keyboardist Franz Nicolay will be reuniting with the band for their 10th anniversary tour of their third LP.
The American Rock outfit from Brooklyn, New York have been together since 2004 and in that time have released six studio albums. The group saw a slight lineup change when their keyboardist, Franz Nicolay, departed from the band in 2010. The departure was not one of any distaste or bridges burnt but more of creative separation for Nicolay and the rest of the guys. After the departure Nicolay said on his website, “I’m proud of the work we did together. In the end, I felt I completed the work I needed to do with them. I’d prefer to think of it as a closed book.” The band’s vocalist and guitarist, Craig Finn, had this to say about the departure, “Franz is a real ambitious guy, and I think he wanted to do a lot of different things, and we want to really follow this one Hold Steady thing to its logical end. And it takes up a lot of time. It was an amicable departure, and I think we all wish him the best. He’ll do a lot of interesting, cool things.” The band has only released one album since Nicolay’s departure. The Hold Steady have just recently embarked on a tour in celebration of their 10th anniversary of the Boys and Girls in America LP. This should be a nostalgic look at the band for fans not just because they will hear a lot of their favorite songs from the third album, but also because Nicolay has just announced that he will be joining the guys on this anniversary tour. While the tour isn’t set to kick off until the Fall they have not released any further details in its regard. They plan on releasing everything that needs to be known about the tour on May 18.
In addition the this news, The Hold Steady will reissue 2004’s Almost Killed Me and 2005’s Separation Sunday on vinyl in the fall via Frenchkiss, as reported by Pitchfork.
In a Facebook post the band encouraged fans to “stay positive” and that “It’s about to get incredible!”