It’s too bad that Marnie Stern’s session with The A.V. Club’s “Undercover Series” wound up unusable due to technical difficulty, because I’d have been a lot more interested in hearing an interpretation of Huey Lewis from a very different artist.

However, with The Hold Steady, we do get to hear a couple of pretty solid, cheesy guitar solos from Tad Kubler and Steve Selvidge. Now close your eyes and try to re-envision “Back to the Future” through a Hold Steady lens.

Big success across time periods here. Swedish act Peter Bjorn and John’s cover of “Try a Little Tenderness” somehow makes me think that Otis Redding’s being covered by an energetic, ’50s doo-wop singer like Frankie Valli, but one with solid guitar chops. And nice dance moves to boot.

I think Peter Morén summed it up best, however, before the performance: “There’s a lot of emotion, y’know?”



And it looks like The A.V. Club readers rightfully decided to reward the band for commendably performing such an intimidating song. They’re right up there near the top, just behind They Might Be Giants’ unforgettable, office-assisted version of Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.”