The Hold Steady's Tad Kubler, top right, says the band will likely take some time at the end of this year to work on a follow-up to 2006's critically lauded "Boys and Girls in America."

courtesy of 230 Publicity

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We boys and girls in America are lucky.

The Hold Steady refuses to park the tour bus.

The New York five-piece that released 2006's critically lauded "Boys and Girls in America" is returning to Plush.

"We'll see you in Tucson. We'll shotgun a beer," lead guitarist Tad Kubler said. "Just as long as it's not one of those 24-ounce cans of Budweiser."

During the song "Killer Parties," Kubler had recently been videotaped onstage at a Madison, Wis., gig poking a hole in the side of a full can of beer, then busting the tab open and sucking the beer through the hole — otherwise known as shotgunning.

The footage found its way onto YouTube and is a good example of the kind of beer-soaked behavior fans have come to expect from The Hold Steady.

It's one of the reasons the act tours so much, Kubler says; the best way to experience The Hold Steady is live.

Before the band's Club Congress gig late last year, the members hung out by the bar, knocking back Budweisers. The Hold Steady then proceeded to play one of the most energetic sets Tucson had seen in a while, with lead singer Craig Finn spinning his drunken tales of morality and broken relationships like a wild-eyed beat poet.

The show climaxed with half the audience pouring onto Club Congress' stage, jumping up and down with the band.

The Hold Steady has a lot of unusual things going for it that at first glance you'd think would be hindrances.

The band's music, for starters, isn't terribly innovative. It's chunky guitar riffs, "Piano Man" keyboards, plodding bass and rhythmic drums with Finn's nasally voice talk-singing over it all. Finn's vocals are special because what he lacks in range, he more than makes up in content. His lyrics are detailed stories of characters growing up, getting wasted and going nowhere — typically set in his hometown of Minneapolis.

"We're kind of just a rock 'n' roll band in its truest sense," Kubler said. "What we do isn't dictated by trends."

Then there are the ages of the band members, reaching up to the mid-30s. Most bands that acquire the kind of buzz The Hold Steady has generated in the past year do so earlier in life.

"Our age has been very beneficial in the fact that it's allowed us a lot more comfort in enjoying what we're able to do and to not really concentrate on anything else but having a good time," Kubler said.

As the band continues its victory laps following "Boys and Girls," Kubler said, the group will likely try to take some time at the end of the year to work on the follow-up, which will be The Hold Steady's fourth LP.

Until then, Kubler will tell you the same thing he tells his dad, a Phoenix resident, when questioned about The Hold Steady's rigorous touring schedule: "That's how it goes, old man."