CRAIG FINN AND HIS BAND OF FORGIVENESS LIGHT UP LONDON’S UNION CHAPEL

LIVE REVIEW | CRAIG FINN AND THE BAND OF FORGIVENESS | UNION CHAPEL, LONDON | 30th January 2026 by Morris Shamah

Finn finally headlined London’s Union Chapel on Friday night, playing a short set solo acoustic before playing a full length show with his Band of Forgiveness. “I’m my own opening act,” he joked, shortly after taking the stage. Craig’s shows really hit at the literary nature of his songwriting, and a venue like Union Chapel – church pews, stained glass windows, the overbearing sense of some people’s belief in a higher power – is a perfect vehicle for Craig’s raconteuring. 

The “opening” set was thirty minutes of pure Craig – surrounded by the band’s instruments and setup, he stood alone, just him in his now-signature blue suit and baseball hat, and with his nylon string acoustic guitar. Much like at his show at Islington Assembly Hall in December of 2024, Craig’s songs really shine in the solo acoustic arrangement. The depths to which his characters have fallen echo in the silences, Craig’s light touch on the strings giving them room to breathe themselves into the listener’s consciousness.

Take Dennis & Billy, a highlight of his solo set and a deep cut that hasn’t been played in nine years prior to this tour. The 2014 EP-only track follows two lifelong friends who disconnect and reconnect over the years, lamenting the pitiful nature of opioid-riddled smaller-city America while finding solace in the certainty of the dangers of military service. Their fears and distinct lack of hope ring out cleanly through the silent audience, filling the room with their story and the stillness of a life that’s not exactly sure why it’s worth living.

“I like sad songs!” Craig exclaims, before the last song of his solo set. “They remind us that we all struggle. We all suffer. It’s part of being human…. When we get together in a beautiful room like this, sit down in the pews and listen to sad songs, drink beer, sing along, enjoy it together – I think it’s even more of a reminder that we all suffer. We all get sad sometimes. And in that, I think it turns into something very, very beautiful.” He’s right. There’s a delicate communal consolation in the room, one that can’t be replicated at home with the record. Of course, Craig ends his solo set with This Is What It Looks Like, closing out with the whole audience singing along to the refrain “this is what it looks like when we’re joyful.” It’s a classic unreliable narrator in the song, but it’s absolutely true in the room.

Craig is known for being the frontman of The Hold Steady, a raucous rock n’ roll group in the bar band tradition, and on stage with them he’s a force of nature. Spitting, gesturing wildly, mock-singing off mic, he leads the fandom by example in their rock n’ roll traditions. Craig’s solo performances have always been a contrast to that, and to date it’s safe to say that the full-band Craig Finn shows have struggled to find their true footing. Craig’s backing bands – there have been a few – have always been excellent players, but the rock world of high-energy belongs to a different Craig, while the folk-world of the troubadour was best done without accompaniment. The Band of Forgiveness, Craig’s newest and most unique touring outfit, seeks to buck that trend. 

Their 90 minute set does that by doing what seems impossible – they both flesh out and fill up the music behind Craig’s tales, while also giving the characters and stories room to be up front and foremost to the audience. Starting with the talk-sung Fletchers, off of Craig’s newest album Always Been, they open with a roaring saxophone intro that gives way to the simple piano melody that’s right off the record. It’s delectable, perfectly encapsulating the ultimate hangover-anxiety story. It’s a spiritual successor to God In Chicago, which comes later in the set, and an excellent statement of purpose for this show. This is not a rock concert, nor is it a folk night – the Band of Forgiveness brings a soft-yet-distorted jazzy and atmospheric take on Craig’s songs that is rooted with one foot in the studio recording and another in some distant galaxy where these songs have drum programming, heavy synths, and a variety of woodwinds. 

The show is heavy on Always Been, eight of the twelve songs getting played across the two sets. Craig fills us in throughout the show on the what’s behind Always Been – an album that mostly follows a singular character who reinvents himself several times. It’s accompanied by a book of short stories, LOUSY WITH GHOSTS, and represents Craig’s closest thing to a novel since The Hold Steady’s Separation Sunday.

Always Been was recorded with most of The War on Drugs and has a strong throughline reminiscent of Los Angeles styled indie rock. That thread is mostly gone here. The Band of Forgiveness replaces the rollicking with the subtle, and it works beautifully. Where on the record the music helps draw the listener in, on stage with the Band Of Forgiveness the music instead plays a reinforcement role, giving Craig’s cinematic stories a score rather than a soundtrack. “I named it The Band Of Forgiveness because to me forgiveness is the most beautiful and the most heavy concept.” 

Craig also fills the room with laughter. He immediately follows that with a joke, comparing an office romance to a horror movie as an introduction to Luke and Leanna, and follows the song up by saying he scheduled this show at the end of January because he “thought maybe some of you would be doing dry January and I thought this would be a good jumping off point. Get back on it!” No one told Craig that Union Chapel still doesn’t serve alcohol in the concert venue, apparently. (But, big news – they are serving tea again!)

That comment is of course another reference to the inherent sadness of Craig’s music, but also a note on the drinking culture that follows Craig and The Hold Steady. Spend enough time with The Unified Scene, as fans of the band are called, and you’ll find yourself in a warm, welcoming, true community of fans – and they’ll all buy you a pint or three. Coming in at the end of January, Craig’s show is almost a preseason fixture to The Hold Steady’s annual Weekender, which takes place in Camden the first weekend of March. Before the show, between sets, and after the band leaves the stage, you’ll find fans left and right catching up and embracing each other. For these faithful, this was more than another concert. It was a canonical episode in the ongoing Unified Scene. 

Towards the end of the show, The Band of Forgiveness take a break and once again it’s Craig and his guitar playing to the chapel. He plays Shamrock, the closing track on Always Been and the only song on the album that’s not connected to the characters on the rest of it (it’s not on the vinyl). Shamrock was a standout at his gig 13 months prior, a standout on the record, and again a standout here. It perfectly captures what Craig does best – a story of two people, ordinary people, who’s hopes are crushed beneath the weight of their reality. “Unrehearsed and unprepared / To be the only one who cares / For a daughter who keeps / Asking about her father.” Their story is presented raw and without judgement. There’s only empathy and recognition from Craig, and by extension, all of us.

Craig captures it all perfectly in his intro to Messing With The Settings. “Statues you see… you go into a park and you see a guy, on a horse, with a sword… a general… or a politician. But songs can as as monuments or memorials to people who live smaller, but no less important lives.” While Messing With The Settings is, in fact, a eulogy, not all of Craig’s characters are dead. Most of them are dying in some way or another, though, and on this rainy Friday night, when The Unified Scene traded their Camden mosh pits for Islington church pews, we all came together to celebrate the lives of these people that Craig Finn has seemingly discovered rather than created.

The Hold Steady play London this March, 5th through 8th.Tickets are still available from Crosstown Concerts. 

Craig Finn and The Band Of Forgiveness return to Europe and the UK this Fall, supporting The Mountain Goats. Tickets are available on Craig Finn’s website.

Setlist

Craig Finn Solo Acoustic

1. Maggie I’ve Been Searching For Our Son
2. Be Honest
3. Crumbs
4. Dennis And Billy
5. Magic Marker
6. This Is What It Looks Like

Craig Finn and the Band Of Forgiveness

1. Fletchers
2. Bethany 
3. Jessamine
4. Luke and Leanna
5. Amarillo Kid
6. Never Any Horses
7. Holyoake
8. Messing With The Settings
9. I Walk With A Cane
10. Clayton
11. All These Perfect Crosses
12. Due To Depart
13. People Of Substance 
14. Preludes 
15. Shamrock*
16. God In Chicago^ 
17. Curtis & Shepherd

* Solo Acoustic
^ Horn version

About the Author

Morris Shamah

Contributor

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