Former Lifter Puller frontman (and Boston College alum) Craig Finn follows a long line of indie-rock ranters and street-corner preachers — God Bullys’ Mike Hard, Jesus Lizard’s David Yow, Soul Coughing’s M. Doughty, Speedball Baby’s Ron Ward — but none of them had such crowd pleasers behind them. In his new band, the Hold Steady, Finn doesn’t so much sing as stand on stage and comment — about himself, the music, the audience ("Half the crowd is calling out for ‘Born To Run,’ the other half’s yelling for ‘Born To Lose’ . . . We were born to bruise"), the city and its malcontents, stray thoughts, regrets. Behind him erupts battle-scarred bar-band rock of the kind that’s beholden not to any one classic-rock cliché but to all of them. On the Hold Steady’s debut, Almost Killed Me (Frenchkiss), Finn stuffs heartache and obscure rock trivia into implausibly accessible anthems, like Eric Bogosian channeling Marshall Mathers to the tune of the E Street Band, or, uh, Nick Hornby and the Range. They play Bill’s Bar (617-421-9678) in Boston on Friday, the Living Room (401-521-5200) in Providence on Saturday, and Bar (203-495-8924) in New Haven on Sunday.

For the Living Room show, the Hold Steady are joined by fellow New Yorkers the Tallboys, whose Scallywag Tag EP (Jak Attak) stands out from other post-punk/no-wave revisitations thanks to frontwoman Sheila Sixteen’s piercing yelp, a worthy successor to Poly Styrene’s. The Tallboys also play Sunday at the Midway Café (617-524-9038) in Jamaica Plain. On Sunday at Bar, the Hold Steady are teamed with the Thermals, one of a handful of bands who are returning Sub Pop to an elevated position in the indie cosmos. Frontman Hutch Harris embraces melody and suffers no fools — from his voice, you’d take him for a Death Cab for Cutie fan (in fact, it’s the other way around: Ben Gibbard liked the Thermals so much he persuaded Sub Pop to sign them), but the band would rather be the Misfits, and on their new Fuckin’ A, tuneful punk-without-the-uniform turns inspirational on such anthemic bursts as "Remember Today." The Thermals also play Saturday at T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge. Meanwhile, their labelmates the Catheters have just released the appropriately titled Howling . . . And Still It Grows!!!, which might be the closest thing to a Stooges album that Sub Pop has put out since Mudhoney left. Combining Oblivians-style power raunch with the Hives’ here-comes-treble flash, their "Ravenous Animal" makes for a compulsive garage-punk treat. The Catheters open for British stoner-metal dudes Orange Goblin and Allston rock faves Lamont at the Middle East (617-864-EAST) in Cambridge on Wednesday. And former Sub Pop psychobilly the Reverend Horton Heat, who’s acclimated his slapback showband to trends ranging from heavy metal to jump blues to cocktail music, returns to his roots on a tour with Boston-bred blues punks Mr. Airplane Man and Detroit soul assassins the Detroit Cobras. They’re at the Middle East tonight (May 27) and at Toad’s Place (203-562-5589) in New Haven on Tuesday.