TORONTO – The Hold Steady played a characteristically raucous show in Toronto this week to a crowd that was tightly packed, remarkably enthusiastic and, well, overwhelmingly male.

That too is characteristic of the Minneapolis bar-rock stalwarts’ live performances: a demographic breakdown as unbalanced as the beer-suffused occupants of their rowdy moshpits.

Fortunately, frontman Craig Finn is musing on a solution.

“I have this theory that there are so many really good guys at our shows,” said the friendly Finn at his Toronto hotel the morning after the show. “Most of our fanbase are smart, employed — they might not be behaving their best at our shows, but if you can see that past that, you’ve got a really good dating pool there. So I really think there’s some marketing we could do to open this up.

“Dudes at our shows are good guys with good jobs who are largely educated,” he added wryly. “There’s tons of girls who pretend they like football to meet guys, maybe this is the new thing?”

After sharing a laugh with guitarist Tad Kubler, Finn acknowledges the issue more seriously.

“I’ve been heartened on this record (‘Teeth Dreams’) because there have been several different interviews with women (journalists) who have said you write good female characters,” he added. “That’s good, because if it was poorly written or seen as so in front of an audience that’s really largely male, it could be kind of scary.

“Some days it seems like it’s changing, and some days it doesn’t. Hopefully it does. You want a wide section. I certainly would want more women to come to our shows but we’re happy with the fans we have too.”

Finn’s knack for telling tales from the perspective of both genders is more relevant than it has been for a while, since “Teeth Dreams” — the indie-rock favourites’ recently released sixth disc — heralds a return to the hyper-detailed storytelling that helped to win Hold Steady such a devoted following in the first place.

The record is their “biggest and loudest,” Finn says, and “darkest, for sure.” The 10 tracks — defined here by claustrophobic interlocking guitars, choruses with hockey-arena expanse and a total lack of piano keys — tell tales of faded relationships, after-party come-downs and, once again, sad people in the in-between towns.

Finn has, however, peeled back a bit from the character-building of earlier albums, in which the likes of Charlemagne, Gideon, Holly or Drop Dead Fred barrelled their way into his fanbase’s collective heart.

“I think at some point … I felt limited by always using proper names — Charlemagne did this, Gideon did that,” Finn said. “There ends up being more ‘he/she’ probably than there used to be and that’s maybe to keep it a bit more elliptical in that sense.”

The warmly received “Teeth Dreams” is being hailed as a return to form in many critical corners, which is both a compliment and a testament to the diminished reputation of the band’s fifth record, 2010’s slick “Heaven is Whenever.”

Such backhanded praise, however, doesn’t bother Finn.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that people didn’t enjoy the last record as much,” he said. “We were pretty fatigued and probably could have taken a break before writing it. It’s fine. You’re going to have six records — if you rank (them), there has to be a best to worst in everyone’s mind, right?

“When I look back at ‘Heaven is Whenever,’ I was doing less storytelling I think,” he added. “I know for me I wanted to return to more stories for this album. In that sense alone, I think it’s a return to that.”

Added Kubler: “Part of growing creatively is having those moments where it’s like, well, maybe that didn’t work. But looking back on the last record, it makes more sense to me now hearing this one. … I don’t see it too much as a return to form but more of a transitional period for us.”

More than a decade in, the Hold Steady finds itself at a juncture where many bands enter a “mature” phase, a trap Finn says he’s “proud” to have avoided, joking: “We didn’t bring in the mandolins, you know? That’s what you’re expected to do when you’re 42, on your sixth record.”

That said, Hold Steady’s live shows have long carried the promise of suds-infused celebration. At (indeed) 42 and writing ever-darker material, Finn can’t necessarily relate to the boozy vibe the way he once did.

“That’s a hard thing — because I do want the shows to be really celebratory. How much I’m participating in it might vary,” he said. “Certainly vs. 10 years ago when we first started the band, I can’t treat my body like that and still play live shows and keep my voice.

“You pick your spots. … You’re sort of like, ‘Well, I’ve got my eye on this date next week. We’ve got a day off the next day and we’re in a cool city. That might be a good night.’ And some you might be like: ‘Well, I’m just going to go on the bus tonight.’”

Here, Kubler chimes in.

“The good news is we’ve already perpetuated that thing where people go to our shows with the idea that they’re going to … cut loose,” he said.

“Whether we’re involved in that or not, it’s nice to be able to be the catalyst.”

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