I Saw Bob Mould

Time for a quick rock show review...

This past Wednesday night I saw Bob Mould play at Irving Plaza. I was really looking forward to it as Bob has always been one of my favorite musicians. Husker Du (the picture above is from when the band was still together, in case you didn’t know. Dammit) is one of my favorite bands and I also really dig Sugar and most of Bob’s solo stuff (Sorry, Bob- I really tried with “Modulate” but just couldn’t do it. I appreciate your balls for trying something different though.).

I showed up at Irving Plaza a little earlier than I had hoped. I didn’t feel like seeing an opening band so I tried to time it so I’d be walking in right as Bob hit the stage. Unfortunately, I got there just as the opener, Copeland, was attempting to warm up the crowd of mostly dudes in attendance. Copeland reminded me of an emo version of the Gin Blossoms, and I mean that in the harshest of ways. I will admit, however, that my disdain for the band was influenced in part by the fact that I just wanted to see Bob play. I don’t think I would be a fan of Copeland under any circumstances, but I doubt I would always feel like throwing rocks at them, as I did throughout pretty much all of their set on Wednesday. (NOTE: If any fans or actual members of the band Copeland are reading this right now, it’s nothing personal. I didn’t like your music, but you seemed like a bunch of nice guys. It just wasn’t my cup of tea as they say. And being a musician myself, I know it’s never nice to read that someone doesn’t like your music. For example, check out this write up of my band Valley Lodge. They pretty much say we suck except for our one song ”All Of My Loving”, which they admit is pretty awesome. Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that if we ever do meet face to face, I’d be happy to buy you a sandwich, a bag of chips even. You’re on your own with the beverage though.)

After Copeland left the stage, Irving Plaza began to fill up with even more dudes and next thing you know Bob took the stage. Joining him in his rock assault were Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty (who is, like, one of the best drummers ever in my opinion), keyboardist Richard Morel (who is Bob’s partner in Blowoff, and bassist Jason Narducy from Verbena, whom I couldn’t help but be really jealous of because I would love to play bass and sing backups for Bob Mould if I ever got the chance.

It was good to see Bob rocking again as it was just a few years ago that he swore he was putting the loud amps away for good. I’m glad he changed his mind though because- as mentioned previously in this diary- I firmly believe in the importance of rocking out as much as humanly possible at all times- especially when you’re Bob Mould. It was also great to hear Bob play Husker Du and Sugar songs within a full band context, something he has also never done outside of either of those bands to my knowledge.

I can’t remember all the songs Bob played, but from what I can remember the set included “The Act We Act,” “Changes”, “A Good Idea,” “Helpless,” “Hoover Dam,” and (though I could be wrong about this last one) “Your Favorite Thing” by Sugar; “Chartered Trips,” “Could You Be The One,” “I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer,” “Makes No Sense At All,” “Whatever,” and maybe some others I’m forgetting by Husker Du; and “See A Little Light,” “Egooveride,” “High Fidelity,” “Underneath Days,” “I Am Vision, I Am Sound,” “Best Thing,” “Circles,” and probably some other ones from his solo albums too.

It’s always nice to hear someone break out the hits from a more than twenty year career. It help remind you how they got to stick around so long in the first place. I will end this review not unlike an elementary school student might end a book report: If you want to hear great music played by great musicians, you should definitely go see Bob and his band play if you get the chance. (You should by all his records too, even “Modulate,” if for nothing else than the cool packaging.)

On a side note- and as is often the case with rock shows- there was an organization (LifeBeat, I think) giving out free Trojan condoms at the show. It’s always good to spread the safe sex message, I (and they, I would assume) say (People see a rock show and they feel like boning. It’s just how these thing go). It was interesting to see the array of condoms they had for the taking- regular lubricated ones, condoms for his and her pleasure, and then condoms that were just for her pleasure (I guess the dude in that situation is probably happy enough to just be boning in the first place). I’m always amazed that there is a necessity to make a variety of different condoms. You’d think the whole penis/vagina or penis/anus combo would be enough to keeps things exciting. Kids today....

Dave Hill