That'll Dü: From Past to Present, Bob Mould and Band Blister the Metro -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Bob Mould w/ band

opening act Beach Bunny

Metro, Chicago

February 23 (also played 2/22)

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In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the legendary Bob Mould said:

“Somebody once tweeted something like, 'Oh, my God. I’m at a Bob Mould show, and it seems like it’s been an hour and a half of the same song. It’s incredible.' 

“At first, I sort of took offense to it, and then I realized, no, that’s actually like, ‘Oh, cool.’ Yeah, so it’s all just one big thing.”

I'm fairly certain I am not the Tweeter Mould was referencing, but I can't deny thinking something similar, largely in a reverential way.

For at age 58, the singer/guitarist/songwriter initially famed for being in Hüsker Dü remains a rather singular force of nature.

Especially when playing with a band, Mould plugs in howls--vocally and instrumentally--for 80-90 minutes with hardly a breath or moment of dead air in between songs.

And whether with Hüsker Dü in the '80s, an early '90s trio called Sugar or as a solo artist, Mould's stock-in-trade has been smouldering rock songs that wrap clever melodies and incisive lyrics within guitar-fueled aggression.

Hence, both to the adoring and the adverse, there can be plenty of similarity over the course of one of Mould's concert performances.

Saturday night was the 11th time I've Bob Mould live on a stage, the first having been in 1994 with  Sugar--technically, I'm not too young to have seen him with Hüsker Dü, but I wasn't hip enough to know it at the time--and the others in a variety of incarnations (full-band, solo with acoustic guitar, solo on electric guitar and acoustic with an another such accompanist). 

He has been stellar in every guise, but over the last decade or so, when playing with Evanston's Jason Narducy on bass and Jon Wuerster from the band Superchunk on drums, he has been especially mind-blowing.

To the point that a superlative show is pretty much a sure thing, as reiterated at Metro, a great Chicago venue he has blistered often.

Whenever tickets went on sale for Friday and Saturday's gigs, I did not jump on getting one.

But last week I realized it had been over two months since I'd been to a concert, and with tickets remaining--they sold out by show time--and the Metro able to accommodate my request for a seat in the balcony, I couldn't resist the chance to see Mould for the first time in 3 years, figuring it a certainty I'd be thoroughly rocked.

And I was.

If you've seen Bob Mould at full-tilt, you probably don't need to be reading this review to know how wondrous he is--especially with Wuerster and Narducy, both outstanding sidemen.

And if you haven't, this isn't going to explain something that can't be explained. It's a unique visceral experience, perhaps akin to standing amid a howling windstorm, joyously.

But you--and especially the 3 pals who accompanied me at the show--may wonder why I awarded @@@@1/2 and not a Seth Saith maximum of @@@@@.

Certainly, it's an inexact delineation, but though there were many blissful moments among the 90 or so minutes Mould & Co. were onstage, it seemed a tad less frenetic than past shows of his I've seen.

If he's slowing down just a bit as he gets older and--per the Rolling Stone interview and his latest album titled Sunshine Rock--seems to be happier, that's really only a good thing.

Mould remains truly incredible, had also played Metro the night before and actually played about 10 minutes longer than past full-band shows have typically yielded.

As I reflected on in my most recent theater review, what I'm really gauging in offering my opinion--and rating--of any show is my emotional experience.

While this was as awesome as can be during Mould's opening quartet of "The War," "A Good Idea," "I Apologize" and "Hoover Dam," seven of the subsequent 21 songs--see the setlist here--came from Sunshine Rock, which was just released on February 8.

While I've repeatedly listened to and like that album--which in its essence isn't all that different from 2016's Patch the Sky, 2014's Beauty and Ruin, 2012's Silver Age, etc., etc.--the songs have yet to fully soak in, hence a sense of sameness was exacerbated midway through the set..

I long ago realized that it doesn't matter all that much exactly which songs Bob Mould chooses to play at a given show, as the torrid soundscape is brilliant regardless.

But eschewing Sugar's "Your Favorite Thing"--which had been in all the tour setlists before Chicago--not only eliminated one of my absolute favorites, the show could have used its poppy, melodic and presumably well-known punch.

The 25 songs did include seven from Hüsker Dü--if you include their cover of the Mary Tyler Moore theme, "Love is All Around"--along with three from Sugar and more recent gems like "I Don't Know You Anymore" and "Hey Mr. Grey."

So as Mould is soon to commemorate 40 years of making music publicly with a pair of upcoming shows in St. Paul, he well demonstrated that he's long been a master at multiple crafts: songwriting, singing, playing guitar, delivering thunderous concerts, etc.

And it's certainly to his credit that brand new tunes like "Sunny Love Song" and "I Fought" can slot in seamlessly with Hüsker Dü classics like "Chartered Trips" and "Makes No Sense at All."

Though he didn't say anything about it in introduction, it was also cool that he opened the encore--alone--with "Never Talking to You Again," a Hüsker Dü song that his late, supposedly long estranged bandmate Grant Hart had written and sung. 

Clearly, Mould has set a high bar, and strictly in terms of his performance alongside Narducy and Wuerster--with a nice opening set from Beach Bunny--he cleared it.

One wonders how long he can rock at 180mph, but even if he moderates to 150mph, it seems he should still be in great stead for a few more years, at least.

But I just didn't find myself staring breathlessly with mouth agape as at some past Mould band shows, and along with ripping through "Your Favorite Thing"--as he delectably did "If I Can't Change Your Mind"--I think he'd been well served to swap out a couple new tunes for some that have had a chance to germinate a bit more. ("Stupid Now," "Underneath Days," "Egøverride," "Lucifer and God" and the Sugar B-side "Needle Hits E" being just a few possibilities among those I cherish.)

I hope these are taken as the minor quibbles that I intend them, for once again Bob Mould delighted me plenty.

And among friends, with a balcony seat, at a classic Chicago venue, what's 1/2@ mean anyway?

Pedal to Floor, Non-Stop Roar: At 55, Bob Mould Continues to Far Exceed the Speed Limit -- Chicago Concert Review

Concert Review

Bob Mould w/ band

w/ opening act J. Robbins

Metro, Chicago

May 6, 2016

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Before Friday night, there were 10 rock artists I'd seen live in concert at least 10 times. 

Appropriately, Bob Mould now makes that list "go to 11."

I wasn't cognizant enough of Hüsker Dü in real time to have seen Mould with his groundbreaking 1980s power trio, but have seen him perform in several incarnations beginning in 1994 with his second trio, Sugar.

I have seen him alone with an acoustic guitar, solo with an electric guitar, acoustically paired with another guitarist, with a 4-piece band (incidentally with subsequent 2-time Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris on guitar) and, as again on Friday at Metro, with Evanston's Jason Narducy on bass and drummer Jon Wurster rounding out yet another power trio.

Mould has been enjoyable in all forms, but there is nothing--and no one--like him in a full-tilt, band-backed frenzy.

And at the age of 55, he shows no signs of slowing down, as evidenced by a blistering 80-minute set in which there were virtually no pauses between songs, about a dozen total words spoken and only the initial part of Hüsker Dü's "Hardly Getting Over It" late in the show to slightly quell the deafening blast.

While Mould looks to be in better physical shape now than in his 20s, it's interesting to note that 18 years ago, at the age of 37, he claimed the  Last Dog and Pony Show tour--the one with Cerveris on-board--was to be his last with an electric band, at the breakneck pace for which he's always been known.

There are too many matters of real concern to even raise an eyebrow at rock stars reneging on the their retirements and such, and I'm quite glad that the Minneapolis native essentially decided in 2005 that "this is what I do, and love, so why not do it, at least sometimes."

A free, outdoor, summertime gig at Millennium Park in 2014 with the same trio was likewise balls-to-the-wall phenomenal, but this Metro show--which I wasn't even planning to attend until friends who were couldn't use their tickets--was particularly fun as it followed a solo electric evening with Bob Mould just last October at Evanston's SPACE.

Though there he also played Hüsker Dü, Sugar and solo chestnuts, the focus of that show was trying out new material before putting it on an upcoming album. 

As I wrote then, songs like "The End of Things," "Hold On," "Lucifer and God" and "Black Confetti" held up well against past glories, so it was cool to note they made it onto his terrific new Patch the Sky record, from which the first two songs cited and others made Friday's setlist.

Truthfully, I only started familiarizing myself with Patch the Sky a week before the show, so it's to the credit of his adept songwriting--though also an elemental hard-charging-guitar-driven similarity across much of his material--that new songs like the two mentioned above, plus "You Say You," "Losing Time" and others came across as delectably as four tunes from Sugar's wondrous Copper Blue and several Hüsker Dü gems like "I Apologize," "Celebrated Summer," "Hate Paper Doll" and the closing "Makes No Sense at All." (See Bob Mould's Chicago full setlist here at Setlist.fm)

In fact, I wish more of the new album was included, as "Lucifer and God" and "Pray for Rain" are among my favorites that weren't showcased at Metro.

But while the same can be said about numerous great songs from across Mould's illustrious career--heck, 2012's Silver Age and 2014's Beauty & Ruin are filled with thunderous wonders of which few could be culled, let alone the rest of the solo and band catalogs--the obvious skill, effort and fury he, Narducy and Wurster put into their time onstage makes setlist selections almost immaterial.

Everything sounds great.

And if I didn't hear "Helpless" or "Chartered Trips" or "Egøverride" or "Your Favorite Thing" this time, not only might I next time, but I was delighted that Mould (re)introduced me to a couple Hüsker Dü gems I'd long since forgetten: "Could You Be the One?" and "In a Free Land."

Perhaps one day Bob Mould will truly decide it's time for him to slow down. Even that won't be a tragedy, as his career can already be called legendary and his songwriting craft shines even more in a solo setting.

But if you love loud 'n fast rock 'n roll and have never seen Mould and his companions at full speed, you definitely should while you still can.

At 55, he remains--in my own words--a tour de force of nature.

Though there are a lot of rock artists I love, and love to see live again and again, Bob Mould stands as one I consider singular.

There is no one else quite like him, or who delivers shows with such sheer horsepower.

So here's hoping--to quote one of his very best songs, Sugar's "If I Can't Change Your Mind," which thrilled on Friday--he'll "stay that way until."