Well, I’m about off to go to a concert that I may or may not know enough of the music to really enjoy myself. It will be a great time, assuredly, but I have not been keeping up with Bob Mould as much as I probably should have over the years since his divorce from Hüsker Dü, a band that played a pivotal role in my youth. Hüsker Dü was one of two bands frequently cited by the next generation of “punk” music as having an outsized influence on their sounds. The other frequently-mentioned influencers were the Hüsker’s local “rivals”, The Replacements.
Nirvana, Green Day, and nearly every grunge band from the 90s will mention Hüsker Dü as an influence on why they wrote songs like they did.
This supposed local rivalry with The Replacements was more nose tweaking at the band level and seemed to be a bigger concern of the fanbase than the bands. Growing up in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro, the “Twin Cities”, at this time — I can tell you that it was largely a matter of Minneapolis (The Replacements) versus Saint Paul (Hüsker Dü). Where did I stand? Smack in the middle, with slight leanings towards the more “we don’t give fuck all” attitude of The Replacements. One of the first songs I knew by them was “Fuck School” after all, a sentiment that I could get behind as a rebellious teen. Hüsker Dü were more all-around intellectual, although not entirely. I dug their sound, but their music had a less visceral message for me.
Bob Mould, singer and oft-time songwriter for Hüsker Dü, was treated unfairly by the community when the band broke up, somewhat helped along by his decision to break away completely from the Hüsker’s buzzsaw guitar sound and, for his first album he largely played a 12-string acoustic guitar backed by strings and orchestral elements. “Sell out” was commonly used to describe him by disgruntled fans who wanted to keep thrashing to the Minnesota-flavored hardcore punk of the band’s first three albums. Such as it was, I saw him perform one of his first solo gigs at a music/food festival on the Minnesota State Capitol grounds on a platform you could step up onto to a modest crowd of maybe 100-150 people (my memory plays tricks with me some thirty-seven years afterward, so the crowd might have been bigger or smaller than I recall). It was a small gig either way. Bob was nervous as hell, on this low stage with low turnout with only him and a couple of guitars. I could have reached out at touched him while he performed.
Now, to be fair, in another part of that same day, I saw Alanis Morrisette play on a similar stage and “You Outta Know” was just beginning to get airplay. Her crowd was not much larger and she looked at me like she thought that I might go ahead and touch her — and she didn’t look like she cared for that idea. So I stepped back and out of the “danger zone”, which seemed to sooth her. [/side note]
While the larger critic reception of “Workbook” was supportive of Bob’s solo career, the followup, “Black Sheets of Rain”, was a commercial flop. He joined or formed the band Sugar shortly afterwards, who had a few minor college-radio hits. But that was about the time that Bob slipped out of my range of perception. I heard (and liked) other songs of his, and heard that he had finally “come out” which was of no surprise at all to any of us who followed him (or was outed by a magazine interviewing him, if you want the truth). Bob didn’t ever come off as gay, but he didn’t come off as someone who cared much about the matter through the years.
Again, there was the fan-based throwing out Hüsker Dü records because of this revelation but these were largely the same people who called him a sellout from what I had seen. No great loss there, if you ask me. I never understood those folks and their motivations — they seemed all too transactional in their fandom to suit me.
And, once it was out in the open… Bob just kept going on, writing awesome songs that sounded more simple than they are in reality. And he started going back to the basics of just being a solid power-pop guitarist and songwriter.
I recently saw him on Jimmy Fallon, performing a song from his 35-minute newest release (when was the last time you saw an album under 55 minutes?), When Your Heart is Broken and immediately decided that those concert tickets I saw on sale for tonight were going to be bought. I think what sold it was his “whew” look at the end, like he couldn’t believe he had survived a national television appearance.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s intimate gig (in a converted movie theater). Not because of the songs I won’t know, but because I greatly admire what Bob has done for 40+ years, the risks he’s taken and how he has overcome multitudes of difficulties and managed to keep on being a genuine, authentic musician and person.
It will be worth every penny I paid just to see him being just Bob Mould.
26 responses to “Bob Mould concert tonight”
Enjoy. That should be a great performance!
Thank you. Every time I’ve seen Bob, he’s put on a solid performance. It’s never a bad show.
Well, the median age is on the order of 57 tonight. Officially the “oldest” show my eldest daughter has attended in her life. 🤣
I hope you have a great time, and given what you’ve said here I’m sure you will. 😎
We had a blast. I, at least had a blast and my eldest daughter claims to have had a blast. I might have to share more of it.
Sounds like a successful venture. Hope you have more together. 🙂
Thank you. Who knows? We’ll have to see if we can agree on something. Right now she wants me to go to a few shows that I have zero interest in seeing. None of them are close to my speed…
It’s that thing about being supportive to those you love, I guess. Who knows indeed? You might be surprised … 🙂
If Peter Hook and the Light came through again and did their Joy Division tribute show, we’d buy tickets in a heartbeat (Peter Hook was the bassist for Joy Division and does those tours every now and again). We could agree on that, absolutely. 🙂
Then I’ll hope for you both that it happens. 🙂
Hope you enjoyed the gig. Neither band really did much for me (although I admit to not listening to too much from either). I might track down some of his solo work though. If it’s good enough for you…
It was fantastic. My daughter was not terribly familiar with his music, but wanted to tag along and she is now a convert. She was “holy crap, Dad, he’s an amazing performer! And his playing style is so… Wow. How does he move his hands and fingers like that?”
Bob has a unique way of playing solos while he plays rhythm guitar. I didn’t realize until after watching him closely last night just how many of my “weird” habits in guitar were likely unconsciously developed mimicry of some of his Hüsker Dü playing. I certainly didn’t try to sound like him when I was playing…
Delighted to hear that. I have listened to his last album but I just can’t seem to connect. Horses for courses, as they say. Sometimes, too, seeing someone live can change your viewpoint.
Interesting point about his style, though. Influences everywhere.
That album is a little uninspired. I like the single and a few other song but I still prefer his earlier sound. “Here We Go Crazy” is “safe” power-pop as an album, but I can forgive that because the man is in his mid-sixties. After 45 years of writing music it can be hard to keep that kind of momentum up that he had in his early days.
And half of it is the performance. His live performances were always a blast to attend. I think I’ve seen one iteration or another of his a total of about 10 times. I lose track of how many of the early gigs, where we went to a live all-age show just because it was a live all-age show. It might be someone you knew or it might be someone you didn’t, but you went because it was bound to be interesting.
I’ve just been listening to ‘Workbook’ and, in all honesty I’ve not been blown away by the music. I don’t dislike it, it just doesn’t quite resonate. Mind you ‘All Those People ‘ is a great punk song – I remember this feeling from when I left work (fortunately it was the end of covid, so no big fuss which was a relief anyway) and saying to a colleague who’d told me I’d be remembered that everyone would have forgotten me in six months. Time moves on.
Anyway, back to the point. Musically not quite, but some of the lyrics are top draw (for me at least). Faves? Probably ‘Heartbreak…’, ‘Wishing…’, ‘Poison…’ and ‘Lonely’.
I may yet explore further.
Cheers
Different strokes, different folks. I get it. Like I said, it might have been the environment and culture of the time that got me hooked initially and it might not translate well to this day and age. Thanks for giving it a chance. You listed off the songs I expected you to like more than the others so at least I have a hint as to your tastes 🙂
It would appear that we share more common ground than is reasonable!!
He did some fan service near the end and played a handful of songs from back in the day. “Celebrated Summer” was worth the price of admission on its own as far as I was concerned. That song always hit the right parts for me from the first listen back in ’85 or something. The other old songs were icing on the cake of an already great gig.
I would bet you might like “Workbook”. There are more than just a handful of tracks that might grab you. I can also see you liking some of his Sugar songs.
Hüsker Dü was OUR hardcore punk. We felt slighted by the coasts at the time with their focus on NY and California bands, so we might be doing the whole Team Minnesota mentality. But the opening act’s bass player gushed about hanging out with Bob backstage, saying he was a HUGE influence on her and she’s from Illinois, so maybe it was a regional thing.
Thanks for letting me gush…
I will give that album a listen to, and report back.
I totally get where you are coming from regarding locale. Over here it was all Liverpool in the sixties, then London; Manchester in the 80’s/90’s….you’d think Birmingham had never produced anything worthwhile.
Sounds like it was awesome sauce and hopefully your daughter enjoyed it too. I remember the looks on all these youngbloods at the Depeche Mode show we went to in recent years and how fascinated and a little weirded out to be surrounded by old people getting down and carrying on.
We had a blast. Ears are still ringing a bit, but that’s to be expected with Bob.
The Poster Children were a effing blast. I have a hard time believing Rose is (I think) 60 years old — she looked easily 20 years younger on stage. I missed them back when they were more part of the scene in 88-93, so it was great to find a warm up that I really enjoyed.
My daughter was unfamiliar with Bob’s back-catalog, but is now determined to fix that after last night.
I admit too, I didn’t fellow him either after Husker Du. I’ll have to play some catch up on his catalog. And just to put this out there, but Zen Arcade may be my favorite title of an album and album cover.
Zen Arcade was phenomenal all around. I think I know where that photo was taken. It’s no longer there of course, but it was probably only a mile or two away from where I grew up if it is the used auto parts yard in thinking of.
He played Chartered Trips that night, modified into an extended version that went on for about ten minutes of soloing. Typical Bob when he’s live. He liked to do that on at least one song each gig.
That’s awesome you knew where that photo was taken. I once referenced the title in a poem (Minor Threat too), but I didn’t like the poem, so I took it down.
Aww… Rework your poem and put it back up. I’d definitely get a kick out of it.
I’ll give it a look over. Thanks.