Bob Mould Review

Bob Mould
Old Town School Of Folk Music, Chicago
Friday, February 17, 2006

Whether fronting the seminal Hüsker Dü, working solo, or with his second band Sugar, the constant hallmark of Bob Mould has always been the quality of his songwriting. Very few people can write such natural hooks as Mould, and there’s no better showcase for songwriting talent as a guy onstage with a guitar.

After flight delays and luggage snafus, Mould pulled into the Old Town School Of Folk to serve up a career retrospective, pull some songs off his latest release Body Of Song, and give a glimpse at some new stuff. After a particularly bleak new offering, Mould joked “The next record’s gonna be real sunshine.”

Mould has never been a chatterbox on stage, sometimes ignoring the crowd altogether, but in Old Town’s intimate setting, you would have thought he was Springsteen introducing “The River.” He was loose, jovial, and as he admitted on a couple of occasions, having a lot of fun. From the opening strains of “Wishing Well” you could tell that he was not only loose, but in great voice with looks back to his Sugar days (“Hoover Dam”) and a nod to Hüsker Dü (“Hardly Getting Over It”).

After an hour of acoustic work, it was time to go electric. Earlier in the show, Mould noted Richie Havens was going to be appearing at Old Town. He mused that he always admired artists like Havens who could couple great lyrics with even greater power chords. The uninitiated in the audience might not have gotten the self-referential joke, but once Mould slashed into “Circles” from Body Of Song, there was no doubt. Four songs later, the evening came to a close with another Hüsker throwback, “Celebrated Summer.”

Whether or not you’ve seen him before, Mould’s performance was its usual high quality. However, if this was not your first time, one would have a bit of a quibble with the set list: fairly standard, no surprises. Not that it was a bad show by any means, it’s just that the man has a vast body of work to choose from. Hopefully sometime in the future, Mould will take that deep songbook on the road with him.

— Timothy Hiatt

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly