Monday, March 24, 2008

Bob Mould Live in NYC: Husker Du, Sugar, and More

After rocking hard most of his career, Bob Mould stepped back away from the world of rock and touring, as indicated by the title of his album “Last Dog and Pony Show.”

He still put out solo albums, though, and recently came out with a new album, "District Line." A couple of weeks ago he brought his new tour to New York's Irving Plaza. If he's lost any intensity or guitar skills since the last time I saw him live with Sugar a few years back, he sure didn't show it. (I never did see Husker Du when they were around, so I can't make a comparison to those days.)

Mould and his band ripped through a solid, hard-rocking set with no lulls. As a review of his recent show in Philadelphia noted, "Mould proved he could bring the rock whenever he felt like it - very loud, very hard and very fast." He played a number of tunes from the new album, District Line, as well as from Mould solo albums (including one of my favorites, “See a Little Light” from the Workbook album), Sugar (including “My Favorite Thing” and “Hoover Dam”), and of course some old Husker Du favs such as “Makes No Sense at All” and “Divide and Conquer.”

“District Line” is a solid album, and while it has the familiar Bob Mould guitar-driven sound, it also includes some sounds that reflects his work experimenting with electronic music and spinning DJ sets with Richard Morel (who's playing keyboards in Mould's current band).

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