Photo of Bob Mould by Laura Jerele
Have guitar, will travel: Bob Mould once again hit the road on his own this fall performing solo electric, arriving at Off Broadway almost exactly one year after his last visit to our fair city. That last Delmar Hall show was a seated solo electric fair, and the crowd vibe, despite the distortion and volume—oh, the volume!—was mostly as quiet and respectful as a quiet acoustic coffeehouse set. At Off Broadway this time out, however, there was nary a seat to be found outside of the balcony. Even with the smaller confines of Off Broadway, the latest show felt less crowded, but those that were there were more raucous, more into it. This was a show for the diehards and they came out in full force.
Those diehards were treated with a special treat: the show was opened by David Barbe, bassist of Mould’s ‘90s band Sugar. (Irony of ironies: Mould’s current bassist, Jason Narducy, couldn’t be there because he had embarked on a solo tour—and he was playing a living room show in St. Louis on the very same night!) Barbe has spent the intervening years as an engineer and producer (he’s been behind the boards on pretty much every Drive-By Truckers release, for example) and educator at the University of Georgia, but he’s also released a string of hugely underrated solo records, and it was a treat to hear him perform them in person. At the time, hearing them perform back-to-back felt like the closest we’d ever get to a Sugar reunion; unbelievably, just today the band announced reunion live dates and released their first new song in 30 years. Here’s praying for a St. Louis date.
Barbe performed solo like Mould, but where Mould’s set would be just voice, guitar distortion, and volume, volume, volume, Barbe used a pedalboard loaded with a looper and various guitar effects. Most songs would start with Barbe playing a chugging rhythm guitar riff, which he would loop, then play solos or noodling, effects-drenched melodic parts over the top of the first riff as he sang. “Silver White Flash” had loops upon loops until Barbe worked up a swirl of shoegaze guitars all by his lonesome. Playing to the Bob-centric crowd, Barbe played a pair of his own songs from the Sugar days: the normally grungy “Where Diamonds Are Halos” became something quiet and tender, while “Company Book” played as almost a blues, with Barbe punctuating the time between verses with more of that beautiful guitar swirl. “The Gray Machine” closed out his set with an anthemic sound that brought the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” to mind.
Barbe was a warm presence, telling the crowd about his previous visits to St. Louis (a Sugar show at Mississippi Nights in 1994, and a road trip back in the ’80s to hand deliver a compilation of Athens, GA bands to record stores in town because “that’s how I thought it worked”) and inviting the crowd to chat at the merch table with the note that that night just happened to be his birthday.
A few songs into his set, Mould wished Barbe a happy birthday, then joked “I’ll be at home for my next birthday…waiting for my Medicare card.” Sure enough, Bob does turn 65 on his next birthday (which happens to be tomorrow, October 16!), but other than the silver beard, you’d never know it from the pure punk ruckus he’s able to conjure with just him, a guitar, and an amp.
Mould opened with “The War,” banging away so hard that he had to tune afterwards. As if he was making up for lost time/energy, he then launched into a back-to-back-to-back triplet of some of the most crowd-pleasing songs of the night: Hüsker Dü’s “Flip Your Wig” and “I Apologize” followed by Sugar’s “Hoover Dam,” which featured one of the most frantic guitar solos of the night. The pace slowed down for “Stand Guard” but the energy didn’t—that song was heavy. Then the pace kicked back up with “Siberian Butterfly,” one of the fastest, punkiest songs of the night.
Mould paused for a bit to chat with the crowd in his own affable, clearly unrehearsed way. He asked what podcasts people were listening to, and it took the crowd a second to realize it wasn’t a joke—he really wanted to know! He told a fun story about breaking a guitar mic stand when he played on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast mere minutes before Rosanne Cash was supposed to perform—oops! He then noted, “This is the part where I usually talk about religion, but I really don’t feel like it.” He instead let a slow, haunting performance of the song “Sinners and Their Repentances” do the talking.
Much like his last visit to town, the middle portion of the set jumped back and forth between loud and fast numbers and mid-tempo bouncier, poppier tunes. Of the former, “The Descent,” was my personal pick for Song of the Night for the ebullient energy Mould gave it, his playing on “Next Generation” was so percussive you didn’t miss the drums one bit, and he was practically strangling the solo for “Black Confetti” out of his guitar. Of the latter, Mould trusted his diehard crowd to support by singing the name of the title track to his new album Here We Go Crazy as part of the chorus and they were more than happy to oblige, causing Mould to name it his personal Song of the Night on social media the following morning.
Mould then dug back into the Hüsker Dü catalog, first with a Neil Young-y take on “Too Far Down,” then an unexpected but amazing run through the Grant Hart-penned Hüsker track “Never Talking to You Again.” “Celebrated Summer” followed with a solo so blazing that Mould jokingly blew on his fingers afterward to cool them off.
It was then back to the new album for a pair of tunes: “Hard to Get” sounded like it leapt right off the album. “When Your Heart Is Broken” didn’t fare as well, though: the song has a nice mid-tempo pop bounce to it on record, but Mould played it fast and loud and it just kind of turned to mud. A great song, but that performance was the one miss on an otherwise stellar night. Thankfully, Mould made a full, immediate recovery with a joyful run through the Sugar song “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.”
He had declared that to be the last song of the night, but afterwards, he never left the stage, instead just walking back to his amp to chug some water using one hand while he used the other to egg the crowd on. Once he felt we had cheered suitably, he offered us “a couple of punk rock songs to take you home.” “Something I Learned Today” followed and it was ferocious, downright feral. Then “Makes No Sense At All” closed out the night with an emphatic singalong. Then it was over, leaving us to walk back out to Lemp Avenue, our ears ringing and our hearts full. | Jason Green
Setlist:
The War
Flip Your Wig
I Apologize
Hoover Dam
Stand Guard
Siberian Butterfly
Sinners and Their Repentances
The Descent
Forecast of Rain
Next Generation
I Don’t Know You Anymore
You Say You
Here We Go Crazy
The Ocean
Daddy’s Favorite
Black Confetti
Too Far Down
Never Talking to You Again
Celebrated Summer
Hard to Get
When Your Heart Is Broken
If I Can’t Change Your Mind
Something I Learned Today
Makes No Sense At All
