Photo of Malcolm Travis, David Barbe, and Bob Mould of Sugar by Jason Green
Let me start by being honest: this will not be an impartial review. Sugar’s Copper Blue is my favorite album of all time. It literally saved my life as a teenager. Bob Mould, the band’s guitarist, ringleader, and principal singer and songwriter, is, on most days, my favorite songwriter. And while I’ve seen Bob (I can call him Bob, right?) live at least ten times and bassist David Barbe once, I never got to see Sugar as a unit back in the day. And, as should be obvious, I just traveled from St. Louis all the way to New York City to see this, their first show in 31 years. So I was pretty much predestined to love this show, but reader, seriously? I loved this show.
The trio hit the stage running, charging through Copper Blue‘s three stellar opening tracks in quick succession. Mould’s guitar and Barbe’s bass thundered and roared; earplugs were a must, though I don’t know that they did much as my ears are still ringing. Mould in particular looked like he was having a gas, just positively beaming at the crowd’s enraptured response. Barbe smiled too, a little more laid back and cool but still clearly feeding off the crowd’s energy. Drummer Malcolm Travis looked more stoic by comparison, eyes locked on his kit through the glasses perched on the end of his nose like an English professor. Travis’ drumming, though, is the band’s secret weapon: a lot of drummers that hit hard make a big show of it, slamming their sticks down like a caveman with a club. Travis isn’t showy about pounding away behind the kit, but his playing was still fast, loud, and packed with energy—he doesn’t look like he’s working hard but his snare hits just snap, and his fills (he always plays little drum rolls during every fourth measure, my absolute favorite drumming tic) made the tracks sound giddy.
And this was, indeed, a set that leaned toward giddy, that hit all of Sugar’s fastest, catchiest bops and left the band’s biggest moments of emotional devastation—songs like “The Slim” or “Explode and Make Up”— off to the side for the evening. After that opening one-two-three salvo, the band slowed it down a little bit when Barbe took over the mic for the churning mid-tempo number “Company Book.” But then just as quickly it was off to the races then with the fast and punky “After All the Roads Have Led to Nowhere” and “In the Eyes of My Friends.”
Astute Sugar fans will note: those last two songs are not on proper albums. In fact, the band never even recorded a studio version of “After All the Roads.” There was a lot of rarities like that in the set: the band played a whopping six songs off of their B-sides collection Besides, one less than they played off Copper Blue and just as many as they played from their sophomore LP File Under: Easy Listening. “After All the Roads Have Led to Nowhere” was joined later by yet another song that was only ever played live but never recorded in the studio (“Running Out of Time,” the closest to the old Hüsker Dü hardcore days that Mould got with Sugar) as well as the live debut of Sugar’s two post-reunion singles, “House of Dead Memories” and “Long Live Love.” It says a lot about the depth of the crowd’s fandom that these songs were greeted as warmly as the classics. “Long Live Love,” in particular, sounded fantastic.
They also, it should be noted, played a lot of Barbe’s songs. This was typical of Sugar setlists back in the day, but backing up other people hasn’t really been a part of Bob Mould’s job description in the 31 years since Sugar broke up. He really seemed to throw himself into the sideman roll, grinning his way through the songs, especially when it was the rare time for him to sing backing vocals, and busted out some of his sharpest solos over Barbe’s tunes. At one point, Barbe noted that he had had very young children during Sugar’s heyday and therefore his kids had never gotten to see the band play live. He beamed proudly toward the balcony as he announced that they were there that night to witness Sugar for the first time.
Ten songs into the set, the heat level in Webster Hall was definitely starting to get on the oppressive side as the band started digging into FU:EL with “Gift” and its squalls of feedback before going a little sweeter with the boppy single “Your Favorite Thing.” Without even a split second of transition, they then launched into “Clownmaster,” an instrumental B-side that finds all three members launching at blazing speed. I didn’t see what happened but suddenly it became clear that Travis had tumbled off of his drum stool. To keep the crowd engaged, Mould and Barbe kept playing as they stood in front of the drum riser, making sure their compatriot was okay as the crew helped Travis up and got him some water. Barbe then took the mic to talk and give Travis an extra moment to reset, joking about how they get hot up there too. (Considering how hot it was on the floor, I can only imagine what it was like under the stage lights. You could definitely see the beads of sweat flying off Mould as he played.) Barbe’s epic dirge “Frustration” let the band slowly build the show back up to a boil.
The only other slower moment in the show’s back third was “Panama City Motel,” a mid-tempo jangler that I had never heard performed live before—it’s a personal favorite, and was as good as I could have ever hoped. Mould seemed particularly engaged with his vocal performance on that one.
Next came a pair of catchier, bouncier numbers in the doo-doo-da-doos of “Can’t Help You Anymore” and the twisty, turny “Fortune Teller.” Then the band wrapped up the main set in spikier territory, first with Barbe’s snarling “Anyone,” then with the only two tracks off their EP Beaster that were played this night. “Tilted” was absolutely savage, Mould strangling notes out of his guitar at lightning pace. Then came “JC Auto” to close out the set, Mould’s screams of “I know! I know! I know! I know!” building in its intensity until his voice was just positively shredded by the end.
After the briefest of trips offstage, the band returned with exactly the three songs you’d want to hear to close out the night in the form of their biggest, punchiest, catchiest singles: “Helpless,” “Gee Angel,” and “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.” I couldn’t help myself: I had to take my earplugs out for the encore. It was worth it. As phenomenal as every moment of the show before that had been, those last three songs were downright transcendent.
The show had started with a DJ set courtesy of author Michael Azerrad (who co-authored Mould’s 2011 memoir See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody. It was a crowd-pleasing set of Sugar’s early ’90s alt-rock contemporaries: My Bloody Valentine, Urge Overkill, Paul Westerberg, R.E.M., Screaming Trees, Teenage Fanclub…so much good stuff. Sugar hit the stage at 8:30pm on the dot and wrapped up 90 minutes later almost to the second, the 10:00pm end time appropriate for the shade of gray of most of the audience’s hair. Mould thanked the crowd for coming out for this, the first of three nights at Webster Hall to kick off Sugar’s reunion officially. (More tour dates to come, which you can see here. Sadly no St. Louis date yet. Dare to dream?) As Mould thanked us all for coming, he said he hoped he’ll see some of us tomorrow, or Monday, and if not then, then on October 16 when Sugar returns to Brooklyn to play, as Mould put it, “on my fucking birthday.” I would be lying if I said a small part of me wasn’t tempted to make a return trip. Bob, buddy, consider my presence a birthday present. | Jason Green
Sugar setlist:
The Act We Act
A Good Idea
Changes
Company Book
After All the Roads Have Led to Nowhere
In the Eyes of My Friends
Hoover Dam
Where Diamonds Are Halos
Running Out of Time
Gift
Your Favorite Thing
Clownmaster
Frustration
House of Dead Memories
Long Live Love
Panama City Motel
Can’t Help You Anymore
Fortune Teller
Anyone
Tilted
JC Auto
Encore:
Helpless
Gee Angel
If I Can’t Change Your Mind
