BOB MOULD at the Horseshoe, Friday, March 1. Rating: NNN
“Fuckin’ hot in here, eh?” said bald, bespectacled Bob Mould to a sold-out crowd of 99.8 per cent guys packing the jeans-sticking-to-the-inside-
The semi-legendary guitarist and songwriter for formative American alt-rock acts Hüsker Dü and Sugar worked through a jukebox playlist of favourites. The bulk of the concert was built around Sugar’s 1992 debut, Copper Blue (“It turned 20 this year,” Mould said, forgetting that it’s now 2013), opening with album’s first side in its entirety. While it’s great to hear Mould persuasively rip through A Good Idea and Fortune Teller – and a mix of Dü standards (I Apologize, Hate Paper Doll) – it was strange that so little attention was paid to his more recent solo work.
That was a shame, because last year’s Silver Age is easily the best record in Mould’s spotty post-Sugar output. And the energy Mould, bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster (Superchunk) poured into performing Silver Age tracks like The Descent and Star Machine matched the tight, rock-trio perfection of early Sugar. Maybe he’s toured enough as a solo artist to know that sold-out crowds come to hear the hits.
Considering the depth of Mould’s back catalogue, a show clocking in at under an hour – plus the requisite double encore – felt slight. But seeing the three-piece perform a cover of the Viletones’ Screaming Fist (with TO music journalist and MTV Canada host Sam Sutherland on vocals) almost made up for it.
