Of all the Alternative Rock stories of the 1980s which followed the cresting Nirvana into the early 90s, it is perhaps that of Bob Mould which has, at least on this side of the pond, struggled to be told. Bob Mould rose to prominence in the seminal Hüsker Dü. That band had a rock ‘n’ roll rivalry with fellow Minneapolis band, The Replacements. Much of their material was released on SST, the independent label of Black Flag’s Gregg Ginn. They influenced both Pixies and My Bloody Valentine, to name but two acts, and they were responsible along with groups like REM for appropriating a certain 1960s pop jangle for the wider Alternative Rock scene. This trend matured in the 1990s and is well epitomised in albums like Teenage Fanclub’s Grand Prix and the first album of Mould’s second group, Sugar: Copper Blue. British bands like Yuck and Gross Magic, and indeed the night's support act Cloud Nothings, owe an awful lot to the roughing work done by Mould and his contemporaries in the 1980s and the perfected models they left in the 1990s.
More after the jump.The Empire, with its traditional theatre décor was an interesting venue. Looking around it seemed that many of the crowd had likely seen Sugar play back in the 1990s, or even the Dü back in the 80s. I was on the first balcony with a good view of the stage, not quite front and centre but close enough. Seeing Bob Mould was exciting enough but getting a chance to decide for myself what I thought about Cloud Nothings live, given a somewhat patchy record of internet videos, was great too. It felt like a toofer.
Cloud Nothings answered my questions favourably, dispelling any prior doubts. Dylan Baldri’s voice was strong and he really shredded on some of the selections from this year’s Attack on Memory. The promise of the album felt matched in the performance with excellent pounding drumming. I particularly liked the snare hits, engaging interludes and nice noisy breaks. There’s not much detail I can really add here, I took notes but ultimately the message is that their performance delivered on the promise of this year’s album. Oh, and the drummer was a beast.
The setlist initially followed the tracklist for Copper Blue exactly except maybe ‘Helpless’ and ‘Hoover Dam’ were swapped. Mould and his new band began ‘The Act we Act’ with some noise and feedback from his guitar. By the time he was four or so bars into the song proper I could tell that what I was about to witness was completely out of Cloud Nothings’ league, and that’s okay on both counts. Throughout the set, Mould struck a good balance between evoking the album and giving the songs a strong interpretation based upon his reputation as a hardcore meets melodic guitar king. I have to say that Bob Mould was supported excellently by the rhythm section of Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster. It’s hard to be too descriptive because there’s an underlying assumption that Copper Blue is Copper Blue. The real advance I can make on that is that it was played excellently with clear unity of purpose, Copper Blue.
The guitar solo in ‘A Good Idea’ was noisy and vital, the fretted notes and the feedback weighted equally, setting the pattern for the whole night. The palm mutes were chunky and the amps loud. It is often noted for its similarities to Pixies’ ‘Debaser’ and the comparisons are not unfair. Rendered live, however, Bob chose to go with a quicker tempo and an impassioned, somewhat shouty vocal delivery. The loud quiet thing was still going on but it was more a question of loud louder. The songs were joined together by happy guitar feedback. The walking bass line of ‘Changes’ translated really well, with more low-end on tap than on the CD. A backing track for the introduction to ‘Hoover Dam’ seemed only half-included, Mould’s instrumental control ultimately obviated its inclusion for anything other than an allusion to the original album recording. Bob seemingly gave it a whirl but in the process deemed it ultimately unnecessary thanks to the vast possibilities presented by guitar and amp.
While ‘The Slim’ showcased Mould on another strat, most likely tuned like a dulcimer (I cheated when writing this up), it was Sugar’s back-in-the-day cross over tune ‘If I Can’t Change Your Mind,’ that saw the standing crowd at their most excited up until that point. With the rhythm section nailing the bounce of the original snare heavy rock’n’roll beat the stage was set, the capo on and Bob Mould did not disappoint. Underpinned by the great low-end on Narduncy’s bass he did the song with his loud guitar style easily evoking the jangle stylings of the original single. Jason Narduncy also deserves special mention for his sung harmonies.
The power trio continued ‘Fortune Teller’ and ‘Slick’ at full pelt, closing out the set of Copper Blue with ‘Man on the Moon.’ On the record there’s notable use of pitch shifting (just like Jack White, most famously on ‘Blue Orchid’) on the guitars, sending licks up an octave of two with an effects unit like the famous Digitech Whammy. Maybe there was some of that here in the live performance—I couldn't detect it for sure. I am fairly certain that Mould made much if not all of the sounds on the night by playing and manipulating harmonics on his guitar. Copper Blue rendered live twenty or so years following its original release, magical.
Then what? Mould addressed the crowd. While he acknowledged Copper Blue as ‘pretty fucking cool’ or similar words to that effect he consigned it to the past and began to talk up the future. A new album is set to be released this autumn and Edsel (an imprint of the Demon Music Group, who did the Jesus and Mary Chain reissues last year) have at the time of writing come out with a set of deluxe reissues—I myself picked up a 7” of ‘If I Can’t Change Your Mind’ with the b-side ‘Clownmaster’--an instrumental version, the lyrics are reputed to be about John Wayne Gacy. Mould proceeded to play new tracks, introducing ‘Star Machine.’
Bob Mould played a lot of songs but he held my attention throughout, it was powerful. The new stuff was very convincing and I can easily see Bob Mould along with Narduncy and Wurster occupying similar stages to Dinosaur Jr. following the reformation of the band with the original three members. Mould went on to perform other crowd favourites from his back catalogue (of which I know less) including the Hüsker Dü track ‘Makes No Sense At All.’ The set then was comprised of two parts with an encore. The quality of the performance was not just to be found in the power and fluidity with which the songs were played but in the way in which the past was conjured by an artist not known for nostalgia. Copper Blue has always been held in high esteem but it was nice to see the songs explored so well. Some may scoff at classic album concerts, deriding them as a nostalgia trip but I have to say that like Iggy and the Stooges doing Raw Power at the Apollo, it just worked beautifully. Simple as that.
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