Monday, February 20, 2012

Bob Mould live, Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, February 19, 2012

This gig was rescheduled from last November, when, as Bob explained from the stage, he was called on "Foo Fighters duty" (opening for their Fall tour). Two throw away lines.... "How many people here heard of us from The Foo Fighters?..... How many people heard of The Foo Fighters through us?" got a predictable cheer from the capacity crowd who had come to hear queer hero Bob Mould, of punk pioneers Husker Du and indie pop stand-outs Sugar, read from his recently published memoirs and play a few songs.

It was great to see Bob again. He seemed in fine form and even happy and having a good time. I realized on my way to the show that I have been following his career for almost 30 years. I saw Husker Du play at an SST night at UCLA in 1984 (along with The Minutemen and The Meat Puppets), really got into Sugar's three albums in the 1990s, and then saw Bob solo several times in New York and San Francisco over the past 15 years or so.



It was a great show. Bob really seemed to get energized toward the end. He read a few passages directly from the book, but more often paraphrased and retold the stories, before going back over to guitar for a song or two. I was a little surprised that the stories and songs appeared to focus less on Husker Du and Sugar and more on his solo work, but it was still a great show.

Bob's still standing on the edge of the Hoover Dam, and his smiling visage is nearly ready for the indie pop version of Mount Rushmore.




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