On his last visit to Philadelphia, BOB MOULD also played the same venue (World Cafe Live) and like this show, he didn’t play a full set. Instead, he was interviewed by a WXPN DJ (resulting in one unintentionally hilarious comment from the audience) and then after the interview, he played a short solo set where he alternated between acoustic and electric guitars. However, he seemed “off” that day, his voice not in the best of shape.
On this day, however, it was completely the opposite. Playing a fully plugged-in solo set on electric guitar, Mould just completely shredded, reminding me of the very first time I ever saw him play live in 1997 on the campus of Rutgers University. Although this was a “Free at Noon” show sponsored by WXPN, which meant that he only had 35-40 minutes to play, he played one song right after the other with minimal talking (much like the early days of HUSKER DU, come to think about it). He played a nice mix of solo tunes (including “Wishing Well” and “See a Little Light” from his 1989 solo debut Workbook as well as “Circles” and “Paralyzed” from his 2005 album Body of Song), SUGAR songs (“If I Can’t Change Your Mind” and “Hoover Dam”, both from 1992’s Copper Blue, were played) and to my pleasant surprise, some Husker Du tunes as well (“I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer” and “Makes No Sense at All”). It’s not that I was surprised that he played these specific Husker Du songs, as they’ve been part of his set list for many years now. It’s just that he has a fantastic new album, District Line, to promote, yet he only played one song (“Again and Again”) from it. Then again, I’m not complaining! Hopefully when he comes back here in March with his band, we’ll get to hear some more new material.
The photo above was taken by JAMES BERRY and is used with permission. It’s from a show he played in London (at Freedom Studios in the Roundhouse, Camden) on January 21st, 2008. You can see all of his photos from that show here.
