Rock stars – a nice idea to begin with, but then they generally either die on you or splutter on indefinitely, creatively implode but refuse to roll over. Both are much the same thing, only one continues to bother you with bouts of barely disguised nostalgia, embarrassingly misguided assertions of relevance and sugar-free approximations of their original manifesto in addition to the inevitable album reissues and anniversary box-sets. Which is a waste of everyone’s time. Paul Weller recognised this when he broke up The Jam before they really had chance to decay, but then devalued this infinite wisdom by trundling on himself for forever. Bob Mould however has broken the, erm… he’s bucked the trend, shall we say, by carrying on at as great a pace as ever and holding firmly onto shades of brilliance. Arguably he was never much of a rock star in the first place, though with his status as frontman of 80s hardcore legends Husker Du and early 90s alt-rock staples Sugar he had the credentials, if not the airs and graces. But to find him here 25+ years into his career still operating with the work ethic, lucidity and melodic nous of a much younger self, despite having in excess of 250 released tracks behind him, is ennobling. Of course the man before us is older, much older, than he once was. He stands alone with guitar in sensible, unscuffed jeans of not inadvisable length (thus avoiding unsightly and bothersome tears to the bottom back of each leg), sensible black shoes, plain black t-shirt of indeterminable origin and trimmed beard with hints of grey. He’s never had the Cobain-chic thing to live up to, but even so it’s a uniform more befitting of his age than a punk pioneer. When his guitar cuts out at the start of ‘Again and Again’, from the new solo album he’s here to promote, he makes the kind of inquisitive ‘drat it!’ bumblings your dad might make when the lawnmower loses power. Yet when it cuts again mid-song he holds things consummately in character, switching guitars whilst continuing to sing the bridge acapella. Seamless. When he’s within the boundaries of song none of those considerations of age seem to matter, he’s completely at home, his voice reverberating at just the right timbre to entwine with his guitar, either acoustic or fuzz-heavy electric, and make for a full-bodied arrangement that doesn’t miss a band – there’s no doubting that he’s a seasoned natural at performing like this, just he and a pile of tirelessly bashed chords; warm hooks, passion and a few rough edges. But what’s most encouraging here is how smoothly the old and proven segue into unknown material from his new album ‘District Line’ (not, he alleges following a call from the crowd, named after the London Underground line, in spite of a shared colour scheme on the cover). It is probably his strongest and most driving collection of songs for a number of years, possibly even since Sugar disbanded – and that’s coming from a man whose quality rarely dips far – and songs like ‘Very Temporary’, ‘Who Needs To Dream?’ and particularly the chuggingly upbeat and accessible ‘The Silence Between Us’ instantly seem to stand alongside some of his great moments. In their stripped down versions tonight they lack the bold production that makes the album such a success, but gain so much more being worked from their bare bones up. But naturally that’s no match tonight for the joy that greets the likes of Husker Du’s ‘Makes No Sense At All’ and ‘Celebrated Summer’, or Sugar’s college-rock classics ‘If I Can’t Change Your Mind’ and ‘Good Idea’. There’s a good showing from his solo career too with ‘Wishing Well’ and ‘Circles’, everything performed more than robustly. When you’re cherry picking from such a vast stock-pile of songs it’s hard to put a foot out of place, especially when they’re in such sensible shoes – the couple of hundred devotees in tonight would attest to that being the case. And you can add us to that list.
Relevant sites:
www.bobmould.com
   
James Berry for Crud Magazine 2008©
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