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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > March > 21 > Entry
Review: Bob Mould at Antone’s
- Photos: Bob Mould at Antone’s
A week earlier, pretty much all of Austin was slammed with SXSWers, including Antone’s, which was uncomfortably packed for Vampire Weekend’s ridiculously hyped showcase. Thursday’s patently ferocious Bob Mould show at the same venue was a great way to reclaim our town.
Late of Husker Du and Sugar, the bellowing alternative rock icon and former Austinite opened by plowing into “The Act We Act” and “A Good Idea” (the one-two opening punch from Sugar’s debut, “Copper Blue”) and barely took a breath until almost two dozen career-spanning songs passed. By this time, longtime fans know what they’re going to get: a killer band, a taste of the newest record (in this case the fine “District Line”) and not much if any banter. The guy, with a shaved head and gray, elder statesman beard, is all business and as aggressive as ever.
The new record, while unapologetically guitar-based, has a slight whiff of Mould’s other life as a sometimes-DJ and electronic musician, which wasn’t so apparent Thursday. Rather, the set showcased a body of work going as far back as “Chartered Trips” from Husker Du’s 1984 double LP “Zen Arcade” and including “Again and Again” and a sprinkling of other tunes from the new record. Mould may not have been the first to hitch great melodies to the sonic wallop of a monster truck, but does anybody do it better? (Let me answer that.) There was also room for the occasional freakout, such as “Hanging Tree” from Mould’s appropriately titled “Black Sheets of Rain.”
For old fans (and in case you haven’t heard I’m a little bit partisan) the sweet spot came at the close, before the encore, with the Huskers’ “I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer” and “Divide and Conquer.” For somebody who once somewhat cheekily claimed to hate alternative rock, Bob Mould certainly knows how to wield its power — and he’s somehow managed not to calcify into a nostalgia act. Which is why people will be listening to Bob Mould when Vampire Weekend, much as I enjoy them, is little more than the answer to a trivia question.
(Musician Bob Mould, right, plays Thursday at Antone’s. Photo by Larry Kolvoord/AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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