Stagestruck

BOB MOULD/HER SPACE HOLIDAY
@La Zona Rosa, Austin, TX; May 7, 2002
When Bob Mould released his electronica-heavy album modulate. in March, fans were either bewitched or bewildered (or both) by its blipping synths and beat-crazy percussion. When he announced a tour promoting the record, the question was begged: how would the legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist replicate the sound on stage, especially when he declared he was going out sans band?

The answer, of course, was for Mould to perform with pre-recorded backing tapes. But this could lead to a static, uninvolving show—after all, how could there be any mistakes and improvisations, the kind of thing that makes live concerts exciting in the first place, when the performer has to keep up with his click track? A lot of folks attended this show worried about a stiff, dull performance. (A lot more folks didn't attend at all—this was the first Mould show I'd been to in ten years that wasn't sold out.)

While Mould did indeed play with pretaped backing, he didn't merely duplicate the record. For one thing, while his trademark guitar was pushed to the background on modulate., here it came roaring to the front. Flanked by two video screens displaying his own short films, Mould began the show with "180 Rain" and "Sunset Safety Glass," the first two songs on modulate. While on the record these cuts have little or no guitar, on stage the six-string reclaimed its rightful place in the mix; "Sunset Safety Glass" was particularly brutal (and, it must be said, a tad sloppy). It's always a pleasure to hear Mould's distinctive guitar tone, distorted, compressed, chorused and louder than an air raid siren cranked to 11.

He followed the album's order for the next few numbers, with unabashedly homoerotic videos accompanying "Semper Fi" and "Lost Zoloft." But when he switched to his trusty 12-string acoustic, he also switched tactics. The audience cried out with excitement when the opening chords of Hüsker Dü's "Hardly Getting Over It" rang out into the night. Mould immediately followed that mournful tune with another Hüsker song, the confident "No Reservations," backed by a languid R&B groove that made it stand out as the most radically altered golden oldie. After a powerful run through Sugar's "Hoover Dam," which has practically become his signature tune, Mould unveiled the biggest surprise of the night, accenting his playing's natural drone and moving into "Brasilia Crossed With Trenton," the impressionistic sleeper from his great solo debut Workbook. The crowd reacted with surprise and delight. (more)

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