{"id":900,"date":"2011-10-27T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T14:23:21","slug":"bob-mould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=900","title":{"rendered":"Bob Mould"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

October 2011, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The power of a performer is what they accomplish when the spotlight is solely on them, away from fancy machines or other musicians to cover their inadequacies. I appreciate when a musician comes out solo and plays their songs in the barest forms \u2014 whether it be on guitar, piano, or voice alone \u2014 it is then when you realize if their songs have what it takes.<\/p>\n

Let it be said that Bob Mould has what it takes \u2014 and more. This is no surprise for anyone who has seen him play, but on this night at the 40 Watt the former Sugar and Husker Du frontman spent 90 minutes showing the room what a world-class artist looks like. Alone on the stage with guitar in hand, Mould dazzled with an explosive array of songs from his vast catalog.<\/p>\n

I never seen Mould play live before, and I\u2019ve had chances, but it never did transpire. I first was aware of Mould and his talents in 1985 when Flip Your Wig<\/em> came out \u2014 the song \u201cMakes No Sense At All\u201d gained traction from that album \u2014 and the next year when Candy Apple Grey<\/em> came out I was a full-on Mould fan. Husker Du was different from the other punk bands of the day \u2014 they seemed more attuned to melody and hooks than Black Flag or the DKs \u2014 but their presence and loudness was just as pronounced.<\/p>\n

When Bob went solo, I went along with him, and when he formed Sugar, I was one of his biggest fans. It\u2019s not too often a performer gets the chance to excel again and again \u2014 one time is hard enough \u2014 but Mould has proven three times he knows what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

He celebrated those three lives, roaming among songs from Husker (\u201cMakes No Sense At All,\u201d \u201cI Apologize,\u201d \u201cCelebrated Summer\u201d), Sugar (\u201cHoover Dam,\u201d \u201cIf I Can\u2019t Change Your Mind,\u201d \u201cThe Act We Act,\u201d \u201cThe Slim\u201d) and his solo work new and old (\u201cWishing Well,\u201d \u201cSee a Little Light,\u201d \u201cThe Breach\u201d), all while engaging the audience about what\u2019s new in his life. \u201cDo you hear I wrote a book?\u201d he asked. \u201cAnyone here read it yet? It\u2019s not very punk rock, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

He talked about the Foo Fighters (he sang on a Foos recent album), took requests (yes, I\u2019ll play that one later, no, I\u2019m not playing anything from Beaster<\/em>) and noted the start of his band Sugar started just two feet from where he was standing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing right here for that first show,\u201d he said. A man from the audience yelled out \u201cAnd I was standing right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s your hearing,\u201d Bob asked, with a small laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too good,\u201d the guy replied.<\/p>\n

Over in the corner sat David Barbe, Sugar\u2019s bassist and one of Athens\u2019 true musical treasures. The fact a band so important in my life started in a place I was standing, and the man who started it was standing here again some 20 years later, filled me with a bit of joy. I know sounds silly, but we all have our things \u2014 we love what we love.<\/p>\n

On a night of Popfest when other bands were struggling with sound, Mould capped the night with a performance for the ages. It\u2019s a room that should have been packed, but the 200 people or so in the room were all in from the start.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the set, a woman yelled from the crowd \u201cthank you for being so awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t have said it better myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 2011, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. The power of a performer is what they accomplish when the spotlight is solely on them, away from fancy machines or other musicians to cover their inadequacies. I appreciate when a musician comes out solo and plays their songs in the barest forms \u2014 whether it be on guitar, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,137],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-bob-mould"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}