Support tonight comes from local band Keto who despite a nervous start provide an half hour of lo-fi atmospheric tunes with Chan Marshall (Cat Power) style vocals from Leah Sinead.
Bob Mould arrives at a sold out Rescue Rooms for the first night of a UK tour in support of new album 'Patch The Sky' which will be released in March.
As the initial roaring feedback fades, Bob accompanied by his regular rhythm section of Jason Narducy (bass) and Jon Wurster (drums) blast into 'Good Idea' followed by ' Changes' which immediately gets the audience on his side, both tracks are taken from 'Copper Blue' the debut Sugar album which was NME album of the year for 1992. Skip forward 20 years for 'The Descent' and 'I Don't Know You Anymore' from the excellent recent albums 'Silver Age' and 'Beauty & Ruin' which have seen Bob back at the height of powers, fusing the heavy power-pop tunes and melodies and smothering it all with a generous dollop of distorted guitars. New single ' Voices In My Head' and the other new tracks played tonight happily appear to follow this trend.
Bob congratulates Nottingham of being a UNESCO City of Literature “ I'm a word guy myself, which you can hear when I'm not being loud on the guitar”, and I can confirm that tonight's show is the most chest-thumping, ear-splitting LOUD one I've been at in years. There's little respite between tracks either as Bob says”Gotta get this done before the disco starts” referring to the 10 o'clock curfew for the club night.
'Hoover Dam' which is another treat from 'Copper Blue' and 'The War' get more audience shout- alongs. There's a new slower track, a strummy, dreamy number which might be called 'Losing Sleep'.
For the encore the musical clock winds back to the mid 1980's and Bob's time in Husker Du. The middle-aged moshpit kicks in at the start of 'Flip Your Wig', and keeps going through 'Hate Paper Doll' , 'Something I Learned Today' and finally ' Makes No Sense At All'.
Just like the cover of 'Beauty & Ruin' as the young man from Husker Du ages disgracefully into the writer of tunes of driven guitars and killer melodies, tonight a grinning Bob Mould appears to be thoroughly enjoying his own silver age.
Alisdair Whyte