It’s a safe bet that the setlist for this year’s Bob Mould show in Cincinnati won’t resemble what it would have been in 2020.
After canceling last year’s show at the 20th Century Theater due to the pandemic, Mould is doing a Cincinnati makeup date at Memorial Hall.
In the days just before the pandemic, the former leader of the rock bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar was promoting “Sunshine Rock,” a solo album that conjures the sort of optimistic mood that the title implies.
Then, the sun went away. In September of last year, Mould released the darker, politically minded “Blue Hearts,” his most recent studio album.
Speaking on the phone from his home in San Francisco, Mould provided an update on his current mood, discussed the prospects of Hüsker Dü receiving a call from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and shared memories of the 1980s Newport punk venue the Jockey Club and the Louisville band who opened for Hüsker Dü there: Squirrel Bait.
Question: Has your outlook changed from last year, when you released an anti-Trump record during the final year of his term, to now? Are you still angered by all those same things but feeling just a little better now, or do you have the same level of anger?
Answer: I think it’s a little less. It’s not over. It’s not over. I think, if anything, this time next year is going to be really difficult on all of us with midterms coming up and people again having to make big decisions about the future of the country. Where people are getting information, whether the information they’re getting is true, false, alternative true, alternative false, these are real challenging times. I feel a little bit better that the face of that movement has been covered up for a little while. I fear that it can come back with a vengeance. We all need to be very mindful of what’s happening around us. It’s going to be big choices again. I feel a little better, but I don’t feel like it’s mission accomplished. It never is. I know this from my lifetime.
Q: You recently released a 24-CD retrospective of your solo career. That’s a ton, and it doesn’t even include Hüsker Dü material. That’s the sort of milestone reached by people like Dylan and Springsteen, artists who have released massive career retrospectives. Do you feel like one of those types of guys with that type of career, at least in terms of longevity and recorded output?
A: In terms of consistent work, I’ve never really let up. I think the longest quiet period would have been from the end of ‘98 to the beginning of ‘02. I was living in New York City at the time, and I stepped away from guitar music and threw myself deeper into my gay life and my gay culture and my love of electronic music. It’s a pretty big body of work. Dylan, Springsteen, they’re worldwide household names. I exist in my own little space and I’m real grateful for the little bit of real estate that I take up. I don’t know. I just keep doing the work, I suppose. But it’s a lot. It’s a lot of work.
Q: You were scheduled to do a solo electric show last year, and now you’re back doing a solo electric show. Why are you playing an electric guitar instead of an acoustic? Is it because you have idiotic fans who yell things during the show, and an electric guitar can drown them out?
A: No. It’s actually a little bit easier to play than an acoustic. The electric is a little more forgiving. As I get older, my hands don’t work as thoroughly as they used to. And when I used to tour in the ‘90s, when I was doing a lot of solo shows, I would bring a number of guitars, and again, I’m traveling by myself, and I travel as light as I can, so if I can only bring one, it would be the electric, so here we are.
Q: And why are you touring solo rather than with your bass player and drummer?
A: Well, Jon (Wurster), my drummer, is starting up with Mountain Goats. Jason (Narducy), my bassist, he’s my support for these tours, so Jason will be playing a set of his material before I play each night, so in a way, it’s continuing on, but the answer is logistics. All of us are busy with different projects. Even without a pandemic, it’s always a challenge to line up everybody’s schedules, whether it’s Jason with Split Single, Jon with Mountain Goats and “Best Show,” Jon and Jason with Superchunk, Jon and Jason with me. Me doing solo stuff. Even in the best of times, it’s a calendar challenge. We do as much band stuff as we can given all the collective schedules, and when anybody’s not available, I’m always free to do what I’m doing now, which are the solo dates.
Q: Do you remember Hüsker Dü playing the Jockey Club?
A: Yeah, I remember the first show there with Squirrel Bait opening.
Q: What do you remember about the venue or the show or Squirrel Bait?
A: I just remember there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff down there on the waterfront at the time. I remember people telling us it was sort of a speakeasy that JFK may or may not have been to. It was a punk rock room, and I remember Squirrel Bait being such a great band. They were the nicest guys. And I’ve stayed in touch with Peter (Searcy) over the years. I think he’s in Louisville now. Ben Daughtrey was a great drummer and I would have been happy to have him on board for any of the projects I’ve done since Hüsker Dü. He was a great drummer at the time. I don’t know if he’s still playing drums now. I’ve lost touch with Ben. But, yeah, Jockey Club was a heck of a punk-rock situation back in the day.
Q: Do you entertain the notion of Hüsker Dü being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
A: It’s out of my hands. I don’t really keep track of stuff like that. It’d be great if it happened. It’s great if it doesn’t happen. Not a big deal to me.
Q: Is anyone not in the Hall of Fame more worthy for induction than Hüsker Dü?
A: Oh my gosh. There’s people like Richard Thompson. If he’s not in there or if Fairport (Convention) is not in there, I would think that would be someone that should cut the line on me, at least. You could make an argument for somebody like Henry Rollins, not only because of the D.C. hardcore stuff but his time and active duty with Black Flag and everything that he’s done for the world at large since then, especially a lot of the work he does overseas with touring for troops that maybe goes unheralded. I don’t know. Maybe somebody like … is Tracy Chapman in yet? If she’s not in, I would definitely put her well in front of me in line.
If you go
What: Bob Mould with Jason Narducy
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22
Where: Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine; 513-977-8838
Tickets: $22-$35
Source link
