I am not much for conspiracy theories, but Bob Mould, whose star is on the wall outside First Avenue right next to Prince’s played the day after the Purple One passes? Watch the internet go wild once that is discovered!
Opening the evening was Fury Things a Minneapolis band made up of guitarist/vocalist Kyle Werstein, bassist Devon Bryant, and drummer Andrew Carson. They describe themselves as “Quiet dudes playing loud music”. Werstein declared: “We are humbled to play in house that Prince build, but we’ll play as hard as we can.” and promptly proceeded to deliver a fast set that got the crowd warmed up quite nicely.
Punks may get older, but the true ones never loose their edge. That holds quite true for the suicide commandos who are Steve Almaas bass, Dave Ahl drums, and Chris Osgood guitar. So what if their last album came out in 1979? I had not seen them live before and was quite impressed with their set. The crowd was quite into the set. One particular fan was dancing quite hard through the whole set. Their Merch booth was quite busy and the band spend time after their set there. The music was classic punk rock. Straightforward, fast and fun to watch.
Set List: When you were mine / Attacking the Beat / She / She Said Yeah / Burn it Down / Tent / MotorBikin / Clicke Ole / Monster Au Go-GO / Litle Red Book / I’ll Wait / Real Cool / Mosquito Crucifixion / Fireball 500 / You Can’t / Weekend Warrior / I Need a Torch / Complicated Fun.
Bob Mould is one of the bright lights that originated in the Minneapolis music scene in the 80s. The punk rock Ying to Princes’ funk and soul yang. Over the years working first with Hüsker Dü then Sugar and his solo work has amassed a number of songs that boggle the mind. His 2 night show in Minneapolis kicks off an unusual series with multi night concerts by Courtney Barnett and Umphree’s McGee. Mould’s included song from all his period and new album “Patch the Sky”. Mould’s spot is stage left rather then the center but there is no question about who the star of the show is. His commanding stage presence will take care of that. He moves around as much as getting back to the mike for his next verse and the length of the guitar cord will allow. Overall a great set by an iconic artist.
The encore brought out the Suicide Commandos to join Mould on stage to a rocking version of “When You Were Mine” sung by Bob’s Tour Manager.
Set List: A Good Idea / Changes / The End of Things / The Descent / I Don’t Know You Anymore / You Say You / Voices In My Head / Hold on / If I Can’t Change Your Mind / Hey Mr. Grey / Tomorrow Morning / Loosing Time / Something I learned today / Hoover Dam / Come Around / Your Favorite Thing / The War / Hardly Getting over it / Chartered Trips Encore: When you were Mine (with Suicide Commandos) / Love Is All Around / Makes No Sense at All
