DC is special to Bob Mould, singer and guitarist for the early-mid ‘90s alternative rock band Sugar. (Mould might bristle at that description; he has a song called “I Hate Alternative Rock.”)
“I love this city,” he said during the band’s recent performance at The Anthem. “I spent seven years here, and I loved every second of it.”
Though this was a reunion tour — the band hadn’t played together since 1995 — it hardly fits what one might think of as nostalgia. Sugar is famously loud, and they haven’t turned the volume down at all. It’s one of the few shows I’ve needed earplugs. I often have difficulty parsing the lyrics when bands play this loud, but it’s to The Anthem’s credit that the sound was crisp and clear.
Mould formed Sugar in 1992 with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Barbe. In the ‘80s, Bob was a member of Hüsker Du, a highly influential Minneapolis punk that who blended speed, volume, and sheer ferocity with pop influences like the Beatles. (On Wednesday evening, Sugar the stage to “She Said, She Said.”) After they broke up, he made a couple solo albums, and he’s made many, many more after Sugar.
As influential as Mould has been with his various projects, he’s been something of an underground figure, which has made him an icon for independent and DIY artists. The man is a workhorse: I’ve gotten to interact with him a few times, and he’s a good guy, a smart but unpretentious salt-of-the-earth son of the Rust Belt. (He’s from upstate New York, and I can relate a bit, having grown up outside Akron.) Sugar, its first album Copper Blue in particular, is host most commercially successful work, spawning alternative radio and MTV hits with “Helpless” and “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.” Both were in Wednesday’s set; the latter, which remains a staple of Bob’s shows to this day, closed the show.
Watch the official music video for “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” by Sugar on YouTube:
Mould may be turning 66 this week, but you would hardly know it from watching Sugar. From the moment they kicked things off with “The Act We Act,” it’s fair to describe 90-plus minutes as an assault. Outside of expressing his love for our city and introducing the band after “Clownmaster,” Sugar rumbled on through songs that often bled into another with nary a pause: “A Good Idea,” “Changes,” “Company Book,” “After All The Roads Have Led to Nowhere,” “In The Eyes of My Friends,” “Hoover Dam,” (which always makes me of the line from Beavis & Butthead Do America, “Is this a god dam?”), “Where Diamonds Are Halos,” “Running Out of Time,” “Gift,” “Your Favorite Thing,” “Frustration,” “House of Memories,” “Long Live Love,” “Frustration,” “Explode and Make Up,” “Anyone,” “Come Around,” “Tilted,” “JC Auto,” and “Gee Angel.”
J. Robbins, a mainstay of the DC punk scene since the ‘80s, opened the show with a solo acoustic set, noting, “I’m new to the acoustic troubadour thing. I normally played with electric, amplified bands.” He started with “Anodyne,” followed by “Your Majesty,” “Everything Is Easy,” “Basilisk,” and “Gasoline Rainbows.” Introducing “Soldier On,” he noted the troubling times, saying “We’ll get through it together.”
Watch the official music video for “Soldier On” by J. Robbins on YouTube:
After “Aviary” and “Old Soul,” he mentioned going through a difficult time during the pandemic, discovering he shares a birthday with Trump, leading him to conclude that “Astrology is bullshit.” (I agree, but it’s a hell of a coincidence that I share a birthday with Vernon Reid of Living Colour and Ray Bradbury, given our similar passions for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.) He dedicated “Dear Leader” to our president, adding “Fuck Trump.”
Introducing a cover of the Deftones’ “Sway,” J said, “I can’t wait until I have to play this anymore,” then admitted, “Well, I don’t have to play it.” He dedicated the song to “Len Polletta, wherever he is,” then finished his set with “Abandoned Mansions.”
I saw J open with a full band for Bob’s trio at the Black Cat, but this was the first time I’ve seen him in this format. He may be new to it, but he takes to it well. Robbins is similar to Mould in that, while they have both have a grounding in hardcore punk, they’re excellent lyricists who are able to be both sophisticated and direct, so their songs still work even when you strip them down like he did here.
I’ve heard Mould play some of these Sugar songs before, and I’ve always enjoyed them, but it was awesome to get to experience them as they were originally arranged and with the original players. If this was my one chance to see them together, I’m walking away satisfied.
