Music DVD Review: Bob Mould - Circle Of Friends

Despite being one of the most influential figures in rock over the past 25 years, Bob Mould has always been somewhat reticent about his past.  After his first band, Hüsker Dü, broke up in 1988, he released Workbook, a solo album that traded the Hüskers revved-up punk for acoustic introspection. 

When he toured with his next band, Sugar, in the early 1990s, he didn’t play any Hüsker Dü songs at all, and Sugar also got left out when he put together an electric band in support of 1998’s Last Dog And Pony Show.  Playing those songs with other musicians, he felt, was too uncomfortable for him.  Instead, he would save classics like “Celebrated Summer” or “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” for his solo acoustic tours.

But by 2005, enough time had passed for Mould to approach his extensive catalog with a different mindset. When he toured with a new band behind his Body Of Song CD, he finally incorporated songs from all phases of his musical life.  A DVD of his October 7, 2005 show at the 9:30 Club in his adopted hometown of Washington, DC, Circle Of Friends, is now available. 

Mould gets right down to business, tearing into the opening three songs from Copper Blue, Sugar’s 1992 debut, with a force that simply can’t be duplicated with just a 12-string.  From there it’s on to four strong cuts from Body of Song before turning into a celebration of his career.  Only two of his post-Zen Arcade albums, Last Dog And Pony Show and 1990’s underrated Black Sheets Of Rain, are not represented.  Along the way we get favorites like “See A Little Light,” “Chartered Trips,” and “I Apologize.”

The previous times I’ve seen him in concert, either solo or with Sugar, he cut an  imposing figure, bellowing his songs of emotional torment with an intimidating intensity.  But on Circle Of Friends, he’s lean and relaxed (as relaxed as one can be while singing “Hoover Dam” and “Hardly Getting over It,” that is), bouncing around the stage with an energy that belies his (then) 45 years, while retaining every bit of power those songs had when they were new.

Article Author: Dave Lifton

Dave Lifton is a writer whose take on pop culture can be found at Wings For Wheels. He also blogs about soccer at Booked For Dissent.

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