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Legendary alternative rocker Bob Mould bounded onto the Rose Bowl Tavern stage on September 21, 2024, to start his PYGMALION show with what looked like excitement but was perhaps nervous energy, and he and his electric guitar rarely let up for nearly an hour and a half — except to rant about politics and share memories here and there.

Mould has an array of songs to choose from, starting from his wild 1980s punk rock days as the main singer in Hüsker Dü and into the glossier (but still rocking) Sugar years from the 1990s. The bulk of Mould’s more than 20 songs played at the Rose Bowl, however, came from his solo albums.

He opened the show with “The War” from the album Beauty & Ruin. Mould’s take-no-prisoners performance also included the Hüsker Dü tunes “Flip Your Wig,” “I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer,” and “Something I Learned Today.” He satiated Sugar fans by playing the gems “Hoover Dam” and “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.”

After playing “Siberian Butterfly” from the album Blue Hearts, Mould asked who in the audience had seen the recent presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. His response was a mixture of groans, laughter, and shouting. The nice thing about cozy venues such as the Rose Bowl is that the artist and crowd can banter. One guy asked Mould if he was going to perform at Kamala Harris’s Inauguration Day, receiving cheers. Mould, who got his start and made his name in Minneapolis, repeated the question before answering.

“That’s up to Tim [Walz],” he said. “That’s not up to me. I don’t know. Of course, I’ll do anything for my country,” he said.

Mould told the audience he’s “pretty liberal” but against “free money,” perhaps due to his incredible work ethic and hardscrabble days trying to make a living in Hüsker Dü. More than anything, he wants politics in this country to become less fractious.

“When November is over and things start to get back to normal,” Mould said, “I am all about hearing what the normal right has to say about things. It’s not like it has to be my way. There’s room for all of us. Just do not bring those crazy people.”

After crying out, “I just want things to go back to normal!” Mould launched into the song “Sinners and Their Repentances” from the album Workbook.

Mould’s frenetic stage presence — amazing for a 63-year-old guy who has been doing this forever — felt contagious. His hard-driving guitar work and top-form vocals haven’t faltered one bit. On tunes such as “Keep Believing” (from Silver Age) and “Daddy’s Favorite” and “Voices in My Head” (both from Patch the Sky), Mould adeptly, and frantically, played both lead and rhythm guitar.

Yet beneath the permanent punk rock energy that is bottled in this guy, Mould is a sensitive, heart-on-his-sleeve type whose expressions come through when playing live. On the song “Hardly Getting Over It,” for instance, he sang the cutting line, “My parents they just wonder when they are both gonna die.” With a sorrowful look, Mould then gave a hard shake of his head and followed with this line: “And what’ll I do when they die?”

Halfway through, Mould reminisced with the crowd about his Hüsker Dü years, mentioning the band’s first tour in 1981, getting health insurance, touring in Canada, and crashing on a friend’s back porch in San Francisco for a few weeks. The place erupted when Mould announced he got married in San Francisco a year and a half ago — at the same place he once had to get food stamps.

“If you don’t cheer loud, my husband’s going to kill me,” Mould said.

The vibe changed when Mould talked about being 20 years old and seeing a “gay cancer” sign at Star Pharmacy. He then mourned the “great, wonderful people” that “did not make it through the ‘80s” due to AIDS.

“I bring it up as a cautionary tale because our time is limited and we really need to take care of ourselves and believe in science and just try to do the right thing,” Mould said. “I’m really grateful that I’m still here. I’m really grateful that you’re all here with me, together, tonight.”

Mould then played “Too Far Down” from Hüsker Dü’s Candy Apple Grey, a song that highlighted his “early bouts with clinical depression,” according to his biography co-written with Michael Azerrad.

The performance concluded with “Makes No Sense at All,” one of Hüsker Dü’s more popular songs with a catchy singalong chorus. Maybe Mould played it to reiterate his disgust in American politics.

Hearing nothing but vocals and a loud electric guitar fill the room during this artist’s entire performance was interesting. At first the ears imagine, or perhaps long for, the complementary instruments that would at least include bass and drums. Eventually the auditory expectations adjust, however, and the wall-of-noise sound that Mould has perfected comes across as the most natural thing in the world.

A portion of this piece was also published in Smile Politely.

Photo by Sal Nudo.