Punk pioneer and indie-rock veteran Bob Mould brought a blistering performance to the Mohawk Saturday night. A packed house chanted along with almost every song, pumping their fists as Mould plowed with reckless abandon through an extensive set of songs including work from his solo albums as well as Sugar and Hüsker Dü material.
Throughout the night, the rivulets of sweat that streamed down Mould’s face were forceful enough to provide enough hydroelectric energy to power a small village, but probably not to restore the massive amount of energy expended by the rock legend himself. Onstage, Mould is tireless, pacing furiously, headbanging, and generally rocking out. He’s far more captivating than most frontmen in the indie-rock scene, more so than most youngsters in their twenties and thirties, and certainly more so than contemporaries in their fifties, as Mould is. When a man is this energetic and incessantly active, you better have a drummer who can keep up with you, so Mould was wise in bringing Merge Records lynchpin Jon Wurster, who must be on tour 13 out of 12 months of the year. Wurster proved stalwart throughout the night, even keeping up the beat as he downed a bottle of water.
Completely engrossed in the songs, Mould wasted little time with talking, choosing to fill his hour and a half with music from his broad repertoire–a decision that undoubtedly kept fans happy with so much terrain to cover in a single set. The sugar song “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” made the first encore, but to finish the set out Mould turned to favorites from his Hüsker Dü days, performing “Celebrated Summer” before a trio of songs all from Flip Your Wig comprised the second encore. Mould first played that album’s title track followed by “Hate Paper Doll” and “Makes No Sense at All.” The closer received more fervor than any song all evening, and at some point, Mould had supplied a super-fan in the first row with a microphone of his own. The fan sang into the mic while behind him the crowd pumped their fists in unison to the song’s chanted refrain. What does make sense is Mould’s lasting importance within indie-rock, attributable at least in part, no doubt, to performances such as these.
Earlier in the night, Ringo Deathstarr opened the bill with a set fully of alternatingly airy and distorted indie-rock. The group’s heavy, unabashed tunes fit in well with Mould, but contrasted his set with its nonchalant, somewhat detached vibe. Ringo Deathstarr is a band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously, an approach not foreign to the carefree attitude of rock ‘n’ roll, but somewhat in opposition to the impassioned battle-cry of punk. The band has had some big opportunities lately, opening for Smashing Pumpkins during SXSW, as they further ingrain themselves as one of Austin’s biggest bands.
After the show, Whitman, recently voted Austin’s best rock band by The Chronicle‘s reader’s poll, performed a set inside the Mohawk. The band just released a new EP–Lying, Cheating, Stealing–which can be downloaded for free here. With Ram Vela at the helm, the band delivers high-energy, punk-informed power pop. Vela’s gaze is piercing and arresting onstage as the quartet gives every song all they’ve got. They’ll play Lambert’s on May 3rd if you’re looking to catch up with them.
All photos © Bryan Parker and Pop Press International. Click any image to open the set in slideshow view.
