Rebecca Marx
Bob Mould will once more grace the Mainroom stage at First Avenue on April 22nd and 23rd. Mould will not phone it in, because above all he is an incredible musician who will crush it in the city that he called home, the city that he helped to put on the musical map.
Patch The Sky, which Mould released in late March is already garnering a steady amount of great press across the globe. It is a stand alone record from an artist that knows someone about stepping away and taking a risk. It does have subtle undertones of his breakout solo record Workbook, especially in the song “Voices in My Head”.
Those of you familiar with the history of the former Husker Du frontman may recall just what a big deal it was when he debuted Workbook in 1989 on the Mainroom stage at First Avenue. For those of you who aren’t familiar, I invite you back there to witness one perspective of that momentous night-mine.
My heart has stopped, I cannot breathe…frozen to this spot, the spot where my date Tom is pointing at the heavily backlit Bob Mould. Mould, has paused mid song and is pointing right back. It seems as if every eye in the packed First Avenue Mainroom is focused on the two of them as they share a silent conversation.
This is a huge night for Mould, his debut solo album away from Husker Du’, and he’s performing in front of his hometown crowd. There is a tense anticipation amongst the audience and Mould must be feeling it too. I wonder how many people want to see him succeed and how many want to see him fall flat on his face? Such is the two-faced heart of the Twin Cities music scene.
The new album Workbook is a total departure in style. The feel is organic, and the fact that it was made in a farmhouse in rural Minnesota fits. Husker Du’s trademark raucous screaming, heady guitars and dizzying drums are gone; certainly no 1-2-fuck you rock. In its place is a gentler, introspective artist who owns the spellbound crowd with an intensity that draws you closer, but a coldness that shoves you away.
Out of my head, I watch whatever is going on in that brief but endless moment between Tom and Mould. Outwardly, I try to appear unaffected, but inside I am prisoner to an unrelenting urge to flee. There is not a thing that I can find to object to in Tom, he and I actually met through my previous relationship. No matter how kind and fun Tom is-he can never measure up to that other guy.
In the middle of the song “Wishing Well”, I snap…I know that I will break Tom’s heart because I am dreaming of his friend, my former love. That is whom I wish to be with so intensely that I cannot breathe. I finally accept it, and let out a huge sigh of relief. My focus goes back to the triumphant Bob Mould, knowing that indeed “there is a price to pay for a wish to come true”.
*Tom got over me in a hot minute, met his true love and moved South to open an independent record store. He went on to become the original Napster.
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