Bob Mould @ La Maroquinerie, Paris - November 9th, 2025

Bob Mould remains a towering figure in alternative rock. From his blistering early years with Hüsker Dü, where he helped define the sound of melodic hardcore, to the soaring power pop brilliance of Sugar and a long, ever-evolving solo career, his influence is hard to overstate. At La Maroquinerie, he performed a solo electric set that traced the full arc of his musical journey, revisiting milestones from every era alongside material from his superb recent album Here We Go Crazy. Stripped of a backing band, Mould’s songs gained a raw, emotional clarity that revealed how power and vulnerability have always intertwined in his writing.

As much as his solo work deserves admiration, it’s fair to say that most of the crowd packed into the Parisian club came to hear the Hüsker Dü songs, the anthems of youth that first cemented his legacy. It’s staggering to realize those tracks are now forty years old, yet still burn with urgency. For reasons I can’t quite recall, I once imagined Mould as a prickly contrarian, but on this night he proved the opposite, generous, engaging, and utterly attuned to the crowd’s excitement. Nine Hüsker Dü songs in one set? Bob, you spoil us.

That said, the solo electric format comes with its limits. The sound was loud, brash, and thrillingly direct, but at times one longed for the propulsion of a full rhythm section to give certain songs their old punch. These versions weren’t radically reimagined, just pared back a little, and in the process they lost some of the visceral impact a band could provide.

Still, none of that diminished the sense of joy in the room. And despite their odd accoutrements, the tunes were far from lifeless and hearing Mould deliver those timeless songs, the celebrated ones and the hidden gems alike, was a privilege. His voice, still fierce and full of conviction, began to show strain toward the end, but he pushed through with sheer will, turning fatigue into fuel. That kind of commitment made the performance even more compelling, adding tension and grit to every shouted chorus.

There was no nostalgia, no self-mythologizing, just a veteran artist staring down time and refusing to coast. There used to be a term for this, I believe it's punk rock?

SETLIST