When Sugar first existed, nobody imagined the band would become the subject of a reunion tour more than thirty years later. Yet here we are at the Élysée Montmartre, watching Bob Mould, David Barbe and Malcolm Travis revisit a catalogue that has only grown more impressive with time.
Mould was in Paris only a few months ago performing solo, but this is an entirely different proposition. From the moment the band launches into the opening songs, the appeal of Sugar becomes obvious. For ninety minutes, the setlist barely relents, one great song following another with remarkable efficiency. The expected highlights from Copper Blue are all present, but one of the evening's pleasures is discovering that Sugar's legacy extends well beyond that justifiably celebrated album. The catalogue is deeper than memory sometimes suggests.
What remains striking is the unique balance the band achieved between aggression and melody. The songs are driven by focused tension rather than chaos, propelled by roaring guitars and pounding rhythms while remaining irresistibly tuneful. With more than three decades of hindsight, Sugar's influence is easier to appreciate than it was at the time. Elements of punk, alternative rock, emo and countless later guitar bands can be traced back to this combination of nervous energy, melodic sophistication and occasional flashes of sixties psychedelia, particularly in the material co-written by David Barbe.
Curiously, the audience reacts with considerably more restraint than the music might suggest. Even during "Hoover Dam," arguably the closest thing Sugar ever had to a hit single, and during the fastest, most aggressive numbers, the pit remains surprisingly civilized. Perhaps age has something to do with it... The people who bought Copper Blue in 1992 are no longer teenagers looking for bruises on a Saturday night.
The songs, however, have lost none of their urgency. That is ultimately what makes this reunion worthwhile: Sugar is not being revived out of nostalgia alone. These songs still sound vital, still hit with tremendous force and still reveal why so many musicians spent the last thirty years borrowing from the template this band helped create.
