He is Vision He is Sound

Despite my suffering a buzzing head cold (that would be buzzed further by the end of the night with ringing timpanics), T. & I made it to Irving Plaza last night to get a dose of Uncle Bob back with a full band for the first time in yonks. A very different experience to the last couple of solo shows over the past few years, although song selection somewhat similar in places. Bob is definitely fitter, louder, and on form in his mid 40s. Puts younger psueds, posers, and deriviates in the field of noise to shame. While the sound mix was a bit murky at times (an overpowering bass muddied the finer guitar twists & turns in places early on), the power and speed of most of the set was stonking. What surprised me a little was how strongly the new work came through. Body of Song, the new long player, is a nice mix of things and when 'Circles' and 'Paralyzed' came in after a few Sugar classics on the night, their crispness, freshness, and raw emotive energy hit home nicely. Husker Du classics were wheeled out as crowd pleasers, starting with the slower, but excellently grinding 'Hardly Getting Over It' and heading to an encore that included a cracking rendition of 'Makes No Sense at All'. (T. had actually spotted a pre-gig Bob walking from Union Square a few hours previous and shouted a hello without response. "Walking around with your head in the clouds - it makes no sense at all" would have been what I would have sung to his departing back...he has a sense of humour, right?)

The Philharmonic's Prokofiev Romeo & Julient excerpts tonight and then Dead Can Dance at Radio City on Saturday continue our moosikal earlovefest for the week.