Live review: Mac McCaughan played Baby's All Right

Originally posted on Free Williamsburg HERE.

While Mac McCaughan's debut album is called, Non-Believers, he made the stage at Baby's All Right his pulpit and very much preached to the converted on Saturday night. Mixing new tunes with discography classics and a few covers thrown in for good measure, the crowd lapped up every note.

I was won over by And the Kids pretty quickly. The Massachusets trio is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Hannah Mohan, whose voice belts out across the venue, it's an impressive performance, and even more so as it comes across as if maybe she doesn't realise just how good her voice is. The songs are catchy and there is some extra endearing quality to the band that is hard to put into words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXryr5Kh1jM

Flesh Wounds played a 70s-influenced British Punk set that at times almost felt like a tribute act, as if the band could rip into a Chelsea tune at any moment. Their set gave little room to pause, when singer Montgomery Morris wasn't hunched over the mic he was bouncing around the stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcx8SNHCjPA

We'd see Flesh Wounds again pretty swiftly as they are Mac's backing band on this tour, and that tightness helps with what must be pretty fresh material for everyone involved.

With two guitars, bass and drums, some songs need substantial reworking for the live band. Only Do  is filled with synths on the record, to pick one example. While some of the nuance is lost, it's nice to hear the band getting creative with the melodies. With its Yoda-like chorus of there is no try, there is only do, it's one of the many catchy hooks peppered across the album.

Mac gave his band a rest and played about 1/3 of the set on his own, there's an art to playing solo-electric and not everyone can do it well but he really pulls it off with aplomb. Superchunk favourites such as Driveway to Driveway get the crowd whopping and hollering with glee. Superchunk fans are nothing if not enthusiastic, and there's definitely a lot of adulation in the room.

The rest of the band come back on stage to finish up the show, including the single from the record, Box Batteries.

https://soundcloud.com/mergerecords/mac-mccaughan-box-batteries-single-version

Earlier in the set someone from the crowd called out for Noisy Night, and the Portastatic "cover" (it's hard to call it a cover, given that it's Mac's other solo project!) duly ended the set.

An encore of covers including The Undertones' Teenage Kicks ticks over nicely, but it's their choice of closer that really goes down a treat, with Toy Love's Pull Down the Shades getting Mac amped up enough to go into the crowd and bop around. It shouldn't be surprising to hear him cover this tune, given that Merge Records release a bunch of those classic New Zealand artists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24mURY8v4uU

There's a bit of a chaotic scrum for the merch table afterwards but I eventually leave clutching a copy of Non-Believers, and you know what, all the best music is actually made by heathens. 

Setlist

Josephine
Lost Again
Only Do
White Wave
Angels of Sleep
Come Upstairs
Driveway to Driveway
Breaking Down
Jackie
Popular Music
Home at Dawn
Detroit
Naked Pilseners
Drill Me
Box Batteries
Noisy Night
//
Teenage Kicks
San Andreas
Pull Down the Shades

Bob Mould - Williamsburg Park - 7th of September 2012: Live Review

 
I have been a fan of Bob Mould for about 8 years (a drop in the ocean compared to the length of his career!) but had never managed to see him live until now (not for the want of trying). Originally this show was going to be at Webster Hall but was moved (and subsequently made free) to Williamsburg Park.

To coincide with the 20th anniversary of Sugar's resplendent masterpiece, Copper Blue, Mould has been playing it in full this year, and seemingly inspired has just released his latest studio effort, Silver Age, which is very much in that power-pop style, lead single The Descent has the following promotional video:

The show was opened by Cymbals Eat Guitars, I enjoy both of their albums so it was good to see them rattle through selected cuts from both (including my favourite track, Rifle Eyesight), doubly-so because I missed their set supporting The Flaming Lips at the Troxy in London in 2009 (train delays!).

Playing as a trio (just like Sugar and Husker Du, of course), Mould is joined on bass by Jason Narducy from Telekinesis and Jon Wurster from Superchunk on drums (whose playing was particularly ferocious). They blitzed through Copper Blue with the enthusiasm and freshness of a new release.

We were then treated to a couple of cuts from Silver Age, I thought that we'd get most of the album having just witnessed a celebration of material 20 years ago, but after three new songs we were treated to a quartet of Husker Du songs, including one of my very favourites, Hardly Getting Over It.

The set was rounded off with another song from Silver Age, Keep Believing. Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn joined the band in the encore to sing Husker Du's Something I Learned Today. I have to confess I'm not really a fan of the Hold Steady and I didn't recognise him, but he performed the song as if fulfilling a life-long fantasy.

Representing almost all of the Husker Du discography, the band also ripped through early single Keep Believing before returning for a second encore and blasting out Makes No Sense At All from Flip Your Wig.

Hopefully I'll catch Bob play many more times in the future, this concert was utterly thrilling. Such  is the strength of his solo material, I came out thinking about dozens of songs I'd have also loved to hear, and while the Husker Du songs felt like a treat, I was surprised how little we got from his solo material (only 4 songs from the latest album).

I also picked up both Sugar re-issues for $15 each from the merch stand and am looking forward to the live discs in particular. 

Setlist:
        (Copper Blue played in full)
        The Act We Act
        A Good Idea
        Changes
        Helpless
        Hoover Dam
        The Slim
        If I Can't Change Your Mind
        Fortune Teller
        Slick
        Man on the Moon
------------------------------------
        Star Machine
        The Descent
        Round The City Square
        Hardly Getting Over It*
        Could You Be The One?*
        I Apologize*
        Chartered Trips*
        Keep Believing

        Encore:
        Something I Learned Today*
        In A Free Land*
        Encore 2:
        Makes No Sense At All*

*Husker Du songs