When Wedgie Woman Attacks

My son, Arie, is running around the house pretending to be Captain Underpants.  In case you are unfamiliar with the Dav Pilkey super hero, his costume consists of a red cape, a pair of underwear and nothing else.

He ran up to haddayr and I and declared, "Wedgie Woman gave me a wedgie!"  "Oh, no," we said.  At that, he turned his back to us and ran off.  And yes, he did in fact give himself a wedgie.

Bob Mould is the new John Fogerty

I always thought of Bob Mould as kind of my generation's Paul McCartney -- you went to go see him play his new stuff waiting for a watered down version of his Hüskers material at the end of the show and you left remembering how good he used to be but now he kind of just rests on his laurels.  After last night I've changed that analogy.   He's my generation's John Fogerty.  Fogerty, for years, refused to play any of his Creedence material out of spite for his former label, then finally bean playing his old stuff, realized he had fun doing it and people were really happy because that's what they really wanted from John Fogerty -- old Creedence tunes.  Bob Mould, for years, refused to play any of his Hüskers material wiith a band, opting instead for occasional acoustic versions of those songs.  Starting last year, he finally began playing them with a full band -- loud and cranked.  It really is what I've been waiting to hear for years (and kind of reminds me of what it is I don't like about most of his post-Hüsker catalog.

Last night I went to go see Mould with snurri.  After listening to Mould run through his solo and Sugar catalog for most of the set, he started into " I Apologize."  I knew that he was playing some Hüsker Dü songs with a band since last year and I was really expecting to be dissapointed.  I'd watched him through most of the first set thinking, this is the guy who helped make Zen Arcade.  This is the same guy who used to scream out verse and chorus, his voice sounding like his guitar, raw, distorted, angry and beautiful.  His songs used to blend together all the great elements of classic pop with the energy and inspiration of the '80's punk scene.  Now, most of the time, they just seem to be pop songs with a distorted guitar.  He  doesn't seem to really take risks anymore.  Last night though, he and his band lit into "I Apologize," "Celebrated Summer," closing with "Divide and Conquer."  I was shocked at how good it sounded.  The last time I'd heard any of those songs live was over twenty years ago and hearing them again, I was in heaven, bouncing and jumping, hoping people might start slamming, feeling like I was fifteen again.  Those three songs alone, to me, were worth the $15 I paid for admission (and having to stand through "Hoover Dam").  The first encore was "Hardly Getting over It," "Could You Be the One?" and "Chartered Trips" after which I wish he'd just called it a night (or at least inverted the encore sets)  -- the last encore was kind of forgettable (back to his post-Hüsker tunes)  and I would have been a lot happier to leave with "Divide and Conquer" bouncing along in my head.  Even so, it's been bouncing along in there most of today and I find myself smiling when I think about hearing those six Hüsker songs.