Bob Mould, who admits he’s “typically not the nostalgic type” in a statement, has booked two concerts that will mark 40 years since he launched his music career as a member of Hüsker Dü. The gigs will take place in St. Paul at the Palace on March 30th and the Turf Club on the 31st. The latter show has already sold out.
In a remembrance, Mould recalled how he started his “professional” music career on March 30th, 1979 playing with a band called Buddy and the Returnables that featured the three members of Hüsker Dü and keyboardist-singer Charlie Pine. They were booked for two nights. “Moments before the end of the March 31st show, an audience member yanked the cable out of the Farfisa organ that Charlie was playing, and the three remaining musicians – who immediately went on to be known as Hüsker Dü – launched into a handful of hastily-written originals,” he wrote.
The lineup for the show will consist of current backing band members Jason Narducy on bass and Jon Wurster on drums. He made no mention of reuniting with Hüsker Dü bassist Greg Norton at the show; Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart died of liver cancer in 2017. Although the band members had parted bitterly in 1987, they worked together again by proxy of a lawyer a few years ago on an early years box set, Savage Young Dü, which came out in 2017.
“I’m typically not the nostalgic type when it comes to my work – but I would be remiss if I didn’t make mention of the importance of my early days in St. Paul, my gratitude to Grant and Greg for those first eight years of music, and my sincere thanks to the people of Minnesota for the centuries of support,” Mould said in a statement.
In a Rolling Stone interview earlier this month, Mould said he felt the band had no desire to reunite. “I think my stance all along was that everything has its place in time, and everything is of a moment,” he said. “And what the band did in the Eighties, to try to replicate or duplicate all the circumstances or the emotions or the environment that made it what it was would be pretty tough.”
Mould will kick off a tour in support of his newest album, Sunshine Rock, in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. The first North American leg of the tour will run through March 2nd before he departs for a European leg and returns on March 30th to start another North American leg with his 40th anniversary shows.
The album, Sunshine Rock, represents Mould’s push toward writing more optimistically, and it began with the title song. “I’ve always been a write-what-you-know kind of guy,” he told Rolling Stone. “So this time, I was trying to consciously create a little bit of a different world to work in.”
Read Bob Mould’s full 40th anniversary statement:
I started my “professional” stage career as a musician on Mar 30, 1979 at a tiny bar called Ron’s Randolph Inn, located near Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. The name of the band was Buddy and the Returnables – a four piece fronted by keyboardist/singer Charlie Pine. I was the guitarist, Greg Norton was the bassist, and Grant Hart was the drummer. We played two consecutive nights.
Moments before the end of the Mar 31 show, an audience member yanked the cable out of the Farfisa organ that Charlie was playing, and the three remaining musicians – who immediately went on to be known as Hüsker Dü – launched into a handful of hastily-written originals.
Fast forward 40 years: I’ll be performing in St. Paul with my longtime bandmates, Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster, at Palace Theater on Mar 30 and Turf Club on Mar 31.
It’s a big anniversary, but my celebration of 40 years in music is for one weekend only. I’m typically not the nostalgic type when it comes to my work – but I would be remiss if I didn’t make mention of the importance of my early days in St. Paul, my gratitude to Grant and Greg for those first eight years of music, and my sincere thanks to the people of Minnesota for the centuries of support. Looking forward to seeing you on the Sunshine Rock tour, wherever it may be.