Bob Mould Band At Irving Plaza

Last Wednesday, Aaron and I attended Bob Mould's concert at Irving Plaza. Being the bigshots we are, we were on Bob's VIP list which yielded us access to the balcony above the stage. Suh-weet! Before we even got upstairs, I was stopped by an attractive young straight couple, who've been reading this blog after following the link on Bob's page. They spoke very knowledgeably about some of the stories I've written, which was very flattering. For some reason, I'm always surprised to meet straight readers, isn't that odd?

The concert was unsurprising, because it totally fucking rocked. With sexy Daddy Rich Morel on keyboards, Bob led his band through the Greatest Hits Of Mould, hitting at least half of Sugar's Copper Blue , and closing (before returning for TWO encores) with Husker Du's "Celebrated Summer", possibly my favorite non-Zen Arcade track. Oh wait, he also did "I Apologize", also from New Day Rising, maybe that's my favorite. And of course his recently released Body Of Song was well represented. I particularly enjoyed "Paralyzed" and "Circles", which was featured on last week's episode of The O.C. (I found the complete set list for Bob's Chicago show here, and it seems to be the same as the Irving Plaza show.) If you don't have Body Of Song yet, get it. It's turning out to be my favorite album of 2005. I recommend the deluxe box set, which features two Rich Morel remixes. (By the way, Rich Morel's Lucky Strike was my favorite album of last year, do yourself a huge favor and check it out.)

After the show, Aaron and I hung around the VIP lounge and schmoozed a bit with some familiar members of the Cult Of Bob. The Nasty Pig boys were there, attended by their in-house boy blogger. I stood near the entrance for a bit, where SNL's Jimmy Fallon mistook me for security, which was amusing. Bob and Rich came out and glad-handed their admirers, then we spirited them away to Nowhere Bar, which was holding its weekly tribute to short men, Runt.

Runt, hosted by Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, is turning out to be quite a hit, the place was packed with hot shorties. Bob, Rich, Aaron and I found ourselves squeezed into a corner by the DJ area where I met a guy who'd flown in from Honolulu for Bob's show, only to miss the concert because of a delayed connection. (Honolulu guy: I'll add the pictures of you and Bob to this post as soon as I can locate my camera's docking cradle. Grumble grumble.) DJ MattChew was killing me with some obscure disco oldies, rocking us with Kano's "It's A War" and Bobby O's "I'm So Hot For You". Nice.

Before I grabbed a cab for uptown, Rich let it slip that he is working on some major remixes for some very iconic 70's rockers. I'm already very excited that he's going to be reworking tracks from the largest selling album of the Seventies. And that's all I can say about that.

Bonus: I got felt up by a handsome shortie on my way out of the bar, making it just about a perfect evening.