Bob Mould Setlist

The War
Flip Your Wig¹
I Apologize¹
Hoover Dam²
Stand Guard
Siberian Butterfly
Sinners and Their Repentances
The Descent
Forecast of Rain
Next Generation
I Don’t Know You Anymore
You Say You
Here We Go Crazy
The Ocean
Daddy’s Favorite
Black Confetti
Too Far Down¹
Never Talking to You Again¹
Celebrated Summer¹
Hard to Get
When Your Heart is Broken
If I Can’t Change Your Mind²
— Encore —
Something I Learned Today¹
Makes No Sense at All¹
¹ Hüsker Dü song
² Sugar song

David Barbe Setlist

Twangler
Dim Bulbs
It’s Gonna Land
Portuguese Door
My Shiny Bird
Silver-White Flash
Where Diamonds are Halos
Company Book
Gary or Trecs

Bob Mould was in the Twin Cities to play a pair of solo shows, one in Minneapolis, the next in St. Paul. On this first day, he was performing at Icehouse to a crowd that was excited to hear his thirty plus years of music.

David Barbe got things started. Singer, songwriter, and producer, Barbe was the bass guitarist for the Bob Mould fronted band Sugar from the early 1990’s. As a solo artist, he has several albums, including the 2025 EP Any Better and It Would Be Worse. Solo on guitar, Barbe’s tenor vocals cut against his reverb heavy guitar. Dim Bulbs was an excellent example of his style, and Barbe worked his pedal board effectively all while maintaining an excellent singing cadence. Barbe was all concentration and a little folded in on himself in the chair, but that didn’t make him a small performer. A good guitar solo to close out It’s Going to Land, was followed by “a work in progress”. Barbe had a great sense of humor that comes with having been around the block a few times, and that certainly endeared him to a sizable part of the audience. Some looping of the guitar was a good change up on Shiny Bird and Barbe’s pedal work gave a depth that added to the solid rock song.

Barbe continued to add to those looping intros as he went further into the set, and it felt like the performance was blossoming as it went. That growth in musical complexity was a nice through line for Barbe and was a clever way to grow interest. Playing a Sugar song, Barbe played Where Diamonds Are Halos, which he had written, but clearly enjoyed getting to sing. As he moved through the latter part of the set, Barbe was a master of that loop, getting the first track in quickly and efficiently and moving right into the full song in a way that many artists struggle with in comparison. Company Book had some distortion in the guitar work, contrasting strongly against Barbe’s clear and higher pitched vocals. Closing out, David Barbe had rocked his way through a nearly forty minute set in a pretty perfect set up for his former band mate.

We have reviewed a lot of Bob Mould shows over the years, most recently his April 2025 show at the Palace Theatre. There is a wildly different audience capacity at these venues, with the shows at Icehouse and Turf Club, where Mould is playing tomorrow, holding about 350 people in comparison to the Palace, which holds around 2500. But over these last few years, that has been Mould’s MO, playing the larger venues when he tours with the full band and hitting the smaller, more intimate spaces when he goes on the road as a solo performer. On top of a very busy touring schedule, Mould has also been relentless with writing and releasing new songs, with at least 15 solo albums, including 2025’s Here We Go Crazy, also the name of the tour. He came out with no pretense, just a “I’m Bob, and I’m going to play some songs”. He started with The War and he was just going. With very little break between songs, Mould went straight into the next number, Flip Your Wig, a Hüsker Dü number, which also indicated he would be going all over his entire catalogue for a broad set list. Hoover Dam, from his Sugar days, was an absolute banger as a solo song.

As mentioned in our April review, there was very little talking from Mould. He simply moved from song to song and the crowd was elated at the sheer number of great ones he played. If you haven’t seen him in concert, Mould is 100% energy and was sweating up a storm just a few numbers in. There’s a tremendous charisma that is partly due to his authenticity to simply rocking out. Siberian Butterfly was a great example of both the driving guitar work and his vocals. We also got the briefest of breaks before going right back into it, with a “let’s play a nice Catholic song” as he went into Sinners and Their Repentances. Mould had a great way of jumping into a higher, nearly yelled lyrics and he was hitting them all perfectly. Forecast of Rain had a pretty hypnotic guitar riff and Mould continued to drive the high tempo forward. This was a rock legend playing and the audience knew it. The title track from the new album, Here We Go Crazy, had the crowd singing along on the chorus in the latter part of the song, so that he could sing the second set of lyrics over it.

Daddy’s Favorite was a pretty brutal song lyrically and Mould was crushing on the guitar. Black Confetti was the longest song of the evening, with a long and intense guitar solo. A compelling story about his marriage and the crazy political times led into a stretch of Hüsker Dü songs, starting with Too Far Down. (A great job by the Icehouse crew to have a series of nearly rainbow lighting effects during the number.) Celebrated Summer closed that section, with a lot of the crowd singing along. Back to the current album, Mould played Hard to Get, which somehow went up a level in energy. The main set ended with the Sugar song If I Can’t Change Your Mind to wild applause. Rather than head off stage, he simply went to the edge, then came back ripping into the two song encore. The final number had to be Makes No Sense At All and Bob Mould had absolutely destroyed with a fantastic, ninety minute set.