Live Review: Bob Mould, Craig Finn at The Waiting Room…
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Last night’s Bob Mould/Craig Finn concert at The Waiting Room was a crowded house of graying temples and vintage concert T’s worn by eager (sometimes chatty) aging hipsters paying their respects to a rock god, who at age 64 is very much alive.
The crowd was so immense that after winding your way up the club’s front steps and past the seated dude scanning tickets you were met with the crush of humanity that seemed packed asses-to-elbows all the way to the stage on the other side of the room. In other words, a typical sold-out Waiting Room show.
I didn’t even try to get a Rolling Rock as we were only moments away from Finn’s opening set. Somewhere in the darkness, a dense fist smacked me on my right shoulder – either a greeting or a warning – I still don’t know who it was because I was determined to make my way through the crowd.
A pro-tip about sold-out Waiting Room shows: No matter how crowded it seems, you can always squeeze through as if headed to the bathrooms and instead find an opening to stand only a few feet from stage left, which is where I was for most of the show surrounded by a herd of middle-aged dudes holding cans of beer. The guestimated average age was 50, almost all guys, though later in the evening I saw a woman using a walker who had to be in her late 70s (and having a great time).
Usually at these shows a smattering of youngsters are peppered in the crowd, but last night, the “youngsters” were dudes in their 30s. The idle talk between sets – will Mould play songs from his days in Hüsker Dü – a band that broke up in 1988, 37 years ago.
With Mould’s reputation for being one of the loudest performers to come out of the indie underground, Craig Finn proved to be quite a contrast for an opening act. The bookish frontman of aughts-era indie rock band The Hold Steady took to the stage with an acoustic guitar and a sideman carrying a variety of wind instruments (saxophone, clarinet), for a quiet 9-song set of story-songs, many taken from his latest album, Always Been.
With a warm, Midwestern drawl, Finn came off like a combination of Randy Newman, John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) and short-story humorist David Sedaris singing/telling short stories about broken people forced to settle for whatever their desperate lives had become, all sung in his trademark nasal voice. It was like a kinder, gentler version of his Hold Steady output, but accompanied by a guy on saxophone instead of an electric guitar.
Before beginning, Finn said he had no allusions of competing with his hero, Mr. Mould, in a rock and roll contest, but I doubt he knew he’d have to compete with the rising roar of idle chatter that grew in the back of the room throughout his set. By the set’s mid-point, the crowd noise became distracting, but apparently not to Finn, who soldiered through if only for the attentive, respectful audience leaning toward the stage.
Right around 9:15, on came Mould dressed for work in black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a standard issue black-and-white Fender Strat (but, I’m told, a deluxe model with the LSR roller roller nut and lace sensor pickups, whatever that means).
All business, Mould roared into his opening song, “Star Machine,” from 2012’s Silver Age album, and rarely stopped 26 songs later. His stamina was impressive, never letting off the gas pedal for 90 minutes of impassioned yelling/singing acompanied by his riff-fueled guitar histrionics, all fueled by what has become his go-to rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster.
Despite the 35-degree windchill outside, the Waiting Room was a hot-house sauna. I was told Mould had requested no air conditioning in an attempt to save his voice and by the third song he was dripping sweat and his round book-keeper-style glasses were partially fogged over.
The set was front-loaded with songs from solo albums only dating back 13 years, many of which I was unfamiliar with. But even with this material, people up front were locked into the performance. The standouts in the first half were “Black Confetti” from 2016’s Patch the Sky and “American Crisis” from 2020’s Blue Hearts, along with the title track off the new album, Here We Go Crazy.
The second half kicked off with a moving version of “Hardly Getting Over It,” which would be one of seven Hüsker Dü classics, including four that closed out the set.
Mould shows – even the acoustic ones – have a reputation for being painfully loud, but last night’s show didn’t seem so bad, or at least it started out that way. The volume built up over time and midway through my iWatch warned me of 110 dBs. Earplugs became my best friend. Surprisingly, few around me also wore ear plugs, but I guess at their age it didn’t matter — the price for living a rock and roll lifestyle.
What were the other Hüsker Dü songs performed last night? “Celebrated Summer,” “Flip Your Wig,” “Love Is All Around,” “Something I Learned Today,” and set-closer “Makes No Sense at All.”
By the end of the evening I’d moved to the back of the room both to snag a T-shirt before the inevitable merch-table deluge and to stretch out after standing in one spot for nearly two hours. I was joined by many of the fans who had stood near the stage early in the set, all of them no less locked into the music.
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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
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