Bob Mould @ Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 8 Feb

“Am I the oldest one in here?” asks Bob Mould, feigning exasperation as he stares out across the room. The sea of grey hairs and bespectacled bald heads dotted across Liquid Room’s tightly-packed hall should provide an answer to that one, but it’s telling that they’re pressed up close against the rather more luxuriant mops of younger punks: those who simply weren’t around to catch the 55-year-old former Hüsker Dü and Sugar frontman in any of his previous incarnations. And in any case, all that matters is the here and now. Which, by the way, is VERY LOUD.

Pulling tracks from across his career in what amounts to a greatest hits set (of sorts), Bob gives us blistering power pop brilliance at eardrum-lacerating volume, patrolling the stage menacingly and playing with the same manic energy that’s always underpinned his impressive arsenal of hooks. There’s scant regard for the original melodies, but it all feels right somehow; a furious howl that fits in perfectly with the powerful squall, lent additional muscle by the more-than-capable duo of Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster.

Whether pulling nuggets from Sugar’s magnum opus Copper Blue (A Good Idea; If I Can’t Change Your Mind) or recent favourites from unexpectedly spectacular recent albums (The Descent; Kid With Crooked Face), they’re all turned in with aplomb. Main set closer Chartered Trips plummets into a psych-tinged workout that builds the tension, before a cathartic encore delivers three cuts from the Hüskers’ mighty Flip Your Wig, all played at rip-roaring pace to ecstatic punters. While his peers give into the temptation to reform their old acts, Bob just keeps on doing what he’s always done: cranking out the classics on his own terms – and don’t the kids just love it.