Bob Mould + Helen Money

For anyone who pegged Bob Mould as a loud-and-fast-rules adherent, his post-Hüsker Dü and Sugar career has been nothing but surprising. There have been arty solo albums, electronic excursions, DJ sets, autobiography writing and a recent return to power-pop on the great albums Silver Age and Beauty & Ruin. Mould's latest, Patch the Sky, is another medlodic slab of crunchy power chords and cathartic lyricism, recorded in Chicago by engineer Steve Albini with help from longtime collaborators Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster. Cellist Helen Money opens this trio of year-end show in Evanston.