music friday: hüsker dü, ting tings

Hüsker Dü, The Stone, The Fillmore, 1985, ?. I think I only saw them twice, but I can't be sure there wasn't a third in there somewhere. One of the handful of my favorite bands of the 1980s. They wrote pop songs as good as The Ramones, but they laid a sonic sludge of Bob Mould's guitar atop the pop, meaning they weren't actually pop at all. Sometimes it felt like Mould never turned down his equipment ... even when he wasn't playing for a moment, there'd be sound. They never made a bad album ... I'm partial to New Day Rising, but Zen Arcade fans are welcome to chime in. Here they are in 1985:

The Ting Tings, HP Pavilion, September 2009. Yet another example of a strong opening act at a Pink concert. Here are their two biggest hits: