Sugar: O2 Forum, London – Live Review

Sugar
O2 Forum, London
24th May 2026

Back on tour with new material after an absence of 30 years, Sugar’s punk-tinged power pop is as potent as ever. Steve Morgan embraces the rush

Checking your watch during a gig is normally a bad sign, but three songs into Sugar’s second sold-out night at The Forum I take a peep. Inside the opening 12 minutes, Bob Mould and company have pinned our ears to the wall with blistering versions of The Act We Act, A Good Idea and Changes; the no-nonsense triumvirate that kickstarted debut offering, Copper Blue – which, lest we forget, pipped all-territories conquering REM’s Automatic for the People to take the NME’s Album of the Year gong for 1992.

Picking up where his previous trio Hüsker Dü finally disintegrated in 1987, leaving a generation in their US post-punk DIY thrall to forge what would become grunge, Mould, bassist Dave Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis leant heavily into three-piece sweet power-pop, only played with the 100mph punk sensibility that defined Mould’s alma mater. The Sugar sound was – and remains – both brutal and beautiful, with harmonies and hooks redolent of The Byrds and Big Star, delivered with the crunch of Black Sabbath.

We get the full gun tonight. Across a taut hour-and-a-half, the shots just keep coming – a 24-song set comprises all but a handful of the band’s short-lived studio output between 1992 and 1995, plus two new numbers – House of Dead Memories and Long Live Love. Both fit in seamlessly halfway through the set.

It should come as no surprise that they’re still this good. Though there’s little in the way of spoken communication – Mould has always been more about the music – there is a sense of reclamation, of returning heroes retracing their steps, reminding us what’s what. And why not, given their sonic legacy. Visually, it’s a treat. Mould, dressed head to toe in black, windmills and freewheels around the cavernous stage space offered by Sugar’s minimal, no-frills backline with the energy and fire of a man half his age. No gimmicks, no pompous racks of guitars or frippery here, no mad tricks with lights. It’s all about the force, like standing in a rock-and-roll wind tunnel.

Mould – whose distinctive voice remains strong forceful and full-bodied – chops frantically at his guitar, shredding at times for all his worth, but always with that distinctive, clean, sharp tone. It’s something to have listened to these songs at home, it’s quite another again to be smacked up sharp with the raw, needles-in-the red power that constitutes hearing them live. And after such a lengthy absence, it’s a delight.

Barbe, who throws plenty of rock shapes himself, is the perfect counterpoint to Mould, a less forceful, yet simmering stage presence. As with Hüsker Dü – where Grant Hart was often billed as Paul McCartney to Mould’s John Lennon – there’s a gentler feel to Barbe’s offerings. That said, Company Book’s less-aggressive musical stance throws a sharper  focus on the withering lyrical putdown of the traditional corporate shill, where the pay off ‘Bye bye’ is delivered with the smoulder and snark of Rotten’s ‘Goodbye A&M’ refrain on the Sex Pistols’ label-hopping drama EMI.

The glorious, rolling swell of Hoover Dam – which Mould admits is a personal favourite – finds his introspective vocal tastefully augmented by Barbe’s harmonies, the enterprise continually pushed by Malcolm Travis’ thudding punctuation on drums. Travis, beavering quietly away behind his kit, is at a venerable 73, a model of economy and efficiency, his undemonstrative, unflashy approach noticeable against Mould and Barbe’s twin energies, but no less on point throughout.

Running Out of Time is an assault on the senses delivered at a ferocious lick – “are you having fun yet?” asks Barbe before introducing the band. Frustration, from 1995’s File Under Easy Listening, is a blissful marriage of shoegaze and drone, genres Mould can claim to have done as much as anyone else to define. Charged-up renditions of Can’t Help You Anymore and Fortune Teller are also high-water marks.

A pyrotechnic take on Tilted and the glorious stomp of JC Auto, with its endless chord changes, both cuts taken from 1993’s Beaster, bring the set proper to a crescendo, before a rousing three-song encore of Helpless, Gee Angel and If I Can’t Change Your Mind send us for the exits. Out into the sweaty Kentish Town night we go, punch drunk, mixing with hordes of happily drunken Arsenal fans in an array of retro shirts. Much like these happy Gunners, reacquainting themselves with success after a lengthy absence away, Sugar have delivered a real blast in NW5, proving that they are still serious title contenders themselves.

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Sugar’s tour continues across the UK and Europe until 15 June. They can be found here and on Facebook

All words by Steve Morgan. Steve is on Bskysocial  and Instagram

Photos by Robyn Skinner.  You can find more of her work on Instagram