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Any number of Soul Asylum songs could have described Thursday's historic Rock for Karl concert at the Quest nightclub in Minneapolis, which benefited the band's cancer-survivor bassist Karl Mueller. "Never Really Been" would fit the unprecedented lineup of Twin Cities rock luminaries. "Runaway Train" might have summed up some of the musical free-for-alls onstage. Best of all, "Sometime to Return" suited the show's reunion vibe, which included the first onstage pairing of Bob Mould and Grant Hart since their influential trio Hüsker Dü broke up 16 years ago. The 5½-hour show was a who's-who lineup of the celebrated local scene of the 1980s and early '90s when the Twin Cities was ground zero for indie rock. All the stars showed up for the sold-out fundraiser: ex-Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg, a reunited Gear Daddies, a makeshift lineup of Golden Smog, plus the ever-resilient Soul Asylum. The set everyone was most happy to see, of course, was the Mould and Grant performance, which had not been announced. They did two songs together from their old band's catalog: "Hardly Getting Over It" and "Never Talking to You Again," both seething numbers that fit the tone of their tumultuous relationship over the years. Hart and Mould have talked since the Hüsker Dü breakup, but they have never played together and clearly still aren't best buds. "If me and Bob can get together, that means we can all get together and put [President] Bush out of office, right?" Hart quipped as he took the stage. After their quick reunion, Hart said in an interview, "We've been offered whatever you can imagine to do [a reunion], but we did this for free."
