I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: December 15, 2022] Modest Mouse 

Last year, Modest Mouse was the first concert I saw after the pandemic. This year, Modest Mouse was the last concert I’ll see in 2022 (nothing dramatic about that, I just don’t have any more shows lined up until next year).

As I’ve said before, I wasn’t planning to see them.  In fact, I felt like I had seen them even more recently than last year.  But this was a special tour–the 25th anniversary tour of their album The Lonesome Crowded West, with a really stripped down band.  Last time I saw them, there were six people on stage (there were like nine the previous show).  This time it’s just a four piece: Isaac Brock and co-founder Jeremiah Green joined by (regular) bassist Russell Higbee and guitarist Simon O’Connor who played last time I saw them.

This meant a stripped down, really rocking show.  Which befits the far more stripped down and rocking sound of this earlier album. 

Normally I’m all about seeing the opening band.  But I’ve had a few liberating experiences lately where i have deliberately blown off the opening band and been pleased with the decision.  I hadn’t heard of the band Mattress.  I looked them up before the show and learned that Mattress is the project of Rex Marshall.  And that the act is pretty much Marshall wearing a gold lame suit and acting like an abrasive lounge singer.

I listened to a song online and decided that I did not need to stand through that.  Sidenote:  It reminded me a lot of Wetface the weird, is-it-a-joke band who opened for Built to Spill this summer.  I sat through that twice and consider that my penance.  (incidentally, I often think of Built to Spill and Modest Mouse in the same breath for some reason, so it’s interesting that they would have similar bands on this year’s tour).

So that mean I got to the Fillmore around 8:45.  The evening happened to be one of the rainiest nights in recent memory.  It rained hard.  All day.  I very much considered not going to this show because of the weather.  But I decided to go and drove through the terrible lashing rain.  I kinda thought that the rain might keep others away and, if I was arriving late, maybe I could get free parking at the the Fillmore lot.  Indeed no.  In fact, it was full.  So I went past the lot and immediately got lost in the bowels of the roads beneath 95.  Holy cow.  I drove for about 8 minutes in crazy rain knowing where I was but having not idea where I actually was.  I finally found my way to the casino for parking and hurries across to the venue only to find a lineup!

The place was packed.  I was really bummed because I was very far back.  Although in fairness, this is my sixth time seeing them and last time I was practically on stage.  I wondered if I should have stayed home.  Especially when I think about the Modest Mouse crowd.  For an indie rock band, they do attract a lot of bros.  And often these bros are loud and obnoxious (to be far, so is Modest Mouse).  I know I’m a curmudgeon, but it was amazing to read this paragraph by Holly Hazelwood about Modest Mouse fans in Spectrum Culture 

a good ol’ mosh pit is always called-for at a show like this one, but then there’s the dude who kept bellowing shit like “ISAAAAAAAC!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!! YOU SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!!!” and “OUT OF GAS!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!” (which was shouted two songs after they played “Out of Gas”). People like that make it impossible to not question where you fall on the “let people enjoy themselves” scale — it doesn’t technically “hurt” anyone to have that kind of behavior, but does it do anything but make the experience feel worse for everyone involved, including the visibly-uncomfortable band? Do we really need another late-30s dude in a baseball hat trying desperately to make himself the center of attention in a crowd of 1500 people? Of course we don’t. And sadly, Modest Mouse are (fittingly) like Charles Bukowski for rock dudes — well-spoken but biting — so these kinds of fans, who show up and try to out-asshole everyone in the room, are an unnecessary evil that comes with seeing Modest Mouse shows.

I didn’t agree with everything Hazelwood had to say, but this paragraph could be quoted in just about every concert that I go to.  This line in particular: “Do we really need another late-30s dude in a baseball hat trying desperately to make himself the center of attention in a crowd of 1500 people?” is something I wish I had said so succinctly.   The only thing that could be added to it…

Do we need another drunken mid 20’s dudette pushing to the front of the crowd and then talking really loudly to her friends for the whole show except during the songs that she loves, which she then sings louder than the band?

Not as many of the dudettes show up at Modest Mouse though.

But the lights went down and they started playing “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine.”  That crazy guitar riff.  The yelled lyrics.  The pause and gentle harmonics.  It sounded great and I had forgotten how much I liked this album and within moments all the grief was forgotten and I bounced along with everyone else.

Having a band play an album straight through is a mixed bag.  Unless you loved the album.  In this case I really like about 3/4 of it.  I’m guessing that with it being nearly 80 minutes long, I probably haven’t listened to the whole thing all that much.  But I knew a lot of the songs really really well. 

Modest Mouse mixes up their setlists for every show, so you can have heard a whole mess of different songs in six shows.  So it’s interesting how few songs from the album I hadn’t actually heard live before (only six out of the fifteen).  But “Teeth” was one of them and it was great to hear it.

I love “Heart Cooks Brain,” so that was really fun to hear in this stripped down version.  The album features album scratching which Simon O’Connor mimicked by scratching the strings of his guitar.  I would have especially liked to see this show more clearly for moments like this–the how did they do that? moments.

For one reason or another “Convenient Parking” runs through my head a lot, so it was a surprise that I hadn’t heard them play it before.  Boy was that fun to hear he shout that chorus.  “Lounge” is a song that they maybe never played live before this tour.  It is bouncy and had a kind of tropical feel and is weird and delightful with fun bass from Russell Higbee.  It was the first song that had an extended instrumental section toward the end and it showed that the band could jam with the best of them.  It also showed that even with a second guitarist, Isaac Brock was still doing some of the heavy lifting.

The song slows down and meanders to an end and before the crowd could get too restless, they jumped into the weird acoustic stomper “Jesus Christ was an Only Child.”  There was no fiddle solo, but it hardly matters, because the shit kicker sounded great.  And it jumped into the (second) most cathartic moment of the night.  They had to pause briefly to switch out of acoustic mode, but it was the briefest pause before the absolutely crazy “Doin’ the Cockroach.”

Everyone loves “Cowboy Dan,”  I feel like prior to this show, even though this is the third time I’ve seen it live, I didn’t really appreciate it.  But this time it was really fantastic.   “Trailer Trash” continues the loping mood of the album.

It’s funny that that guy mentioned above was so psyched for “Out of Gas” as this is the third time I’ve seen it live.  Although I hadn’t seen “Long Distance Drunk” before.  While it’s true that some songs work better on record than live and this might just be one of them, it was really fun to see Simon O’Connor trade in his guitar for a floor tom and thump away at this percussion and acoustic guitar song.  O’Connor played the thumping rhythm while Jeremiah Green hit the cymbals and played the rest of the percussive parts.

They switched gear and switched gears for the most cathartic moment of the night.  The outstanding “Shit Luck.”  Two and a half minutes of hard driving near hardcore insanity with a wild riff, screamed vocals and a guitar that sounds like someone is wheezing (I don’t know how he managed that one).   It also had some of the most dynamic lights of the night.

That’s the peak of intensity for the album, with the final four songs working as a kind of comedown.  

It’s the first time I’d seen “Trucker’s Atlas” (all 11 minutes of it, which rambled very nicely) and “Polar Opposites” (a  similarly meandering song which is only three and a half minutes).  “Bankrupt on Selling” is a quiet acoustic song (both guitarists playing acoustic for this one).  

They ended with “Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright” a song I’ve also seen two other times.   It starts out with some fun wild acoustic guitar playing and builds into chaotic frenzy that turns into utter chaos with the band playing faster and faster and yet somehow still managing not to collapse on themselves.

 The crowd went nuts and the band left the stage.

Modest Mouse might just take the longest encore break of any band I know.  It must be about five minutes (which doesn’t seem all that bad, really, when the band has just played a lot) and the crowd was really restless.  With someone yelling (rather amusingly I thought) if you don’t come out right now I’m not buying any merch (no idea if this threat was followed through).

I moved to the middle of the crowd where the tall people weren’t and had a great view of the stage at last.  Until the band came back out and teh tall people swarmed in and I could see about as well as before.

They played a few other songs that were from the same era (the Interstate 8 EP).   I admit that I don’t know this EP at all.  Although I have heard two of the encore songs live before.

During “Edit the Sad Parts” some people left and a LOT of people left when they started playing they very old and very weird Flaming Lips song “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain.”  It actually suited Modest Mouse quite well, but the crowd was not into it, so they fled.  And for the last half of that song and the entirely of the final song, I could actually see the foursome clearly.

Before starting the final song, Isaac appeared to ask one person “only him” if he wanted ” Breakthrough” or “Grey Ice Water,”  Well everyone shouted their answers and Isaac said, “Well, that didn’t work.” and they played a pretty ripping “Breakthrough” a song I do know and like very much.  So that was a great ending.

I feel like the show may have been a little shorter than a typical MM show, and yet with two songs running over ten minutes, it’s possible that it was actually longer than other shows.  I really liked their soccer-style jerseys, but I don’t like that kind of material at the best of times, so I didn’t get one of those.  I did grab a lovely posted and even managed to keep it dry on the way back to the car.

A victory for the last show of the year.

 

The Met Philadelphia, 2021	Fillmore Philly. 2022 (last show for me of 2022)
Dramamine ≅ [4]	Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine µ
Back to the Middle ©	Heart Cooks Brain µ [3]
Cowboy Dan µ [2]	Convenient Parking µ
Bury Me with It ♣ [3]	Lounge (Closing Time) µ
Wooden Soldiers ©	Jesus Christ was an Only Child µ
Gravity Rides Everything Ø [3]	Doin’ the Cockroach µ [2]
Leave a Light On ©	Cowboy Dan (extended outro) µ [3]
Satin In A Coffin ♣ [3]	Trailer Trash (Perpetual Motion Machine tease) µ [2]
King Rat § [3]	Out of Gas µ [3]
Shit In Your Cut ℜ [3]	Long Distance Drunk µ
Float On ♣ [3]	Shit Luck µ  [2]
Paper Thin Walls Ø [3]	Trucker’s Atlas µ
We Are Between ©	Polar Opposites µ
We’re Lucky ©	Bankrupt on Selling µ [2]
I Came as a Rat Ø [3]	Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright µ [3]
encore	encore
Fuck Your Acid Trip ©	Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive Negative) ∞ [2]
Fire It Up ψ [2]	Edit the Sad Parts ∞
The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box ℜ [4]	Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (The Flaming Lips cover)
Broke ∞	Breakthrough ≅  [2] (asked crowd prior, ” Breakthrough or Grey Ice Water”, Extended outro)
Bukowski ♣ [3]

 

Starland Ballroom, 2017	Sands, Bethlehem, 2018
The Tortoise and the Tourist ℜ [2]	Strangers to Ourselves ℜ
Bury Me with It ♣ [1]	Dramamine ≅ [3]
Dramamine ≅ [2]	Poison the Well [new]
Missed the Boat ψ	Lampshades on Fire ℜ [4]
Dashboard ψ [3]	Interstate 8 ∞
Pups to Dust ℜ [2]	The World at Large ♣ [3]
Grey Ice Water ¥	Satin In A Coffin ♣ [2]
Bukowski ♣ [2]	King Rat § [2]
King Rat § [1]	This Devil’s Workday ♣ [4]
This Devil’s Workday ♣[3]	What People Are Made of Ø
Out of Gas µ [2]	Float On ♣ [2]
I Came as a Rat Ø [1]	Bankrupt on Selling µ [1]
Lampshades on Fire ℜ [3]	I Came as a Rat Ø [2]
Night on the Sun ⇔ [2]	Satellite Skin §
Sugar Boats ℜ	The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box ℜ [3]
encore	encore
Shit In Your Cut ℜ [2]	Bury Me with It ♣ [2]
Breakthrough ≅ [1]	Heart Cooks Brain µ [2]
Wild Packs Of Family Dogs Ø [2]	Parting of the Sensory ψ
The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box ℜ [2]	Gravity Rides Everything Ø [2]
Fly Trapped in a Jar ψ	The View [first half acoustic] ♣
Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive Negative) ∞ [1]	Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright µ [2]

 

Starland Ballroom, 2014	Steelstacks Pavillion 2015
Cowboy Dan µ [1]	The Tortoise and the Tourist ℜ [1]
Dark Center Of The Universe Ø	Paper Thin Walls Ø [2]
Invisible ψ	Lampshades on Fire ℜ [2]
Lampshades On Fire [new/ℜ] [1]	Out of Gas µ [1]
Dramamine ≅ [1]	Dashboard ψ [2]
> Life Like Weeds (Tease) Ø	Bukowski ♣ [1]
This Devil’s Workday ♣ [1]	This Devil’s Workday ♣ [2]
Satin In A Coffin ♣ [1]	Here’s to Now (Ugly Casanova cover)
Fire It Up ψ [1]	The Best Room ℜ
Coyotes [new/StO]	Doin’ the Cockroach µ [1]
Dashboard ψ [1]	The World at Large ♣ [2]
Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996) [new/ℜ]	Night on the Sun ⇔ [1]
Talking Shit About A Pretty Sunset ≅	Float On ♣ [1]
Wild Packs Of Family Dogs Ø [1]	The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box ℜ [1]
Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes Ø [1]	Black Cadillacs ♣ [2]
Shit In Your Cut [new/ℜ] [1]	Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright µ [1]
Black Cadillacs ♣ [1]	Tiny Cities Made of Ashes Ø [2]
Spitting Venom ψ	encore
Shit Luck µ [1]	Gravity Rides Everything Ø [1]
Trailer Trash µ [1]	Pups to Dust ℜ [1]
encore	A Different City Ø
Heart Cooks Brain µ [1]	The Good Times Are Killing Me ♣ [2]
The World At Large ♣ [1]
Paper Thin Walls Ø [1]
The Good Times Are Killing Me ♣ [1]

Songs from:

≅ This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (1996)
∞ Interstate 8 (1996)
µ The Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
Ø The Moon & Antarctica (2000)
¥ Building Nothing Out of Something (2000)
⇔ Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks (2001)
♣ Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004)
ψ We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (2007)
§ No One’s First, and You’re Next (2009)
ℜ Strangers to Ourselves (2015)
© The Golden Casket (2021)