I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2024] Modest Mouse 

At the end of 2022, I saw Modest Mouse play their album The Lonesome Crowded West.  It was the last show I saw in 2022 and it was great.

I often think that I don’t need to see Modest Mouse again, and yet when they announced a tour in which they played all of Good News for People Who Love Bad News, I knew I’d be going to that show.  I have now seen Modest Mouse 7 times.  I have only seen 4 artists more (and a couple the same amount).  [I did not go to any of their shows where they played with Pixies, even though that’s a killer lineup].

In 2022, I arrived late (I didn’t want to see the opening band) and wound up really far back.  But this time I got there early enough to get close to the stage without being in the front, exactly.   I really like Modest Mouse, but I really don’t like about half of the Modest Mouse fanboy club.  

My last post included a quote from Holly Hazelwood, which I am excerpting even more here

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.

Tonight’s crowd didn’t have too many of these bros, although, amusingly the jackasses who pushed their way in front of us were all wearing baseball hats.  There is a lot of screaming along with Modest Mouse, and fair enough, that’s how the songs go.  But overall, I wasn’t terribly annoyed by the crowd this time.  And the two people in front of me were clearly huge fans of the album and were cool about it!

I’m intrigued to see that I have seen many songs from this album 4 times now.  Modest Mouse tends to mix up their setlists quite a bit, but I guess this album gets a lot of airplay.

The crowd was thrilled when  they played Float On, and Isaac said that this was the happiest he’d ever been playing that song (and he wasn’t pandering, he said).

But I was shocked to see that they had never played Ocean Breathes Salty, clearly a fan favorite given how many people sang along.  The crowd went nuts for Bury Me with It (it is fun to shout these lyrics). 

When the played Dance Hall, I was especially excited as  it’s an unusual song.  There’s another song that they have that sounds a bit like it, so on several occasions I though they were playing Dance Hall but it was actually something else. So I was happy to actually hear it this time.

After the interlude (Milo) which was played on an old pump organ, they played Blame It on the Tetons, a song I was sure I had heard them play before, but hadn’t.  I don’t usually like their slower songs, but I’ve always enjoyed this one.

For the second set (which was seven songs), they opened with one of my favorite songs, “Dark Center of the Universe” (well it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am) and then they played a whole bunch of songs from a 2009 EP that I didn’t know.  

That’s not exactly true.  I know (and love) Satellite Skin, but I don’t think I’ve listened to the EP all that much, so I’m not sure why it was so familiar.  I didn’t recognize Guilty Coker Spaniels.  I sort of recognized “The Whale Song” and didn’t recognize “History Sticks to Your Feet.”  The takeaway is that you have to listen to all of the Modest Mouse albums if you want to be prepared for a live show.

They ended the second set with two live favorites, King Rat (with horn and banjo–it’s always great to see Isaac play banjo) and Gravity Rides Everything.  

The band this time was the same six piece as in 2021 except for drummer Jeremiah Green who died in 2022.  So the line up was guitarist Simon O’Connor, Tom Peloso on keys and horn and upright bass.  Bassist Russell Higbee played that old organ and a horn or two.  Damon Cox replaced Green on the drums and perhaps my favorite band member, percussionist Ben Massarella seemed to have even more things to make noise with.

I assumed they were done, but after a few minutes they came back out for an encore (as if the previous seven song “encore” didn’t count.  Isaac thanked everyone for inviting them back up to play more songs and began with what I assume is a new song, “Third Side of the Moon.”  And then ended with “Paper Thin Walls,” another fan favorite.

It was a terrific show and it sounds lie they’re working on new music, which means another tour in the future.  And I think I’ll be there.

 

Fillmore Philly, 2024	Fillmore Philly, 2022 [Lonesome Crowded West Tour]	The Met Philadelphia, 2021
Good News For People Who Love Bad News [full album]	Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine µ	Dramamine ≅ [4]
The World at Large ♣ [4]	Heart Cooks Brain µ [3]	Back to the Middle ©
Float On ♣ [4]	Convenient Parking µ	Cowboy Dan µ [2]
Ocean Breathes Salty ♣	Lounge (Closing Time) µ	Bury Me with It ♣ [3]
Dig Your Grave ♣	Jesus Christ was an Only Child µ	Wooden Soldiers ©
Bury Me with It ♣ [4]	Doin’ the Cockroach µ [2]	Gravity Rides Everything Ø [3]
Dance Hall ♣	Cowboy Dan (extended outro) µ [3]	Leave a Light On ©
Bukowski ♣ [4]	Trailer Trash (Perpetual Motion Machine tease) µ [2]	Satin In A Coffin ♣ [3]
This Devil’s Workday ♣ [4]	Out of Gas µ [3]	King Rat § [3]
The View ♣ [2]	Long Distance Drunk µ	Shit In Your Cut ℜ [3]
Satin In A Coffin ♣ [4]	Shit Luck µ  [2]	Float On ♣ [3]
Interlude (Milo) ♣	Trucker’s Atlas µ	Paper Thin Walls Ø [3]
Blame It on the Tetons ♣	Polar Opposites µ	We Are Between ©
Black Cadillacs ♣ [3]	Bankrupt on Selling µ [2]	We’re Lucky ©
One Chance  ♣	Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright µ [3]	I Came as a Rat Ø [3]
The Good Times Are Killing Me ♣ [3]	encore	encore
set two	Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive Negative) ∞ [2]	Fuck Your Acid Trip ©
Dark Center Of The Universe Ø [2]	Edit the Sad Parts ∞	Fire It Up ψ [2]
Satellite Skin § [2]	Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (The Flaming Lips cover)	The Ground Walks, With Time in a Box ℜ [4]
Guilty Cocker Spaniels §	Breakthrough ≅  [2] (asked crowd prior, ” Breakthrough or Grey Ice Water”, Extended outro)	Broke ∞
The Whale Song §		Bukowski ♣ [3]
History Sticks to Your Feet §
King Rat § [4]
Gravity Rides Everything Ø [4]
encore
Third Side of the Moon [new]
Paper Thin Walls Ø [4]

 

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)