Modest Mouse - 8/7/04 - Avalon, Boston, MA
I'm a bit confused. I followed the universal rules o'show attendance and I timed things just so. It opened at seven, there were two openers... According to the universal concert norm, Modest Mouse should be preparing to get on stage when I enter the venue. They should not, not, be already playing.
I realize these are the risks you take when you try to miss the openers, but. But. I'm sulking a bit. Only a bit.
I throw myself into the melee, borrow through the wall of people-- really, it's never as densely packed on the floor as it is behind the steps down to the floor. Move in people, move in! I find myself a spot, I skip the customary "vanil and coke with a cherry, please" indulgence and direct my attetntion onto the stage. I need to catch up, fast.
But, okay, where did all these hippies come from? I'm surrounded by people who are clearly more accustomed to wafting in circular motions on grassy concert fields than packing into clubs and dancing in little pencil shaped spaces.
There's a guy next to me doing something that looks like a combination between the traditional dance of the stoned and the ska show's skank, with little raver-esq arm wriggles thrown in. "Where my peeps as?!" I cry mentally and edge myself closer towards the guy on my left. He's just nodding his head to the music, hands in his pockets, and seems much safer.
The show isn't really holding my attention either. I know I'm overly fond of bouncy songs, but everything is so painfully mellow. It's a little too Phish-like for me. And this band is certainly not Phish. One of the things I enjoy the most in Modest Mouse songs is the way they blend a line of careful, delicate noise, with a harsh and rough guitar or a raspy vocal. But here, live, it's sounding like they haven't really worked on maintaining the delicate bits in the live show. Actually, it doesn't really sound like they've spent much time prepping their live show at all. The songs are rougher, messier, and the contrasting effects as well as the sense of thought and care their songs convey, is lost.
It's a shame. Their loud moments need to have those little threads of quiet and melody to complete them. Without, the rough patches don't sound like contrast, they sound clumsy. The whole live show doesn't feel particularly prepared or polished. I feel a bit like I'm watching a practice session for the show, or a quick afternoon jam. The songs don't flow all that well form one to the other, the moods created aren't really well balanced. It's okay, but it's all just okay.
When they announce the last song (pre-obligatory encore, of course) I clap the required amount and even throw out a "whoo" or two for good measure, but I know I'm doing it more in an attempt to make myself believe I'm having a rockin' good time. The best thing about the encore is that Issac dons a lovely pair of large butterfly wings.
Less than an hour after I arrived I'm heading home. Later, through the grapevine, I hear that the doors opened at six or six thirty and someone went on at six thirty, not seven. Maybe I missed the change, who knows. Sadly, I'm not sure getting to see those fifteen or twenty minutes I missed would really have made the show any better.
Oh Modest Mouse, where have you gone and who replaced you while we weren't looking?
