here's my thoughts on the show last night, in case anyone's interested.
first of all, i hope modest mouse never plays in providence again (according
to isaac, it was the first time they'd ever been there), unless they preceed
it or follow it up with a boston show. i think there were about 3 people
there who were actually from RI, while the rest seemed to be from boston and
the surrounding area. i saw pretty much every person i nornmally see at
boston shows anyways. lupo's is a cool place though, so whatever... i'll do
what i have to to see modest mouse.
so the doors opened @ 8:00 and i got to lupo's around 7:15. there was
already a good sized crowd waiting outside, including these two dicks who
were running around screaming at the tops of their lungs, trying to impress
everyone. if either of those two are on this list: i hope you get the living
shit beat out of you someday. i heard a couple people in line saying that
they were on this list, but felt too dorky about it to approach anyone they
thought might also be on here. oh well, i feel the same way.
doors opened and i got a place right up front. they had this really weird
music playing through the club's sound system; like this four-on-the-floor
dance beat that never went anywhere. around 9:00, the shins came out and
started playing right away. the first song they played was cool, but then
they just played it again like 7 more times, so it got pretty boring. next
up was 764-HERO, who i had never seen or heard before. they were okay, but
pretty run-of-the-mill. the singer looked very similar to isaac, which was
weird.
764-HERO exits and the mice start setting up. isaac was setting up his
peddles and noticed the weird music; "i keep waiting for the song to start".
i was pretty impressed with how quick they set up and started. not much more
than 10-15 minutes between 764-HERO stopping and Modest Mouse starting. they
opened with 3rd planted. not much to it, but still cool. trucker's atlas was
next. i really was hoping they wouldn't play that because i knew it was a
long song in the vein of cowboy dan or doing the cockroach, and i don't like
it. it wasn't too bad though. i don't remember the order of the rest of the
songs, but they included:
dark center of the universe - not as good as i hoped it would be live, but
still good. the huge booming drum during the openeing ("iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
might...") was really cool.
alone down there - same deal; not as intense as i hoped it would be, and
really short.
lives - i like this song alot, but live it sucked. isaac is a good guitarist
and all, but even he can't make a guitar properly emulate a string section.
it just sounded like a mess. you couldn't hear any melody.
teeth like god's shoeshine - i really wanted to hear this, so i was psyched
when they did. it was really good, except that they didn't do the part after
the second "here's the man with teeth like god's shoeshine". the part where
there's a pause, like the song's ending but then it does a "DUMM DUMM DUMM
DUMM" and launches back into the heavy part. i was all ready to go nuts at
that part, but when it just ended on the soft part... no climax. it was
kinda like your mom walking in on you while you're masturbasting, if you
know what i mean.
the waydown - this is such a weak song, and it's no better live.
doin the cockroach/cowboy dan - these seemed a little shorter than they were
at the last show i was at. not quite as epic, but still good. alot more
pickup screaming than before.
trailer trash - i'll never tire of hearing this song live. it's not the
best, but it's timeless and always fun to sing along to.
- encore -
all nite diner - i wanted nothing more than for therm to play this live, so
when they started, i just couldn't stop grinning. it was just fucking
awesome.
tiny cities made of ash - i had no desire to hear this, my least favorite
song on the new album, but it turned out to be the high point of the show. i
mean, it just fucked shit up. it was so goddamn good, and being the last
song, left me with a really good impression of the show.
isaac seemed to be in a good mood. he was pretty chatty. he kept going on
about how weird providence is. apparently it was the first time he'd ever
been there at all in his life, and he kept saying it's a "witch town",
whatever the fuck that means. he was saying some other pointless stuff about
people in the audience, but i couldn't understand him.
so that's it. a great show. not as much fun as the boston show earlier this
year, but only because that was my first mm show, so it was such a thrill.
and i didn't have a hot girl hanging on me at this show, like i unexplicably
did at the boston one.
here's the major problem though; modest mouse really needs to work on their
setlists. too little variety, and too much reliance on a couple old songs. i
mean, for two shows, five months apart, the setlists were 75% the same. they
have so many songs that would be awesome live, but they never play them. i
mean, just from TIALDFSWNTTA head south, beach side property, novacain
stain, ohio would all be great live. people requested dukes up and shit
luck, which would also be cool. i'd love them to do the fruit that ate
itself, but somehow i don't see that happening. i also think it's time to
retire cowboy dan and doin the cockroach; they're cool songs and they're
mind-blowing live, but it seems like the band relies too much on them as
time-killers and centerpieces of the show. i would have loved to hear this
20 minute i came as a rat that i've heard about, and i would think dark
center of the universe could be banged around and made even better live.
some covers would be cool too.
oh well, modest mouse can do whatever they want.
