Modest Mouse with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Friday, June 23, 2008
The Fillmore, Miami Beach
Better Than: The mental meltdown scribbling in your seventh-grade diary.
Modest Mouse and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band kicked off their North American tour together last night to a packed, enthusiastic audience at the Fillmore Miami Beach. Modest Mouse already had an impressive warm-up opportunity of their own, having just wrapped up a U.S. tour with R.E.M., but this evening marked the first date of their latest headlining stint.
New Orleans’ the Dirty Dozen Brass Band shook up the scene with their striking and massive improv-jazz sounds. The crowd was completely enthralled with the noises coming from this eight-piece unit, which included saxophones, guitars, drums, trumpets and a trombone. Having performed on two tracks of Modest Mouse’s 2004 album Good News For People Who Love Bad News, and recorded and toured with bands like Widespread Panic, these guys were a logical choice for a support act. Probably one of the most impressive sites was when trumpet player and singer Gregory Davis managed to play two horns simultaneously. Theirs was probably one of the best sounding bands I’ve ever seen at the Fillmore, and this audience seemed to also appreciate the group’s more than 30 years of experience and talent.
After quite a lengthy pause, the quirky Washington-based Modest Mouse finally took the stage. It was apparent from the get-go that they were performing to an audience of diehard fans. Modest Mouse has earned a huge following with their heavily staccato-based music about booze, loneliness and the afterlife, among other heady, often cynical or dark, topics.
Every song selection tonight was met with a whole-hearted sing-along from fans. This crowd of mostly 18-to-30-somethings was clearly well-versed in the Modest Mouse repertoire—a surprising, but encouraging scene in our not-so-indie-oriented South Florida, especially since Modest Mouse only began to enjoy commercial success in 2003. This is a band that would usually be reserved for a small hipster portion of our population, but it has apparently reached a larger demographic. Tonight’s performance was also Modest Mouse’s first South Florida appearance since their 2006 Bang appearance, which I didn’t see, but was apparently cut short.
Front man Isaac Brock kept conversation between songs minimal, and when he did speak his voice seemed muffled by the theater’s speakers, making it hard to decipher. This didn’t really seem to matter to fans anyway. Everyone was more interested in just hearing the songs, which included a range of selections from Modest Mouse’s five-album catalog, dating as far back as 1996’s This Is A Long Drive for Someone with Nothing To Think About, but the set was most focused on picks from their 2007 fifth studio album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
One of the most talked-about aspects of the latest release is the inclusion of former Smith’s guitarist Johnny Marr. Marr helped write and record We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, and worked so well with the band that he decided to tour with them. A few of tonight’s onlookers said they were just as thrilled to see Marr as Modest Mouse. Marr may have been a major distraction for some, but I found the two percussionists most entertaining as they moved together with perfect precision on separate drum kits.
In technical terms the show went over without a hitch. Some of the set list inclusions from We Were Dead… were “Parting of the Sensory,” “Education,” “Missed the Boat,” “Invisible” and the hit single “Dashboard,” during which the entire venue went wild dancing and singing. The band tore through other favorites like “Cowboy Dan” and “Doin’ the Cockroach” from 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West, before offering an encore of “Float On,” “Bury Me With It” and “Dramamine.”
Overall, Modest Mouse chose a well-rounded bundle of songs—enough for casual fans, but more for the hardcore devotees and whether these listeners were cynical head cases or not, I don’t think this performance couldn’t be contested by either group.
Critic’s Notebook:
Personal Bias: I have only seen Modest Mouse in a shorter-set festival line-up situation until now, so it was impressive to see the band perform a longer set of both rarities and radio hits.
Random Detail: The band’s name is derived from a Virginia Woolf passage.
By the Way: Check for a complete set list and other random notes at the Modest Mouse fan site www.interstate-8.com.
– Monica Cady
"It was apparent from the get-go that they were performing to an audience of diehard fans."
"This crowd of mostly 18-to-30-somethings was clearly well-versed in the Modest Mouse repertoire—a surprising, but encouraging scene in our not-so-indie-oriented South Florida, especially since Modest Mouse only began to enjoy commercial success in 2003."
Seriously, what are you talking about? Did you even go to the show, or did you just steal a set-list from an underage hipster chick afterwards? I was lucky enough to be in the pit (missed the orchestra), and realized that a good two thirds of the people in front of me just stood there. There was a couple in front of me who had obviously never heard Modest Mouse except for the single "Float On," and they looked as if they were in utter pain (the girl actually had her hands clamped to her ears for a good portion of the show). When I happened to glance backwards, I was dumbfounded. A solid 3/4 of the audience just sat on their asses. This is pretty much only the second Modest Mouse show in South Florida (not counting that Bang mess), and these people couldn't get the fuck up?
Please, it's no wonder why bands don't bother with South Florida. Our very own "hipster demographic" (ugh) obviously cares so little about music, and expresses this ambivalence at every turn. Sure a band might get enough ticket sales to make the jaunt down here close to reasonably profitable, but when their audience insults them by just sitting there, I can't blame them for skipping Miami.
And you don't help the situation at all by giving kudos to these "fans." It's publications like the New Times (it's a shame any decent zine wouldn't stand a chance in this town, unless of course it had backing from Hot Topic, Club Space, or those Miami Ink Hacks) that need to raise awareness about the abysmal state of music in this city, and call a spade a spade. A shitty audience is just that; you have no need to cover for them, unless LiveNation is throwing you a few bucks...
The one thing that I did love, however, was that immediately following the show, these "diehard fans" all rushed the merch table. Because, hell, though I can't know the band, I sure want everyone to know I dropped fifty bucks on this hoody at their show last night.
Shit.
Posted at: June 26, 2008 5:48 PM