I saw Modest Mouse live 20 years ago today and published a review

My career as a music critic was extremely short — I only had a single article published, and it happened long, long ago. It was a review of a live rock show of the bands Les Savy Fav, Califone, and Modest Mouse. It took place 20 years ago today at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA.

I didn’t aspire to become a music writer. This was the only piece I wrote of this kind, and I did it because I was a huge fan of Modest Mouse. It was published in a local Boston newsprint magazine called Whats Up, which was created to help the homeless. The idea was to put out a fun and interesting magazine that appealed to young people, and to have the homeless sell the magazine on the street for $1.00 USD.

I remember hanging out in the Whats Up office at one point as a volunteer. The topic came up that they were looking for articles on music, and I mentioned that I was going to see Modest Mouse soon, and that I could write a review of the show. They told me to submit it, and everything worked out.

You can click on the image below to read the article in its natural form, a scan of the original pulpy newspaper print, or you can scroll down to the next section and a read a transcription in easier-to-read type. I’m happy to give this old article a second life. Thanks in advance for lending your eyeballs to it for a few minutes:

Modest Mouse

Sunday May 21st, 2000 Middle East Downstairs

Upon my arrival at this longtime sold out show, I only managed to catch the last minute and a half of the opening act Les Savy Fav. It was a minute and a half of energy, enthusiasm, pounding rock, and even a Casiotone beat, if I’m not mistaken. It was clear that I had missed out on a good set.

Califone was up next. They did a fine job sedating the growingly eager crowd with their dark blend of backcountry twang and deep reverberate rhythms. Some experimental keys and electrified banjo peppered their set. Closing with an upbeat cover of Brian Eno’s “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” was clearly an instrumental device to switch gears for the headliner.

The cheering for Modest Mouse started long before they took the stage. If you’re expecting the word ‘palpable’ to appear in the next sentence, you’re right on because the energy in the room was just that. This group has a reputation of performing either an intensely tight set of songs or a haggard, drunken cacophony of noise. It was clear that we were in store for the real thing.

Modest Mouse has the ability to take what may appear to sound like a simple set of chords, and play it with such an intricate dynamic that you realize it’s the most complex sound you’ve heard in a while. This strain carries through to the lyrics as well. Uncovering a simple thought and the profundity that lies therein. “And this is how the world began, and this is how the world will end.”

Some themes of the songs cut down to the very bare core of social ineptness and crushing depression. Ironically, I’m happy to report there was a collectively festive joy among the droves of fans that evening. This was no time to wallow. The band poured into their songs with a deft ability and devotion. Taking us from tranquil landscapes to pulsing emotion in the blink of a verse.

It was the tranquil soundscapes that I found most striking. In their titles the band often alludes to imagery of driving on interstates and the meditative qualities of the road. These hypnotic properties were visited again and again in the live set. In the instrumentation, you felt the percussive rattle of the asphalt, headlights and taillights trailed off in the darkness; you saw the road ahead and the violent skid marks left behind by less fortunate riders from the past. Or at least I felt these things, but I can’t speak for the drunk guy next to me who fell down so many times he got kicked out.

It was obvious the band was drawing upon material from their new album, The Moon & Antarctica, which wouldn’t be available until a good month after the show. But they managed to play a lot of familiar songs.

The reaction from the audience was about as bombastic as it gets in Boston. The group had clearly played as long as they legally could. They exited the stage, the house lights when up, and a juicy R&B groove faded up on the PA. A few dozed diehards persisted with hollering and applause. Over half the crowd had vacated and ten minutes had passed when the drummer took it upon himself to deliver the goods. He and a couple of members of the opening acts launched into an unamplified percussive jam much to the delight of the extremely unmousey troubadours who’d been yammering for so long. This carried on for seven or eight minutes. After sheepishly milling around, and a cigarette or two, guitarist/vocalist Isaac Brock finally picked up his guitar and fired up his amp and rocked it out for a bit.

A rock show had taken place. The drummer had twirled his sticks masterfully, everything the singer had said into the microphone between songs had been incomprehensible, and the band continued pleasing long after ‘The Man’ would have had them silenced. My faith in the art form had been fully reassured.

→ Back to future me again. This article ended up being my Boston swan song. I moved to New York City a month or two after it came out. What’s great is that I happened to have a conversation with someone I didn’t know before I left town, and after talking for a half hour or so Modest Mouse came up and I mentioned that I had written this article, and the person had read it and told me she really liked it. It was a cool moment. It’s nice how those little memories stick with you. I have no idea who the girl was, but I remember that.

I ended up buying a Les Savy Fav CD a year or two after I moved to NYC called Go Forth, and I listened to it all the time back then. It’s a good album that holds up well today. It’s funny, in the early 2000’s the delay effect on the electric guitars in their music stuck out like a sore thumb. No one was using that sound back then — it was like a statement. Now it sounds natural, normal, and nice. Just like East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys.

While my blog is briefly on the topic of the Boston music scene, I would just like to publicly say that seeing bands at the Middle East Downstairs sucks. It’s a long room with a very low ceiling, and because of that, the stage is stupidly low. Any band that’s worth seeing fills the venue with people, and the only things you can see from the crowd are the heads of the people in front of you, and the heads of the musicians facing you. I have so many memories of seeing amazing bands there, and all of my memories are of heads. Look at the photo in my review article. It’s bad because that’s all you get to see there. The biggest thing in the frame is the back of some guy’s head.

Please know that I feel bad saying negative things about the Middle East. My love for that place is so deep that I consider it part of my soul. As quacky as that sounds, it’s true. That club played a huge role in my life during the nine years I spent in Boston. Seeing bands at their smaller “Upstairs” venue was completely wonderful. You could see the band, their instruments, and even the drummer. The downstairs should have remained a bowling alley. Sorry! 🎳

Damn. 20 years. I’d happily go see Modest Mouse again if they came through my town. Everything in my life has changed since I wrote that article, but in lots of ways I’m exactly the same. I would never use the expression “dozed diehards” now, because that isn’t a recognized term and has zero meaning to anyone, but I’m fundamentally the same.

📷 Credit: I want to name the person who took the shot in my review, but they aren’t credited, so here’s the entire list of contributing photographers from the masthead: Naomi Ruth, Chad Fiutem, Adam Gibbons, Chuck Armsden, Shawn Gurczak, Debbie Farrell, and Jasper Friend. While we’re at it, I’d also like to thank Kier Byrnes, the Rock Editor at Whats Up, whose muster I apparently passed. 👍