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Post by dogfighter28 on May 7, 2007 21:59:39 GMT -5
May 6 at BJCC in Birmingham, Alabama
Overall the Modest Mouse show at BJCC was good. Opening act Love as Laughter were pretty bland, though they did remind me of a less interesting Meat Puppets, so good for them. They kept bitching at the crowd for not standing up, which was not cool. You have to earn that right to get crunk with the crowd...which brings me to the second act, Man Man. What an amazing band. The best way I can describe them is this: imagine Tom Waits and Frank Zappa taking a trip to the middle east and bringing back 5 Saudi Arabian musicians with primitive drums. Add a dose of jazz and good ol' rock n roll, and you have Man Man. I'd never heard of them before, but sheesh, they brought the house down.
They are definitely strange, but the amount of energy they emanated attracted the attention of everyone, even the people that were there solely to hear "Float On". The lead singer was jumping off his stool, throwing water everywhere, singing his heart out, banging on the piano, beating everything in sight with a drum stick, and generally being awesome. The rest of the band was TIGHT, keeping tribal grooves with saxophones, drums, trumpets, strange flutes, and guitars. The highlight of the night was one song where every band member beat some sort of percussive instrument for about 3 minutes, and then the song completely fell apart, revealing a delicate melody which built to an excellent climax. Don't miss this band, please.
Modest Mouse then took about an hour to come out and play, but when they did, the crowd went bonkers. Isaac Brock and Johnny Marr just ooze COOL. They launched into "Paper Thin Walls", which had everyone creaming their pants right where they stood. Unfortunately, this was the best part of their set. The entire first half of their show was very good and energetic. Brock exchanged some words with the crowd: "To all you guys with the "Night on the Sun" banner... look... um... I don't want to be an asshole about it, but the band really doesn't know how to play it at this point!".
Where the band tremendously failed was in their extended jam sessions during "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" and "Trailer Trash". This was very surprising, as I was anxious to see these two songs in particular performed. Actually, it really wasn't the bands' fault - it was the sound crew. Whenever Isaac would violently attack his guitar strings, as he is wont to do, a wave of hissing feedback would attack the crowd. The bass was barely audible during "Tiny Cities...", which is a horrible sin. The most kinetic moment of the night happened during one part of that song, however, when Isaac and the crowd maniacally, unstoppably shouted the refrain: "Does anybody know a WAY that a body COULD GET AWAY???"
The heartbreaking climax of "Trailer Trash" sounded like a soundcheck gone wrong due to the sound issues, which was a crushing letdown. To have such a beautiful song tainted by technical problems is unforgivable. Not to mention, a bunch of mexican people were GRINDING during this song in front of me. Ironic, huh? Mexicans grinding during trailer trash. I'm pretty sure they all left at one point to go have sex or something, cause the guys all sat down and looked spent when they came back to the show. Some more tomfoolery went on during "Doin' the Cockroach", when two hooligans with dreadlocks bounded up onto the stage and danced around while the band jammed out. Once more, during the fantastic encore, "Spitting Venom", a dead ringer for Eminem jumped up into the spotlight and pumped his arms in the air.
Other things of note: Tom Pelosi's vocals in "We've Got Everything" were so bad they were hilarious. Please don't play this song without James Mercer, and if you do, don't have someone else do his vocals. Surprisingly, the recent songs were the best, with "Dashboard" and "Florida" pumping the crowd immensely with some tight playing from the band, and "Bukowski" and "The View" from Good News for People Who Love Bad News were both mindblowingly great. "Spitting Venom" was a great way to close the night, and it never seemed to end. From the opening chords, to the triumphant trumpet, to the relentless coda, this song is a wonder to behold live. Also, Brock was smoking a cigarette and singing at the same time near the end of the song, which is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. You could see puffs of smoke rising into the light show as all hell broke loose.
Overall, I give this show three stars out of five. Love as Laughter were forgettable, but Man Man made of for this with their one-of-a-kind show, which was easily the coolest live performance I've ever seen. Modest Mouse played well, but their lackluster setlist and short performance time were a huge dissapointment. When I pay 30 bucks to see a band, I want them to play for more than an hour and a half. If you're having doubts about seeing this band on tour, I'd say go, because Brock is very fun to watch do his vocal freakouts and spazz guitar solos, and Johnny Marr has made the band much tighter in a live setting. Just don't be surprised when they stop playing right when you are getting into it.
Setlist: ..>..>..>..>..>..> Paper Thin Walls We've Got Everything Dashboard Florida Fire It Up Bukowski Float On Fly Trapped In A Jar Education Trailer Trash (Extended) Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes > Lucky Me Again (Lyric Tease) Missed The Boat Doin' The Cockroach Little Motel The View
Man Man is great live. Went through a bit of a phase where I listened to all their stuff last year.
But then I revisited Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa and I realized the plain and simple truth. As entertaining as Man Man is, I cannot say they have ever written a single worthwhile song...ever.
If there were ever a band out there that I would want to see cover Trout Mask Replica front to back, it's Man Man. But as good as they were live, I'm not sure I could sit through them again and not notice I don't think they write very good songs.
Post by melikecheese on May 9, 2007 14:01:23 GMT -5
How did the crowd react to Man Man? Personally I thought it was an odd choice as an opener and pictured a lot of Modest Mouse fans having a WTF moment while Man Man was playing.
Post by dogfighter28 on May 9, 2007 14:20:13 GMT -5
At first people were very curious and everyone was up buying drinks and not paying attention, but as they got crazier and crazier people actually stood up and started dancing, they got a lot of applause and screaming.
Post by jimmyjames420 on May 10, 2007 11:21:04 GMT -5
I saw a leg of this tour in Rochester, NY... I agree with you about Love as Laughter, as they just werent doing it for me, even though I liked some songs from one of their cds...
Man Man was cool, I could see them playing Bonnaroo next year...
As far as Modest Mouse goes, that setlist looks pretty dank... They didnt play Spitting Venom or We've Got Everything when I saw them, and I would have loved WGE just the same even if Peloso (an ex- Hackensaw Boys member) butchered the vocals... haha. The Hackensaws are my boys, so its great for me to see Tom in Modest Mouse...
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio." -Hunter S. Thompson
Post by woodenindiandance on May 11, 2007 1:11:00 GMT -5
Ok so I am still freaking out because I was the one who got Isaac to play Cowboy Dan last night! For some reason he stopped in the middle of We've got Everything and I just started screaming COWBOY DAN...he looked straight at me and said Cowboy Dan? Seriously? and I said Cowboy Dan and he said we haven't even finished this song. Long story short...Cowboy Dan was played by the end of the night! Not only did they play Breakthrough but also half of I came as a Rat. It was completely nuts...Isaac was screaming in his pickups just like the old times and even played the guitar with his feet! I also go to meet both Isaac and Johnny. I thanked him for playing Cowboy Dan and he was like yeah we hadn't played that in a really long time. Johnny was super super nice...
i'm going where the sun keeps shining, thru' the pouring rain, going where the weather suits my clothes. backing off of the north east wind, sailing on summer breeze, and skipping over the ocean like a stone.
