Modest Mouse played Webster Hall this month, earning the lead Rolling Stone live review. Check out the review below, and tell us what you thought.
At various times during Modest Mouse’s Wednesday-night set, frontman Isaac Brock rolled around the stage, bantered about his upcoming birthday and amped up his cracked croons while rarely straying off-key or getting sloppy. But Brock’s bizarro charisma was only half the story. This was the first time most in the audience had seen Modest Mouse with recently added ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who’s gigging with the band after helping to write and record the follow-up to its 2004 platinum breakthrough. And though it may just have been a hot night, the show suggested that Modest Mouse seem to have their shit more together than ever.
Typical Modest Mouse material — catchy, tightly wound art-punk songs marked by Brock’s distinctive voice — often gets messy onstage. But having added Marr and a second drummer, Modest Mouse sounded big and cohesive most of the evening. As they bounced through stellar oldies, solid new songs and some (not-so-tight) jams, Marr barely moved a muscle, subtly beefing up the guitar attack and playing a centered counterpoint to Brock’s oddball shaman.
Older stuff like “Breakthrough” and the bluegrass-on-crack “Bukowski” drew huge cheers. Discounting Marr’s fluid guitar, the five new songs didn’t sound terribly different from earlier material, but they did sound promising. On “Fire It Up,” Marr answered Brock’s agitated croon with some sweet murmurs. “Dashboard” was the standout: Alongside Marr’s ice-pick guitar, Brock delivered a sharp tune before grabbing the mike with both hands and raging his way through a top-notch refrain.
Midway through the show, the group got adventurous, turning out extended improvs that sometimes got dull. “World at Large” included a noise rave-up and a quieter keyboard-driven section, then built its way back to feral as Brock shouted some off-the-cuff, barely decipherable lyrics. The hottest jam came on “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes,” the band generating rough-hewn noise and a shimmering breakdown, as Brock screamed lyrics through his guitar pickup, dropped to his knees and traded soaring solos with Marr. “Are y’all OK?” said Brock near the end of the show. “I don’t ask because I care, I ask because I’m insecure.” Probably true, but Brock has less reason than ever to feel that way.
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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