CoolMom and I did our graduate school in Seattle. For some reason, it had always been a dream of mine to live in that city. Maybe it was a 90s thing. I don't know. Anyway, the fact that we both got accepted to the UW economics program made my dream a reality. We had a really nice five years out there, and Seattle is where we decided that we'd be sticking together forever.
Now, CoolMom is slightly more driven and focused than I am. After about three years, as she continued down the road toward her Ph.D., I settled for the masters degree and started working. My job was over on the "East Side," meaning that I commuted out of Seattle every day and drove across either the 520 or I-90 bridge towards the home of Bill Gates and Microsoft (I didn't work for Microsoft.). Traffic over those bridges, especially evening rush hour traffic, can be horrendous. I listened to the radio a lot.
Once I tired of sports radio, I began listening to KCMU, a public radio station operated out of the University of Washington that later evolved into the current KEXP (whose in-studio sessions I'm sure you've seen on YouTube). I distinctly remember hearing one evening as I drove across the I-90 bridge on my way home, "I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away," and thinking to myself, "What a great lyric. What a great song." The next day, I was poring over records on The Ave; and my love of Modest Mouse was born.
It's interesting that I got to see The Baseball Project with Peter Buck and Mike Mills in the same week that I got to see Modest Mouse. It isn't an exaggeration for me to say that what R.E.M. meant to me in terms of shifting my listening habits away from Classic to Alternative Rock, Modest Mouse meant to me in terms of shifting my listening habits away from the increasingly commercial Alt Rock towards what we now call Indie. The first three Modest Mouse albums -- This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, The Lonesome Crowded West, and The Moon and Antarctica -- are essential listening for any Indie Rock fan and three of my all-time favorites.
Last night was my first-ever opportunity to see Modest Mouse live, and they played selections from all of those records along with songs from their more commercially successful later albums and a few new songs, leading me to think that the long-promised new record could be on the horizon. First things first, though.
Not only would this be my first chance to see Modest Mouse, but it would also be my first trip to Starland Ballroom in Sayreville. I'm going to admit to feeling a curmudgeonly dread at the thought of the large GA-only venue for the whole day leading up to the show. As we streamed into the parking lot from Jernee Mill Rd. to pay our $7 parking fee, I didn't get a warm fuzzy about the place. My mind instantly went to the thought of how long it would take to get out of there after the show. The security / ID check line snaked around the dirt lot as we all filed into the venue. Security personnel kept things moving, though; and it really wasn't long before we were inside.
Starland has really done a magnificent job on its remodel. I hadn't been to the place before, but it's quite nice inside -- Isaac Brock called it, "beautiful" and "swell," I think. There was absolutely no indication that Sandy had submerged the place under 8 feet of water.
There are bars around the three stage-free sides of the building offering elevated views, and there's a relatively large "pit" area in front of the stage. Starland holds about 2500, and the show was sold out. The level of unpleasantness associated with 2500 bodies crammed into a space just big enough to hold them was about what you'd expect; and security were busy all night dealing with crowd surfers, drunks, and I think at least one fight. The tallest people in the venue, as usual, managed to locate CoolMom and me so that they could plant themselves right in front of us for most of the night.
We stood on the floor for the opening set by Portland, Oregon's Mimicking Birds. Their sound is kind of calm and soothing. Their stage presence is unassuming. It was a laid-back set of fingerpicking and dreamy, ethereal sounds. A real contrast to what was to come.
CoolMom and I moved around to one of the bars along the side of the stage, figuring we could get a better view. I stood, a little miffed and uncomfortable, as Modest Mouse started their set with "Cowboy Dan." Isaac Brock set up right behind a large speaker tower and was just a disembodied voice to me for the first few songs. I can tell I'm getting old. If things aren't exactly the way I like them, I start to get annoyed. My mood softened with "Dark Center of the Universe" and "Dramamine." About a quarter of the way through the set, CoolMom and I got some relatively acceptable positioning; and I began to really get into the groove of things. I think it was maybe around "Fire It Up" when I was finally loosened up.
We kept inching to better and better vantage points until we had a really good view from behind the bar. "Spitting Venom." "Shit Luck." When Isaac Brock strummed the first strains of "Trailer Trash," I kind of lost it a little bit (on the inside) and just went with the flow of one of my all-time favorite songs. That was the end of the main set.
After a longish break, the band came back for a four-song encore that consisted of "Heart Cooks Brain," "The World at Large," "Paper Thin Walls," and "The Good Times Are Killing Me." So great. It was at this point that Brock sincerely complimented Starland; and, I'm not sure if it was the music or because some people had left to beat the traffic, even I was a little more comfortable.
It was a pretty eclectic set, and the later, poppier songs translated well to the live setting. There were some conspicuous (and disappointing) omissions: "3rd Planet," "Gravity Rides Everything," "Bankrupt on Selling," and "Polar Opposites" (the one about drinking the day away). I'll just have to hope, I guess, that Modest Mouse come around this way again if they tour for a new album.
Once again, security did a nice job, getting everyone out of the venue and out of the parking lot in an orderly fashion. CoolMom and I had separate cars, so I drove home alone. The Jets had a preseason game last night, so I threw on sports radio to hear how that went. I got tired of the gabbing, though, and put on "Polar Opposites" by Modest Mouse.
"I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away."
Here's what I could do for pics.
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