Concert Review: Modest Mouse, 3/02/09, at the Uptown

It’s hard to comprehend Modest Mouse‘s mass appeal. With a few notable exceptions, Seattle group’s songs are epically quirky, full of jerky guitar meanderings, odd time signatures, jolting and percussive rather than hooky or catchy. Singer, guitar player (one of several) and front man Isaac Brock’s voice is distinctively twangy, and rather than sing, he uses it to hector, bark and chant, like an especially gifted feral child asked by playground bullies, of whom he is not afraid, to justify his existence one pivotal day on the playground.

Curious though the group may be, most of the capacity crowd at the Uptown last night had unquestioning loyalty for the group, and the Mouse roared back with two drummers powering a crashing two-hour set and enough lighting action to guide a space shuttle home, though Brock’s performance all by himself was powerful enough to bring the Uptown’s gilded columns crashing down.

First of all, what’s new with the group? Good question. A rumor sprang up recently of a possible new EP. Other than that, the group’s latest release, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, is approaching it’s second birthday. For that album and subsequent touring, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr rather inexplicably joined the band, adding his stately, echoing guitar parts to the Mouse’s Rube Goldberg indie rock. To my mind, at the time, it was like Andy Summers joining Cake. To most folks, the group is still best known for its 2004 commercial hit, “Float On,” from Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which also contains the group’s possibly second-best-known single “Ocean Breathes Salty.” So, release-wise, the group’s not up to a lot. For this tour, Marr has been replaced by former Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairchild, who had to learn a fuckload of new and old songs.