Comments on: The National, Modest Mouse pre-R.E.M.

By: Stevel

Stevel — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:09:04 +0000

I agree with Erik. I came to see Modest Mouse and left wondering if I’ll ever want to see them play again. This “period” they’re in reminds me a lot of how great bands got lost in the muddled and drugged 80s. Isaac’s supposedly quick heavy drugs, but maybe he needs to pop a few pills and cut the dead weight (the extra three members of the band). That had to be - bar none - the band’s lowpoint. A stale, tired set barely got my knee tapping (Paper-thin Walls was the tapping). Johnny Marr struck me as “prince-like” note the lower-case p. He prances and skips around, strumming every now and then, seemingly waiting to collect his paycheck. For me - a major fan - the jig is up, and the joke (I hope) will be over soon. It’s completely laughable.
The National, however, blew me away. I did not dig their stuff before but - Wow. What a closing triumvirate of songs.

By: Erik T.

Erik T. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:38:27 +0000

My review of the show, with blurry pics and vids is here

wordstosell.vox.com

Check it out if you are interested. Cheers.

By: Erik T.

Erik T. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:28:37 +0000

Wow, Chris, I had the completely opposite thoughts about the openers. I felt the National really stepped up to the challenge of playing a nearly empty arena and filled that place with their sound, earnestness, and energy, while Modest Mouse was just going through the motions of a set has become all too familiar over their recent tours. Even ‘Truckers Atlas’ was a truncated mess, and I love that song. It just seemed like a real by-the-numbers performance, with little to no energy conveyed to the audience. I agree with Kyle, being close like that (I was 6th row) really helped for The National’s performance-it made it seem like less of an arena show, and they sounded clear and confident, and hopefully got a lot of new fans from the night. MM in my opinion, played like they didn’t want to (or weren’t ready to) play an arena, and their odd setlist didn’t help either-playing ‘Wild Pack Of Family Dogs’ over ‘Float On (which was what perhaps half of the audience knew them for) or even ‘Ocean Breathes Salty’ was an odd choice. I did like to see Johnny play organ (or keyboard, whatever that was) for ‘The Good Times Are Killing Me.’ That was sweet.

By: alphabetsoup

alphabetsoup — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:44:31 +0000

MM tunes lef out of C.R.’s playlist:
first ?? = wild pack of family dogs
second ?? = paper thin walls

yeah, venemous as Isaac et. al. is all about, but playlist did lack the rich texture of sounds i love this band for.

By: solace

solace — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:01:13 +0000

i thought the National sounded just fine all things considered and handled the large room quite well (especially for their first arena show). then again i was also standing 4th row for their set, so that certainly helped.

their set was easily the highlight of the night for me

MM were better than usual, but the setlist did lack (not because they skipped Float On), but because it was almost strictly from their last 2 albums, which aren’t even remotely near their best, especially last years album.

By: Nagel

Nagel — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:09:10 +0000

I was at the soundcheck, and I saw them do You Are My Everything twice.

Did they play it at the show? I’m dying to know.