Modest Mouse Delivered More Than Nostalgia: Review

I first listened to Modest Mouse in 2008, in my family’s old, beat-up Acura that still had a cigarette lighter in it. My friend had burned me a couple CDs from the band’s discography, with the album titles scrawled in sloppy black Sharpie: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank and Good News For People Who Love Bad News. It was fall in the DMV; leaves were bright orange and red against the sky, and I remember looking at them while listening to “Dashboard” for the first time.

It’s rare to remember the exact moments you first hear music — more ordinarily, there are vague memories attached to them: long blunt rides, summer days at the beach or pool, sprawling on a grassy field in autumn — but something about Modest Mouse stuck. And on October 1 at Mission Ballroom, decades later, the band proved it still makes moments unforgettable, delivering a performance that unearthed deep wellsprings of nostalgia.

Built to Spill opened the evening with its signature melodic and melancholy tunes, before Modest Mouse kicked off its set with “3rd Planet.” As frontman Isaac Brock belted out the song with his powerful vocals, it set the tone for a setlist of existentialism — just what you would expect from a band that named itself for a Virginia Woolf passage. As Brock began to play the opening chords for “Gravity Rides Everything,” memories associated with the music seemed to swirl around as the lyrics reminded you: In the motions and the things that you say / It all will fall, fall right into place / As fruit drops, flesh it sags / Everything will fall right into place / When we die, some sink and some lay / But at least I don’t see you float away

The band has always set a high bar lyrically, painting pictures of every corner of life, from the worst to the best and all in between. And each song drove you further into reminiscence while strangely staying fully in the present. It wasn’t just the lyricism, but the sonics: Modest Mouse brings moments of heavy improv in the live setting that are wholly cathartic. After “Dark Center of the Universe,” the band went into an intense jam that even saw Brock sawing at his guitar with his teeth in a Jimi Hendrix move.

Across the set, which included more favorites such as “Wild Packs of Family Dogs” and “I Came as a Rat,” Modest Mouse poured its all into the music as fans sang along to each song. The venue was overflowing with nostalgia, couples swaying with one another, friends exchanging smiles and hugs. And there were laughs, too: The only time Brock spoke was to tell the audience about a YouTube video he watched about how putting Q-tips in kimchi and then inserting them in your nostrils will help your sinuses.

The bizarre non-sequitur is as much a reflection of the band’s ethos as its poignant lyricism. Modest Mouse has always underscored the paradoxes of life in an impactful way. The set at the Mission showed just how that impact still resonates.

See more photos from the show below: