cornershopstudios » Modest Mouse @ Metropolis

The issue with having a signature sound is that it’s hard to make it sound, well, different. However it seems Modest Mouse may just have a few aces up there sleeve when it comes to combating such concerns. Simply add an extra drummer, a wooden magical music box, oh, and if you can’t find Johnny Marr, just employ Grandaddy’s Jim Fairchild. But most importantly, whatever you do, DO NOT play the single that made you famous and is probably the reason that 95% of the Metropolis audience paid for the show. Isaac Brock, how very modest of you. While it was hardly a necessity, the double headed drummer certainly made Shit Luck and Paper Thin Walls pulsate and beat on like a brat, but overpowered and drowned the dreamy ice cream sandwich layers of songs like Dramamine which inevitably rely on the charm of dancing guitar melodies. Given the high volume of records Modest Mouse have released over the last decade or so, it doesn’t come as a shock that things would sometimes need to be shaken up, and at the end of the day whether you are a new fan or a veteran to the cause, this band has an overstuffed goodie bag of singles and personal favorites that any person at any given moment would only have to wait a few more songs to hear. We shouldn’t forget however, that this is a tour spurred from the release of the EP No One’s First, and You’re Next that upon closer inspection is really nothing more than an unspoken best of tour. Who better to do it without admitting it, but the best?

Heidi Greenwood