In 1929, Virginia Woolf wrote, “I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises. They are not thoughts directly praising oneself; that is the beauty of them.”
Unbeknownst to Woolf, this was the beginning of the darkly comical, idiosyncratic, Grammy-nominated indie-alt-rock group Modest Mouse.
The nomination came in 2004 for Good News For People Who Love Bad News — a truly landmark album that verified its status 20 years later, when the band decided to celebrate by playing it live, front to back, 21 times. Lucky for us, one of those performances happened in Milwaukee at the Riverside Theater.
A concert in two acts
The first hour of Wednesday’s show was reserved for that sequential performance of all 16 songs from GNFPWLBN. All the heavy hitters were there: “Ocean Breathes Salty,” “The World at Large” and, of course, “Float On.” A transformation from his popsicle-patterned tee at their Summerfest performance in 2022, frontman Isaac Brock dressed to the nines in a pale blue suit and orange knit beanie. The band was at home and in their element.
A 20-year relationship with these tracks made them more a part of the players on stage than a projection of them. As the last one rang out across the theater, “The Good Times Are Killing Me” seemed like a sentiment that hit home for Brock, the band and even the crew. It seemed an appropriate finisher.
But, you know what they say: “Nothing good happens before 10:30 p.m.”
After a brief intermission, the Brock beanie came off — flew off, actually, during “The Whale Song,” which introduced the eight-song second act of the evening. Spanning 21 years, the tracks pulled from The Moon & Antarctica (2000), We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007), No One’s First and You’re Next (2009), and The Golden Casket (2021).
In addition to the more typical instruments, the stage of the Riverside at various points welcomed a cello, a trumpet, two drum kids and a tuba. But when the banjo entered stage right, my jaw finally hit the floor. It's the kind of instrument you don’t realize is in an alt-rock song until you see it being played.
It's good to be the king
“King Rat,” an actualized barn burner, commenced as Brock took to the banjo with a few strums followed by the first lyric of the song: “WELL?!” It’s as if he were saying, “That’s right, it's still me, not Mumford and Sons.”
Again: “WELL?!” This time meaning, “Yeah, I play banjo. What of it???
A third time: “WELL?!” Translation: “Let’s get this thing started”.
It was around this time that I realized someone two rows in front of me had donned a full mouse costume — ears and all — while headbanging to the snare. I admit, I saw some of myself in her. Yet she might have already known what was coming.
The recording of “King Rat” is dynamic. The 2024 Milwaukee performance of “King Rat” was something more. Brock led us from folk-metal to ska to marching-band punk to a sweeping psychedelic guitar solo before finally arriving at melodies coded to the King (Rat?) of Rock ‘n’ Roll with a shade of the B-52s.
I don’t know how it happened, either. This was all while a background of video synthesized live footage depicting the band members shattering into particles into the ether, not unlike the literal scene unfolding on stage. It was as though the sheer power of conducting so many genres of music into a 6-minute song had transmogrified them to a different material form.
The real finisher was “Spitting Venom,” and I left feeling like Modest Mouse had entered a new era — one of respecting structure while pushing against it. They were polished and strong yet still apologetically themselves. Brock tugged on the mic enough for the stand to fall, admitted one of their easiest songs was the hardest for him to perform and even stopped halfway through “Back to the Middle” (how appropriate) because he “had screwed it up too much.”
That’s the beautiful nature of Modest Mouse: admittedly imperfect, honestly resilient and forever loyal to their ever-changing style.
