Modest Mouse floats by Festival Pier

By Nate Adams
Collegian Editor
August 29, 2007

When Modest Mouse played Philadelphia for the first time, it was back in 1997 at the Pontiac Grill on South Street. The svelte, indie-rock three piece band was touring in support of its LP The Lonesome Crowded West, and probably played to a crowd of about six people. Now, 10 years later, Modest Mouse is a Grammy-nominated alt-rock mainstay who share a label with acts like Gloria Estefan and get its songs played on the radio in between “My Umbrella” and “Beautiful Girls.” Still, the band has held on to as much of its integrity as it can, trying to appeal to old fans as well as new ones, and that dual struggle was very apparent as the band took the stage at the Festival Pier Aug. 19.

The Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing is probably my least favorite place in the city to see a concert, as it has no personality other than being the manifestation of the commercial aspect of music. Places like the First Unitarian Church and the Starlight Ballroom (hell, even the Electric Factory) have got a personality and uniqueness to them, but the Festival Pier is just a parking lot, like any other parking lot in the country.

Drinks cost $6, there is a $4 service charge on the ATMs, there is little cover from the rain that wouldn’t stop and there is a giant dance tent right next to the stage in case you don’t feel like watching the rock show you paid to see. The entire place is a surreal perversion of a venue, although I will concede that the view of the Ben Franklin Bridge is pretty good.

To make matters worse, the crowd at the show was just as bad as the venue. Everyone at the show seemed to be in a bad mood, either because of the rainy outdoor concert or because of a case of beer muscles. The mood for the entire place was a hostile one: man-boys were scanning the crowd, daring anyone to give them the wrong look. The rainy, drunken anger of the audience manifested itself in people throwing bottles, garbage and even shoes all over the place throughout the show— pretty lame.

It was to this setting that Clipse had to take the stage. I can’t help but feel proud of the hip-hop duo for how it handled itself at the concert. The two knew, from the moment they took the stage, that they were going to be met by a crowd who would be indifferent at best and openly hostile at worst. Still, Clipse made the best of it by focusing on the positives, working the crowd as best it could and trying to keep dialed into the people enjoying the show rather than the people booing them.

Clipse played a brief set consisting of mostly songs from the excellent 2006 release Hell Hath No Fury, including “Mr. Me Too,” “Keys Open Doors” and “Ride Around Shining.” Despite best efforts to keep people involved with the music, Clipse went over like a lead balloon. I fully believe that, had the group headlined at a smaller venue, Clipse would have rocked the house. Opening up for a group of alt-rock sad sacks like Modest Mouse just doesn’t draw the right kind of crowd for their music (go figure).

Despite the soulless venue, the awful weather, a crowd with a Napoleon complex and an awkward opening act, all was forgiven when Modest Mouse took the stage. Now touring as a six-piece with ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr in tow, the rock band from Issaquah, Wash. stormed the pier and opened with “Invisible,” a high energy rocker off of this year’s We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. The track shook the people up, and the mood went from sour to excited pretty damn quick.

The band played a set of just under 20 songs, most of them coming off of We Were Dead and 2004’s commercial breakthrough Good News for People Who Love Bad News. I never realized just how successful Modest Mouse has been as a mainstream act until I watched two girls in Tim McGraw shirts sing every word to “Bukowski,” then dance their heads off during “Float On” two songs later.

Indeed, it was tracks like “Float On,” “Dashboard” and “Little Motel” that got the biggest reaction from the crowd. “Little Motel” turned the place into a high school dance as every couple in the place took the opportunity to hold each other, drunkenly make out and sing the chorus while deeply gazing into each others’ eyes. Even that was forgivable when frontman Isaac Brock and his modest mice threw older fans a bone and played classics like “Paper Thin Walls,” “Broke” and “Dramamine,” which was extended and jammed on to close the show.

As the band left the stage and people started to file out of the pier, I couldn’t help but notice how everyone was smiling, the hostile mood once so prevalent a distant memory. Despite everything, Modest Mouse was able to overcome and play as good a show as I have seen this year. We’ll all float on, all right.

adamsn1@lasalle.edu