Steady Tonic

June 6, 2008

This is another DSDD, like DSDD Day 7, that’s a little stretch. I’ve seen R.E.M. (six times), Modest Mouse (four times) and the National (twice). In fact, I’ve seen them all within the last 8 months in much smaller venues than the United Center. I was not planning to go to this.

Then I saw an R.E.M. set list from Vancouver that included “Gardening at Night” and an acoustic version of “Let Me In” — two of my all time favorites.

Just a week before the show, I somehow snagged 17th row seats from Ticketmaster (and usually, the “master” part of that is awesomely descriptive in that I feel like a slave to my live music addiction when paying fees out the nose for crappy seats).

So, we went — and I was very very glad we did.

The National

The National must have started nearly on time at 7pm, because we only caught the last five songs of their set:

Mistaken For Strangers, Squalor Victoria, Apartment Story, Racing Like a Pro, Mr. November (I think in that order).

To my surprise, their sound really filled the arena well — it probably helped that they had three horn players in addition to their basic lineup. A few enthusiastic fans were standing and dancing throughout (myself included) but most of the crowd remained seated until many started standing during “Mr. November” and the entire crowd (about 2/3 full) stood to give the band an ovation.

Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse doesn’t elicit lukewarm reactions - it’s either “they rock” or “they suck”. I heard both responses voiced during their set.

I am pretty solidly in the “they rock” contingent. R.E.M. and Modest Mouse are among my all time favorites. However, like R.E.M., Modest Mouse has a handful of songs that I thoroughly loathe. They played nearly every one of them on Friday. Here’s what I can recall of the first part of the set:

- Invisible, Dance Hall, Dashboard, Satin in a Coffin, Fire it Up, King Rat,

I might be off on the order. It was so depressing to see Isaac Brock bring out the banjo three times and not play “Bukowski”. I loathe each one of the above songs (except Dashboard). They are also among the band’s most challenging material, with complex arrangements and a maximum of barked vocals. I guess despite the doors to a new fan base that this gig could open for them, Modest Mouse is going to play whatever the fuck they feel like playing.

Although they brought out “Paper Thin Walls” and “Broke”, they had lost me until I heard the opening riff for “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine”:

You only get a few seconds of tape on that because there was no way I was watching this number through an LCD screen.

Then, ever the rock star, Isaac Brock put down his guitar and lit up a cigarette while Johnny Marr sat at the piano and they launched into “The Good Times Are Killing Me”:

If these are good times for Modest Mouse, they don’t seem to be taking any of the crazy away.

They closed with “The View”, which I’ve seen them play every single time and I never tire of. So they won me back.

R.E.M.

I’ll post my thoughts on this, and the set list, in another post. But for now, my favorite moment:

“Let Me In” - acoustic version

We got distracted from our plan of action by the Aussie BBQ across from the Austin Convention Center.

Or perhaps it was this lovely sight that drew us in:

The band coming off the stage, Yves Klein Blue, could literally have been the sons of the next band, The Chevelles. But the Chevelles were totally kick-ass (if this had been SXSW 1982).

A bigger crowd snuck in to see The Vines while we we helped ourselves to free veggie burgers and Australian beers. The Vines put it a vibrant set, including a fantastic cover of Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson”. But the highlight was this final song:

The Stems didn’t need that equipment anyway…