"Concert Report: Modest Mouse, Beachwood Sparks (Noisepop!)": 03/02/2002

03/02/2002 Entry: "Concert Report: Modest Mouse, Beachwood Sparks (Noisepop!)"

More shows! Whooo. Back at Bimbo's tonight, but this time we find even better parking. Yay. Then when we get to the club we find out that The Aislers Set cancelled due to illness. Argh! Oh well, on with the show.

The opening replacement band was a pretty reasonable southern-rock group that the audience didn't seem to get very in to. It was really nice to hear a change of pace from the generic indie rock, though. I wish I remembered their name, but I don't.

Next up was Beachwood Sparks, who I really didn't get into. I wound up talking to the people that sat at our table most of the time instead, so maybe I didn't give them a fair chance. They did have a harmonica, I think, which was neat, but the whole thing was a little mellow and not what I was in the mood for.

And then it was finally time for Modest Mouse! And it was awesome! So much better than last time I can't believe it. They actually had 6 people on stage playing, so the sound was much fuller than last time. And Isaac actually talked a lot, which was great fun. "I have to listen to your inane shit, so you will have to listen to mine" and "If you fuck with me, this is just going to take longer, so stop fucking with me!" probably being the best lines, although learning that he really liked Sir-Mix-A-Lot as a kid was also interesting. They played a good mix of older and newer things, only a couple songs I didn't recognize (one that even the person next to me that had scheduled a trip to SF around this show didn't recognize, so maybe it was new?), but most importantly they played "Neverending Math Equation" which was great. The crowd was really into it, so we decided to try to move up closer for the encore, but they didn't play a really good closer, so it was a little disappointing. Oh well. Their show overall was really great, and made the night worthwhile.

The score so far: 2 really good nights, 1 pretty good night, and 1 mediocre night. Not bad - we'll see how the last two days treat us. Next up is the Versus show, but I am still not sure for the evening. And Sunday is a decision between the Chantigs and the BBQ - we'll see how it goes. If I don't just wind up sleeping all day...