Live Review: R.E.M., Modest Mouse, and The National, at Chicago's United Center
(R.E.M. with Johnny Marr - "Fall on Me" - Live at the United Center) Via Stereogum
I realize it's a little late to get this review up, but hey, I just moved cross-country.
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of catching R.E.M. with the National and Modest Mouse (and one Mr. Jonathan Graef). And out of the hundreds of shows I've ever seen, it was in my top five.
Really.
The National opened up and filled Chicago's United Center with sound just as well as they do in a club, despite a small bit of blurring on the horn parts. When translating their music to a live show, The National scaled up the rock aspects of their sound. In particular, "Squalor Victoria" stands out as adapting well to this more muscular live setting. Punctuated by Matt Berninger's howls of the titular name and flashes bright purple stage lights, the song exulted the band's rock influences. While I'm not generally a huge fan of large amount of stage production, seeing the whole band silhouetted against a steamy, multicolored night was pretty effin' sweet.
Playing mostly from Boxer, an album of A+ material if there ever was one, The National proved a tough act to follow for second openers Modest Mouse.
Let me make one thing clear: I really like Modest Mouse on record. A lot. After hearing rumor after rumor that Isaac Brock's voice has gone the way of the dinosaur, I was pretty nervous to see them perform. But they exceeded the expectations I had for them.
Still, it wasn't a very good set. A lot of the material came off We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, which was a pretty good album. On disc. But live, it just sounded brash, flat and same-y, like they were floundering for depth that wasn't there. Compared to the richness of the National's sound, I just kind of felt bad for Brock & Co.
R.E.M., however, was, as always, fantastic. The thing that never fails to knock me flat when I see R.E.M. live is the way in which they revisit their past: The United Center show was as much a celebration of a lifetime of music as it was a celebration of a particular album.
Those who came to the show having only purchased Accelerate might have been a little disappointed. Eight songs (about 30 minutes) in the 2-hour set were from the new album, and they were thoroughly padded with older material. But what can I say? The material they played sounded stellar. The raw production value on the album gives you a perfect picture of what the songs sound like in concert. When I listened to "Supernatural Superserious" for the first time, I could picture exactly what the song would look and sound like live: Peter Buck hitting every note while jumping around in a way that no 40-something should be able to, Michael Stipe singing breathlessly while wiggling like a jellyfish and Mike Mills off to the side being the best bass player in existence. The new material didn't pull punches on the audience; it just singed them with the purest of pure rock and fucking roll.
Mixed in between songs off of Accelerate was a particularly stark, vulnerable breakdown of "Let Me In." Clustered around a piano, the band stomped and clapped their way through the normally fuzz-laden ode to his late friend, Kurt Cobain. (Stipe wrote the song to say all the things he wished he had said to Cobain before Nirvana frontman took his own life in 1994.) "Find the River," the closing track to essential canon entry Automatic for the People, showed up in a retooled format, sporting guitar in place of its standard accordian, updating it to fit with the band's current exuberant rock sound. Other songs, such as "Begin the Begin" were played exactly as they were written 20 years ago.
On this tour, R.E.M. is all about finding and creating cohesion in their catalog. The songs chosen for Friday night's show expressed political frustration and alienation, but also a great deal of hope (not least of all due to Barack Obama, to whom Stipe gave two enthusiastic shout-outs). As someone who has been disillusioned with the band's past few albums, but started to feel hopeful again with Accelerate, the United Center show was confirmation that a new, awesome, powerful chapter in R.E.M. history is beginning.
Video Digest: The Bad Plus (Live on Conan), Cat Power's AOL Sessions, Modest Mouse, School of Language, Spoon
(The Bad Plus - "Thriftstore Jewelry" - Live on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (3/14/08))
With a tip of the hat toward one April Wright, whose idea this is, MFR has put together a video digest of noteworthy new vids. Here, you'll be able to indulge your jones for both the audio and the visual in one place.
First off, we have MPLS-based trio The Bad Plus performing "Thriftstore Jewelry", from their newest release, the wholly self-financed and released Prog, on the "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" show. To see behind-the-scenes photos from their taping, head on over to More Cowbell.
(Cat Power - "Ramblin' (Wo)Man (Hank Williams cover) - Live on "AOL Sessions)
The sultry sounds of Cat Power's latest record, the mostly covers album Jukebox (the second such album that she's done), seem like they would best translate in a small club with an intimate ambience, particularly the lounge-pop arrangement that Ms. Chan Marshall gave standard "New York", or the soulful countrypolitan stylings of "Ramblin' (Wo)Man". So it should be no surprise that Cat Power dropped by the "AOL Sessions" studio to record renditions of various Jukebox selections. Check out those videos, plus a Q&A here. But before you do so, take a gander at "Ramblin (Wo)man" from the sessions, which is posted above.
(Modest Mouse - "Fly Trapped In A Jar)
The latest video from Modest Mouse's effort from last year, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, "Fly Trapped In A Jar" makes an immediate impression on the viewer with its psychedelic visuals and surreal plotline. This video may be more Seussian that Horton Hears A Who!.
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is out now.
(Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb")
Speaking of animation, this new clip from Spoon for "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" makes the most out of its "stop-motion animation of paper cutouts" which were then sequenced on the computer. Even though its the most obvious reference point, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" does, at times, resemble the herky-jerky nature of Peter Gabriel's classic video for "Sledgehammer", which also made legendary use of stop-motion animation.
Rockism is a school of thought that suggests that some genres--usually rock music from whenever the person espousing this philosophy was 12 years old--are better than others. School of Language, an offshoot of Field Music and headed by that group's David Brewis, satirizes the concept of rockism in its new video for "Rockist Part One". If there's a part two, one cannot be entirely sure that it can be effective due to the fact that Brewis and company do a pretty good job mocking most of the rock music that's come out in the past few years. Check out the video posted above, as well as a MP3 of the song which has been made available by Chicago-based indie label Thrill Jockey (hometown love!).
Did I just find something more awesome than the above picture?*
R.E.M. is set to tour the nation with Modest Mouse and The National following the release of their latest effort, Accelerate. Having seen The National once and R.E.M. twice, I can say that you definitely don't want to miss this show.
And now for the downside: There's no MPLS date. But there is one in Chicago (so a certain esteemed colleague at this blog has no excuse – not even money – not to see this show). Tour dates are below.
5.23 Vancouver-Deer Lake Park 5.29 Los Angeles-Hollywood Bowl 5.31 Berkeley-The Greek Theatre 6.03 Denver-Red Rocks Amphitheatre 6.06 Chicago-United Center 6.08 Toronto-Molson Amphitheatre 6.10 Raleigh-Walnut Creek Amphitheatre 6.11 Washington, DC-Merriweather Post Pavilion 6.13 Boston-Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts 6.14 Long Island-Jones Beach Theater 6.18 Philadelphia-Mann Center for the Performing Arts 6.19 New York City-TBA 6.21 Atlanta-Lakewood Amphitheatre
I'm super weirded out by this video. I mean, at the heart of it, it's the same old "Girl falls in love with tree, jealous Dad kills tree, girl goes nuts" story, but doesn't Modest Mouse realize that you don't drink the sap of conifers? While I'm not so big on Maple syrup, pine tree syrup would be vom-worthy.
This is the fourth video off of We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The others were "Dashboard," "Missed the Boat" and "Little Motel." Check 'em out below.
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (Epic) Grade: B+
Upon listening to We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, I realized that Modest Mouse, when at their best, lull me into sleepy submission. While I love their punch-drunk, slap-happy, Brock-goes-batshit tracks as much as the next guy, there's something about quieter songs like "The World At Large" and "3rd Planet" that exist in their own universe. You're sucked in completely from the first note.
The new record has plenty of those moments, as well as some barnstormers, which means it's a pretty typical Modest Mouse record. And while this one doesn't top their mainstream (if not artistic) breakthrough Good News For People Who Like Bad News, it brings the band one step closer to aging gracefully.
This is a Modest Mouse record with better eyesight; a good set of indie songs with louder and cleaner production than the band's fans are used to. Lead single "Dashboard" is a bit shameless in its "Float On" imitation, and the horns don't really do it any favors, either. But this is still a Modest Mouse record, which means Isaac Brock is still one wacked-out motherfucker, yelling so loud you can picture him flailing his arms. We Were Dead's first track, "March Into The Sea," starts with an arrangement that hints at a band who has scaled back its sound, but then it explodes, and Brock is screaming "clang clang clang!!" and you're comforted by the fact that your favorite band hasn't changed.
The contribution of Johnny Marr, ex-Smith and the newest Modest Mouse member, is subtle but telling. The reverb-heavy guitar lines on "Parting Of The Sensory" seem like they couldn't have come from anyone else, and they provide the perfect confusion before the song bursts into a hoedown, with Brock singing (I think), "Someday you will die and someone or something will steal your coffin." This sudden genre transformation is a neat trick, and this disc is full of these moments.
My favorite track might be "Missed The Boat," definitely the most "normal" song here, a midtempo acoustic number that gives the record some breathing room. The chorus features The Shins' James Mercer, and it's a perfect collaboration, both because Brock and Mercer complement each other nicely, but also because the song suits Mercer's passionately laid-back delivery.
As for that sleepy submission moment, it happens on "People As Places As People," and while it's a little slicker in sound than "3rd Planet" or "The World At Large," it works the band's old magic. You might even close your eyes, until Brock starts barking a dog, and you'll wake up and realize that what you're listening to isn't built for sleep. It's Modest Mouse.
