[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”11″ gal_title=”Modest Mouse at NCPAC”]
Modest Mouse was the show to see in the Holy City this month, selling out the North Charleston Performing Arts Center that holds just about twenty-three hundred people. The indie rock band of ’93 has been making headlines since the early 2000s, but took a lengthy hiatus following their last album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank in ’07. While Modest Mouse has made occasional appearances, namely at festivals, this year marks their first official tour since and is in support of their upcoming release Strangers To Ourselves on March 17th (although, there is now a rumor floating around that there is another album coming that Strangers has just been a distraction from). The band has been releasing a single off the new album nearly every week, and did the honors of interspersing them throughout their set at the Performing Arts Center.
Aside from the new singles, like “Coyotes,” “Of Course We Know” and “The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box,” their set was essentially crafted around their greatest hits. Isaac Brock led the audience through a retelling of the band’s history, strumming “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” and “Gravity Rides Everything” from their critically acclaimed The Moon & Antarctica to the well-known “Float On” and “The World At Large” from Good News For People Who Love Bad News. If anything, the only underlying tendency was to choose the more upbeat tracks like “Fire It Up” over the well-known but softer ballads, likely in an attempt to keep everyone standing. The seated venue was a little out of Modest Mouse’s usual aesthetic, and Isaac even asked how the crowd felt about the seats. I wouldn’t know, I never sat down – nor did anyone else, for that matter.
As someone who has been trying to see Modest Mouse for over five years, my only complaint was that I wish they had kept on playing for much longer than they did. I’d missed them the first time at a random show in Ohio due to a flight cancellation, and was pulled into a family vacation during the Shaky Knees Festival last year when they were one of the headlining acts. So when their tour was announced, with relatively very short notice, and Charleston was listed, I set a reminder and fought for tickets in the presale. All the effort was completely worth it, and receiving notice that IÂ was approved for a photo pass two hours prior made the night unforgettable.
Upcoming U.S. Tour Dates
4-17 | Asbuy Hall at Babeville | Buffalo, NY
4-19 | Barton Hall at Cornell University | Ithaca, NY
4-20 | Stage AE | Pittsburgh, PA
4-22 | Minglewood Hall | Memphis, TN
4-24 | Diamond Ballroom | Oklahoma City, OK
4-25 | Edge Fest – Toyota Stadium | Frisco, TX
5-23 | Sasquatch Music Festival | Chelan, WA
6-06 | Shoreline Amphitheater | Mountain View, CA
6-19 | Firefly Festival |Dover, DE
