During a conversation with Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, I told him I’d looked through some of my best-shows-of-the-year lists and found the veteran alt rockers on there at least twice in the past decade.
“Have you gone back and looked at your worst show lists too?†Brock asked. “Because we've done those too. Sadly, I think at least one in Nebraska."
That show, in August 2023 when Modest Mouse headlined the Outlandia Festival in Bellevue’s Falconwood Park, has stuck with Brock for more than a year, not in a good way.
“It had been a long day, and towards the end of my set, I kind of just started careening off,†he said of his poor performance. “Maybe I noticed more, but I remember someone who worked with me at the end of the show being like, ‘Are you all right?’ I'm like, 'I think so.’â€
That show is largely memorable because of its rarity — "I don't know if I even have another one in the last three years," Brock said, then quickly added: “I’m coming back to make it up.â€
Modest Mouse will be at Steelhouse Omaha on Tuesday, stopping there on a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Good News for People Who Like Bad News,†the album that propelled the alt-rock band from the indie underground into the mainstream.
That, however, doesn’t mean that “Good News†is the band’s best record, Brock says.
“In my personal opinion, no, it was not our best record,†he said. “It's hard to say. Sometime this year, I decided to quit ranking anything, favorite food, favorite records, favorite anything because I just haven't found out that life really works that way. ...
“As far as writing one, I think you feel a lot better about harder things that you accomplish. Let’s say that wasn’t the hardest record I made or wrote. But it’s great.â€
That said, Brock readily concedes “it had, and still has, the part of this reach of anything we've done†he said — even if he can’t put a finger on why the album and its single “Float On" became hits a decade into the band’s career.
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Formed in Issaquah, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, in 1993, with Brock as its lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter, Modest Mouse got critical acclaim for 1997’s “The Lonesome Crowded West†and 2000’s “The Moon & Antarctica,†becoming a fixture on the underground indie scene.
But, thanks to “Float On,†“Good News†was a different beast.
“At the time of writing and recording it, it felt fun to do,†Brock said of the hit. “It was almost an afterthought. ... It was not completely finished until the very end of that record, because I was uncomfortable with how poppy the chorus was. I just couldn't really come to terms with what the song was until it was just like, it is what it is. Put it on there. I like it. It doesn't hurt to have a pop song. And apparently it doesn't hurt to have a pop song.â€
“Float On†topped the alt-rock charts and pushed Modest Mouse into the mainstream, powering “Good News†to sales of more than 1 million copies, landing the band on “Saturday Night Live†and receiving Grammy nominations for best alternative music album and best rock song.
So it makes sense to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, first with an expanded re-issue this spring and now the tour.
Are you going to play the whole album in order?
“Yeah, the only thing that makes sense is to do that,†Brock said. “Otherwise it's just a show. So yeah, we're playing the whole thing start to finish. Because it was actually, except for EPs, the shortest record we’ve ever made — only 45 minutes does not a show make — so we’re doing a record that was kind of a companion piece to it, called ‘No One’s First and You’re Next.'â€
The encore songs, which are likely to change on each night of the tour, will provide the opportunities for Brock to dig into the band’s expansive catalog, which now includes seven studio albums — the most recent 2021’s “The Golden Casket†— and a half-dozen EPs.
Brock, who’s the only original member still in Modest Mouse, has written songs for a new album that will probably be released next year. But none of those are likely to make appearances at any of the shows.
Instead, what fans will get is Modest Mouse’s biggest record, played as they heard it two decades ago, played by a band that’s rehearsed the album and EP this summer to brush up on the songs that they’ve been playing for years.
“We’ve played everything except for one song,†Brock said. “Some of them we don't play very often. OK, the next to last song on the record, which is actually a pretty damn good song, ‘One Chance,' we've never, to the best of my knowledge, ever played live. That should be cool.â€
Photos: Day two of Outlandia Music Festival
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