MODEST MOUSE
My faith in Modest Mouse has been shaken lately. After leaving
with a questionable vibe after
a show last summer,
I've been quietly cursing their ever growing name since. With
their latest album, chock full of three minute refined ditties that
is similar in tone and structure to Built to Spill's non-stellar
album, 'Keep it Like a Secret', I went to the show slightly
suspicious of what I was going to see.
Modest Mouse came out with guns a blazing, playing a couple older
tracks, but seemingly left their heart at the door. Perhaps it
was the midday sun, or the fact they played a full set in town at
Stubb's last night, but the set had no flow, songs seemed to end
abruptly, and their tone was tempered and carefully metered out.
Even the excited bounce that their new hit 'Float Away' could have
provided seemed tempered by Isaac's careless vocals throughout the
set, which were rather half assed and undaring.
They trudged along, and with two drummers, additional
percussionists and a bunch of other folks that brought the band up
way past six members (from what I could count outside), the music
was disjointed, full of starts and stops, and they just walked off
stage without any fanfare. It was for the best.
AUSTIN AND ART
Myra and I headed out of the festival, caught a quick, cheap, and
delicious lunch at Zen on South Congress, then made it over to
Parts & Labor, where Myra is selling some of her clothing line,
and hung out and chatted for a while. Ever since I first saw
them two years ago, I've always wanted one of the t-shirts that had
'Someone in Austin Fucking Hates Me' simply printed across the
chest. I met the girl who made them, and alongside other bits
from
Whitney Lee and the
Naughty Secretary Club among others, the store was a nice
calming oasis reaffirming the goodness of Austin.
And then it was back to the festival, to catch the recently
reunited Pixies. We camped out in front of the main entrance,
able to watch the big screen monitor next to the stage, and still
get a good, loud sound from the speakers. As we would later find out
by driving by the Arthouse, the ever changing projections of colors,
shapes and patterns were the latest video painting by local
animation guru/artist and friend Bob Sabiston. The man is busy
working on a full length adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 'A
Scanner Darkly', and is now opening for the Pixies.
Awesome.
THE PIXIES
The PIxies, with a lot of fanfare and even more people streaming
out of the exits after a long, hot day in the sun, put on quite the
show. Despite the speakers nearly exploding and casting giant
knots of feedback throughout the area, the reunited folks rocked
through a full set of goodness from Bone Machine on through to
Monkey Gone to Heaven, with nary a space to breathe anywhere in
between, no words, very little introductions, just music, all the
way through. This was in stark contrast to the disjointed
performance Modest Mouse trudged through on the same stage earlier
in the day.
The guitars were fresh, Black Francis (ne Frank Black) could still
hold his own, and the ryhythms and songs have held up and totally
blew away all the Pixies believers in the crowd, even if I did see
one person in a Pixies shirt walk out as they were taking the stage.
I just theorized he had a brother or friend who was a huge fan, and
he spent the day taking pictures of himself in that shirt. He
would then send them back and tell that person just how good they
were, just to pour salt in the wounds. Or maybe he was
just drunk. Either way, he missed out big time. |
Saturday
at
Austin City Limits Festival
2004
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the pictures bigger
|
