Fire It Up

The Seattle based band Modest Mouse has embarked upon their first tour since former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr joined the band and the release of their most recent album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. I attended the show at the Nokia Theatre in Grand Prarie on Thursday night. If it was possible, Modest Mouse managed to top themselves from the last time I saw them two years ago at this same venue. I certainly had not spent enough time with the new album, but did recognize the great songs from it. They played many of the songs from prior albums that I have come to love over the years. The 2005 release Good News for People Who Love Bad News received more attention as they played several from it including The View, Float On, and Ocean Breathes Salty. For you long time fans of Modest Mouse who prefer the older albums, they seem to have all but abandoned playing the songs from the early days. In fact, the song Doin’ The Cockroach from the 1997 release Lonesome Crowded West was the only song pre-dating the 2004 release The Moon and Antarctica. I was pleased that they opened with one of my favorite songs, Paper Thin Walls and later played Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. Notables from the new album included Dashboard, We've Got Everything, and Fire It Up.

The clean, antiseptic confines of the Nokia Theatre presented them and the sound quite well. I have always been a bit skeptical of that venue due to the remote location and ridiculous price of parking ($15 per car for general parking). But they pulled a pretty good crowd who all seemed to be quite engaged the show.