hearsay

I know, I know… its been a while. On Sunday Freed & I saw Isaac & Johnny play at the Avalon. I know L.A. crowds are known for being lame and disenthused, but Sunday’s crowd was especially pathetic. And by pathetic, I mean worse than any other crowd I have seen since I moved here, including the previous title holders at the Knitting Factory. The floor was packed but nobody was moving. And by not moving, I’m not making some uberhipster complaint that there was not enough awkward indie-nerd dancing. I mean, nobody was moving. Not even bobbing their heads. The reception was lackluster from the beginning. It seemed like few recognized Johnny Marr when he came out on stage, so his friendly 2-hand wave was barely acknowledged. The new material, (the main reason I came out) didn’t energize the crowd, who only really responded to “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty.”

But Isaac seemed to know exactly how to handle such an audience. They played the hits from Good News so the crowd had nothing to complain about, but focused on the new songs. They played probably 6, 7 if you include an extra coda at the end of “World At Large” which was for all intensive purposes its own song. I couldn’t have been happier. The songs seemed designed to utilize the large backing of players (2 drummers now that Jerimiah is back, 2 guitarists with Marr, Eric on bass and Dann Galluci on keyboard?), and seemed highlighted by a better mix on the boards.

Three of the new songs in particular stood out. First was “Fire It Up,” which would be my guess for the lead single. It was perhaps the most Modest Mousey of all of them, sounding like a more upbeat version of “Grey Ice Water” with the vocal harmonies of “The World At Large.” Even the “This center of nothing” lyric seems culled from the subject matter of The Moon & Antartica or the EP’s that became Building Nothing. And for the record, Rolling Stone is full of shit calling it “sloopy.” It sounded miles ahead of the older stuff; both in the delivery and mixing. “People We Know” (probably actually titled something closer to “Places That We Wanted To Go”) was the song that most obviously showed Johnny Marr’s influence. The guitar line and even the pace sounded like a Smiths song, but Isaac’s voice covered for the lack of Morrissey’s surprisingly well.

The opening “While we’re on the subject / Could we change the subject now” line on “Missed The Boat” was the line that caught me the most through the night. I couldn’t make out all of the lyrics in the song, but it seemed chocked full of quotables. Listen to the track below… maybe you can make out some of the lines beneath the horrible chatter. The jackass scavenging for a smoke loudly at the end of the track is pretty emblematic of the crowd. I was impressed that the band even came out for an encore. Isaac took the crowd’s attitude in stride, promising a medley of all of the requests they shouted at him: “Cowboy Dan,” “Shit Luck,” and “Styrofoam Boots;” only to substitute in another new song. It was a laughable, but appropriate ‘fuck you’ to the crowd.

I know the new album will be good, but it might just be great.

[photo by ileone from the wiltern show]

Recordings from the night after @ The Wiltern (courtesy netzoo):
: Modest Mouse - Fire It Up (live) :
: Modest Mouse - Missed The Boat (live) :