Modest Mouse floats on through St. Louis

Before even arriving at the venue, the night began with excitement. There were torrential downpours on the drive to see Modest Mouse at the Saint Louis Music Park in Maryland Heights — so much rain, you couldn’t see the lines on the road. As traffic slowed to a crawl, I started to wonder if the show could go on if the rain continued. However, 15 minutes later, as I pulled into the venue parking lot, the rain stopped and the sun burst back through the clouds, just in time for The Cribs to take the stage.

The Cribs are a British indie rock band who really jammed.

Both of the singers played guitar and belted so hard that the crowd was already head banging long before Modest Mouse even took the stage. Shortly after The Cribs‘ set, the sun began to go down. As the amphitheater got darker and hazier, the vibe in anticipation for Modest Mouse got much heavier. Eventually, Modest Mouse did take the stages to eager screams from the crowd. As the staple American rock band began to play through their deep catalogue of tracks, the words in their songs still rang extremely relevant even decades later.

As the group started playing their third song, “3rd Planet”, the feeling of hopelessness and emotion could be felt across the entire venue. All the people used the song’s performance as a great excuse to head-bang a few more cares away. Later in the show, the band brought things back to a more positive note with their 2004 hit, “Float On”. The song is a cheerful and repetitive reminder that even though things can get heavy, we all float on. It’s easy to get brought down and stressed out by all the terrible news we see every day online, but in spite of all the bad things happening in the world, we all float on and humanity progresses.

As the crowd sang the lyrics back to Modest Mouse, it was nice to feel everyone all together focusing on such a positive message.

The vibes of the show, after that point, definitely lightened and the show felt more like a jam than the all-out rage fest it started out as. The band continued to power through new and old tracks, the lyrics continued their eerie relevance. That is truly the mark of a timeless song, when it’s written over 20 years ago and still sounds like it could be talking about something that happened yesterday. Though Modest Mouse as a band has gone through quite a few revolutions when it comes to its members, one thing that is always consistent is the power of their lyrics and the heartfelt way that the band’s longtime lead singer Isaac Brock delivers them. If you think you could use a reminder that regardless of what happens, you too will float on. So, check out Modest Mouse’s remaining tour dates as they continue across the United States, Canada and Europe in the second half of 2022!

Photography by Sean Rider

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