Modest Mouse and Gogol Bordello at Breese Stevens Field, Madison, WI, 9/30/17

Gogol Bordello, from really far away

I went back to the venue Ryan Adams played Friday night to see Modest Mouse last night. I've seen Modest Mouse a handful of times, and I have generally thought their performance can be kind of uneven. Once, they played Norman and they were stumble-drunk and belligerent. Once, they played Sasquatch Fest and I thought it was one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen. I'm glad I went, but I think we got both worlds last night.

I confess I missed the first act. Gogol Bordello played second. I had seen them a festival once, and what stuck in my mind about that performance was how absolutely on their frontman is. He didn't disappoint this time, either. The band comes across as incredibly engaged, intentionally quirky, and borderline manic. The frontman is singing, slinging his acoustic guitar around on his back, and waving a bottle of red wine so enthusiastically it's spraying everywhere when it's not being drunk by various band members. Their sound is sort of "Gypsy punk". It's got some polka-y elements and is undeniably dance-able, even in daylight. There seemed to be a lot of Gogol Bordello fans in the crowd, which is always nice.

Modest Mouse came out and I was not super into the first set. Opening with "Dramamine" was pretty cool, but Isaac Brock was rambling between songs in a way that was mostly unintelligible because of

Modest Mouse

reverb in the stadium but didn't make a lot of sense or wasn't super entertaining when I could understand him. His vocal rhythms were weird, and some of the lyrics were substituted or slurred or seemingly ad-libbed. I couldn't tell if he was just tired of performing the songs the same way, at this point, or what. At one point he was rambling and seemingly joking about not knowing where he was, thanking Florida and London and a bunch of other places for being great crowds. The band played for maybe 50 minutes and said goodnight. At first I thought he was kidding, but then they walked off stage. I knew the curfew for music was 10, and it was 8:50. I was hoping for a second set.

They came back out for what I thought could be a 3-4 song encore and played a whole second set of approximately equal length to the first one. The second set seemed a lot more coherent and on -- it was great, and stacked with favorites from the days when I was deepest into their music, The Moon and Antarctica and Good News for People Who Love Bad News. By the time they left the stage, it

Shouting at pickups

was 9:50 and my attitude had completely turned around about the show. There were minor difficulties with out of tune guitars that caused the band to start a song over about three times, but otherwise that second set was pretty fantastic. Isaac does this thing where he shouts into the pickups of his guitar, and may or may not also be manipulating the strings of his guitar with his mouth. I think it's sort of iconic and interesting -- it always captures my attention.

I couldn't tell if he was less drunk or more drunk during the second set. He certainly came out drinking some alcoholic, carbonated water and talking about how dangerous that was, since it tastes like water. He did tell the crowd not to drink and drive several times, which is advice I hope they heeded, because all of the people around us were pretty inebriated. There was some Grade A people watching to be done at this show.

To the surprise of many, Isaac Brock came out solo for a one-song encore of "Styrofoam Boots". It got off to a stumbly start and then he nailed it. Say what you will about the guy -- he's captivating even when he's a trainwreck (and he was only half trainwreck last night).