September, 2025
“I got lost 100 feet from the stage…” laughed Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse’s main vocalist, after what may have been the longest wait before an encore that I’ve experienced, right before the group launched into “Gravity Rides Everything” and capped off the night with “The View.”
The Pacific Northwest band played nearly two dozen songs during their stop at Reno’s Grand Theater inside the Grand Sierra Resort, and throughout the night there were some dedicated fans who were on their feet dancing in the seats without break.
The band spent the evening trading off between their low key indie and their angular rock songs, emphasizing selections from their The Moon & Antarctica, We Were Dead Before The Ship Evan Sank and Good News for People Who Love Bad News albums. Songs like “Little Motel” which had a Reno tie in as the filming location of the music video punctuated a set that mixed the group’s catalog up but leaned heavily on their classic early 2000’s output.
One of the more fun moments came when guitarist Simon O’Connor noticed someone in the audience wearing a patch for the punk bands Crass and Zounds. As he jokingly started singing Zounds’ “Can’t Cheat Karma”, Brock mentioned that he started playing drums because of a Crass song. The band then launched into a half serious version of Crass’ “Do They Owe Us A Living?”, which Brock concluded by saying that he was terrible at drums.
Forgoing anarcho punk for introspective pop, Brock has fronted Modest Mouse for over 30 years, and the group pulled from each of their albums for this tour.
Opening band Friko were a apt fit for the show, as their energy reminded me of Modest Mouse during the band’s younger years. The Chicago duo had an additional two members filling out the stage, a played a set that felt a combination of both whimsically airy and devastation, with vocalist Niko Kapetan showing off his powerhouse alto while the stage lights bathed the group’s 70’s tinted crescendoes in a mesmerizing hue.
The group concluded their set saying that this show would be the final night of their monthlong run opening for Modest Mouse, and then proceeded to play into an absolute stage of catharsis onstage, climaxing with a train whistle before finally silencing their instruments and coming back up for air.
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