I had been looking forward to the Modest Mouse concert for a long time coming. Over the past three or four years they have consistently been one of my top five favorite bands. Their angry choruses, melodic C major guitar riffs, creative lyrics (the liguistic equivalent of an M.C. Escher print), and instrumental build-ups never get old for me. I’ve never been disappointed by any album and by very few songs.

Until last night.

Laura and I met up with a couple friends before the show for sushi and sapporo and then drank some two buck chuck in the SOMA parking lot before making our way through the dirty hipsters, teenage scenesters, and post frat crowd looking for a new scene now that Dave Matthews had gone “soft.”

SOMA is not my favorite place to see a show and I very much doubt that it is among the favorite places of any band to play. It’s set up much more like a high school assembly hall – immediately reminding you of all those junior high and high school plays and musicals that you had to sit through ’cause some friend or sibling had a menial role. Like RIMAC, the band has to make an effort here, has to engage the crowd, get them excited for the show.

One of the friends, well accustomed to getting whatever she wants, dragged the rest of us through the dirty gazes of everyone else who had been waiting through the two openining bands in order to be close to the stage for the show. Finally – when there was hardly room to breath – we stopped … in front of two short girls who asked “friend” if we were going to keep moving or just stand there in front of them.

“People in San Diego are so fucking lame,” says friend. This translates into “I’m not getting what I want.” So we stayed put, not wanting to piss anyone else off and friend went closer to the stage. 10 minutes later she was back explaining how she had shared her sentiment of “people in San Diego fucking suck so hard” with someone (apparently from San Diego … or at least happy to be here) who responded, “well, why the fuck don’t you go back to Seattle then?”

We have asked friend this often, but the logic remains … illogical. Finally they came out while the crowd cheered. Three minutes later they were still talking amongst themselves and tuning their instruments while the crowd began to settle down. I’ve never understood this. Don’t they have enough time to talk about whatever they talk about back stage? Aren’t their instruments already tuned?

They began the show with a song I had never heard before. Must be off their new album. As much as I wanted to get into it, I just couldn’t. Too much distortion, no melody, impossible to hear the lyrics. It wasn’t the right song to open the show with. And then they took another three minute break and the crowd was clearly getting restless. One of the drunk frat boys looking for a new scene shouted “play something!” and the MM lead singer shouted back, “how bout you fucking play something you fuck.” Frat boy says “cause I paid $20.”

Not a bad point I thought. Here we are … almost all of us true Modest Mouse fans. Their music means something to us. We are the ones who buy their CD’s, read their lyrics, hum to their tunes, pay their salaries and here is their lead singer yelling at and degrading his audience the entire night. At one point he asked how many people were registered to vote. Surprisingly, almost everyone started cheering. Clearly not the response he wanted. He went on unperturbed, “yeah, like only a fifth of you. Well you know what – the rest of you sad motherfuckers can go kill yourselves. I’m sick of this shit, do you know how many people have lost their lives around the world for the right to vote. I don’t care who you vote for, but vote god damn it. Vote or go to hell.”

One of the frat guys yells: “If you don’t know, don’t vote.”

Two points frat boys, zero points Modest Mouse. Why should someone who is completely uninformed about politics, about the issues – someone who really has no opinion whatsover vote? Who says it is anyone’s obligation to vote? What if someone is equally content or discontent regardless of policy and/or politician?

Of course I believe that everyone should be informed and everyone should vote, but that is a personal decision. No one should be forced to do it. And no one should be told to kill themselves because they don’t want to be part of the process.

I tried not to think about it though, tried to concentrate on enjoying the music. After the first three notes, I recognized one of Modest Mouse’s most well known songs, a classic: 3rd Planet.

Everything that keeps me together is falling apart, I’ve got
this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over
My boss just quit the job says he’s going out to find blind
spots and he’ll do it
The 3rd Planet is sure that they’re being watched by an
eye in the sky that can’t be stopped
When you get to the promise land your gonna shake that
eyes hand

And then comes this monster guitar change up – melodic and distorted at once – and everyone is bobbing their heads and moving their feet and it seemed like we had gotten over the “kill yourself” remark and everyone was truly enjoying themselves. My head was bowed, I was completely into the music – every note penetrating me, smelling Laura’s hair in front of me.

Your heart felt good it was dripping pitch and made of wood
And your hands and knees felt cold and wet on the grass to me
Outside naked, shivering looking blue, from the cold
sunlight that’s reflected off the moon
Baby cum angels fly around you reminding you we used
to be three and not just two
And that’s how the world began
And that’s how the world will end
A 3rd had just been made and we were swimming in the
water, didn’t know then was it a son was it a daughter
When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming
around in the water in the oceans in our bodies and
another had been found another ocean on the planet
given that our blood is just like the Atlantic
And how
The universe is shaped exactly like the earth if you go
straight long enough you’ll end up where you were

“The universe is shaped exactly like the earth if you go straight long enough you’ll end up where you were.” That line got stuck in my head. I started thinking how many cycles we have in life. How those who were once to busy for others are now lonely at home. How the once nerds at my high school are now visiting in town for spring break. They are in graduate programs, they have beautiful girlfriends, they have found true contentment. How the popular kids are mostly in drug rehab. How it is that we go through the same lessons over and over again, trying to learn from them, but frustrated when we realize that we’ve already had this lesson. “If you go straight long enough you’ll end up where you are.”

That song was the high point of the concert. They played other hits afterwards, like Trailer Trash and the new single, Float On, but the crowd obviously felt disenfranchised from the degredation, ridicule, and ego-mania of the lead singer.

Two years ago, going to a Ryan Adams concert at 4th and B, I expected that kind of pomposity. There was almost something alluring about such cockiness. Adams was filled with an “of course I’m wonderful” air. But he treated his audience with respect because he knew they felt the same way, that they were on his side. He gave off a conspiratorial vibe of – we are all great, those on the outside know nothing.

But Modest Mouse made you feel like you should hate yourself for liking them. Maybe that is appealing amongst masochists, but for myself, I don’t think I’ll be seeing them again.