Words and guitar

Thursday April 26, 2007Modest Mouse with Love As Laughter and Man Man.The Armory is a beautiful old church that has been refurbished as a venue for the CFL Rochester Raiders football team. The floor was covered in fake grass for the Raiders games, complete with yardlines. It's a small venue, but the high ceilings are a significant addition to the acoustics. *Love As Laughter* started the show with a chill, definitely indie rock vibe. I wasn't overly thrilled with them, but LAL is a good fit with Modest Mouse's calmer songs, especially those from "The Moon and Antarctica." After a short intermission *Man Man* took the stage dressed in white- Hanes t-shirts, shorts, pants, tube socks, even shoes and headbands. Their weird, experimental sound was discordant and strange. I was impressed by the inclusion of an electric cello and piano in addition to the standard drums and guitar. Like most opening bands, I didn't like them at first, but they seemed to get better as their set continued. Man Man got me pumped up and excited for Modest Mouse.*Modest Mouse* rocked the house with primarily songs from *"We Were Dead..."* and *"Good News for People Who Love Bad News."* Issac Brock barely spoke to the crowd between songs and played straight through. I take that as a sign of a good band, when they don't need to fill time talking to the crowd and just ROCK. Every song was fantastic and the crowd was great. They really performed well, sounding at least as good as the cd if not better. Before I knew what had happened, the show was over and the band walked off the stage. The house lights hadn't come up though, so I knew there was a possibility of an encore. Along with the crowd, I clapped and cheered for at least 5 minutes, feeling like my arms would fall off. The encore was well worth the wait and super long- 5 or 6 songs.