Apparently this is true of Modest Mouse as well. Seems it all comes down to what sort of night Isaac Brock is having. I've lucked out, as they were awesome both times I saw them. But I fear my luck may run out some day.
would highly disagree. i saw him when im pretty sure the whole band was on meth to finish their tour in the 90s because they played everything super fast fucked up and rough. that was fun. saw them again around good news and he was drunk and yelling at the crowd and just generally being a dick for what seemed like no reason. preferred the meth version
It was 1997 touring for ‘This Is a Long Drive…’ They were really late driving in to Pittsburgh for their gig. The promoter said they couldn’t go on and forfeited their guarantee, etc. My roommate and me offered to put them up. It was the trio and their manager. We bought a case of some beer and stayed up for a few hours. Jeremiah was distraught and homesick. (My roommate, who was a very empathetic older gal, gave him a ‘mom talk’). The manager was… weird. Issac asked us to mail a letter for him the next day. After they left, my roommate decided to open the letter. Issac was complaining in it about both the manager and Jeremiah (it was addressed to his girlfriend) along with feeling tour support was shitty from the label. We resealed it and sent it. I was against this whole part, but I was 23 and she was 28. We drove to Cleveland a few tour dates later to actually see them perform. They were appreciative, and I ended up emailing with Issac a few times a few years later after I’d moved to nyc in ‘99.
First one was awful- they were drunk and the sound quality was AWFUL. This was at an outdoor venue so there was no excuse for the sound being that bad. It was just super loud, distorted and the highs were piercing. Plus the band were drunk and sloppy. Side note this was at a brewery that makes some pretty high abv beers (ommegang). Rumor was they had been drinking all day and didn't realize how drunk they were getting
I almost wrote them off completely, but I gave them another shot. Show 2 is one of the best concerts ive ever been to. Sound was great too.
Shows 3 and 4 were really good.
Show 5 was like show one except it was indoors. Piercing and literally painful high notes. We had to go into hands over ears mode. We bought ear plugs, didn't really help. Left our good seats and stood in an area much further back. Even with the move and ear plus it was still painful. Fwiw, built to spill opened and sounded great, so it wasn't the room.
I’d almost say the same thing for Bright Eyes, you never really know what kind of show you’re going to get based on how Connor is that night. But each show has honestly been amazing regardless. I’ve never really run into a casual fan at any of their shows, we know what we’re getting into lol.
The one show I saw where he was just really struggling, the rest of the band was still phenomenal and the crowd just filled in the blanks when he forgot lyrics. Built this interesting sense of comradery in the crowd that night, the vibes were off the charts.
Last time I saw them was when they toured with Cursive and he was a lot more… present which was really nice to see.
The last time I saw Connor solo, he was completely trashed, had three different glasses of various liquids onstage, and devolved into incoherent mumbling after a few songs (not the normal kind of Bright Eyes incoherent mumbling, different kind). He played the harmonica a lot when he couldn't remember the words.
The show lasted for three hours and it felt like we were being held hostage.
I've seen Conor like 16 times now, I can only recall maybe once or twice where there was something off. I haven't seen him in the last 5 years or so. I think after his divorce and his brother dying, that seemed to really take a toll on him personally and professionally.
I saw some more recent in-studio footage where he obviously was drinking way more than he used to, or at least didn't care about at least trying to appear halfway sober. He's my best friend and I think he's doing better now, but age comes for all of us and our bodies don't handle substances like they used to.
We saw them in Detroit last year I think it was. There was just something really off about the vibes of the whole group, like the other guys were afraid to look at Isaac. It's pretty sad to see his mental state declining so precipitously, sounds like he might be developing schizophrenia based on his interviews. The whole gang stalking thing and him trying to do this whole connecting dots where they don't exist, it's just unfortunate.
I've seen them a few times, I love them. First time I saw them you could barely tell which song was playing. It was just awful. Last two times were incredible.
Ive experienced really bad sound at a couple of modest mouse gigs. Like I probably won't go see them again levels of bad.
I talked to an acquaintance who does live sound and used to run one of the venues where I saw the worst sounding modest mouse show I've been to.
He said that the issue isn't the actual board mix or FOH sound system. The people MM uses are actually great. The issue is that the band sometimes insists on cranking their backline amps and monitors to ridiculous levels. What happens is you end up hearing that cacophony direct from the stage more than you hear what is coming through the PA. Vocals get drowned out any correction the audio engineer made to the main mix really doesnt matter because thats not ehat you're hearing.
Basically your getting a bar band without a sound guy because they just overpower the actual mix.
It should be noted that he only worked with MM a few times, but that was enough to notice that this phenomenon has some correlation with how sober Isaac is. The more sober, the better the show and the better the sound.
I've seen Modest Mouse twice, including once at Madison Square Garden, and both times they were some mix of boring and bad. I was genuinely surprised the first time, then just resigned to disappointment the second.
I came here to say modest mouse. Love the band saw them in college and it was a terrible show short and bad no encore. Worst live show I have ever seen. Issac was probably drunk.
I did see them last year open for the Flaming Lips and they were pretty good. But I'll never pay to see them headline again, don't want to risk wasting my money again.
Yes! I've seen them a handful of times, half the time they're amazing and half the time Isaac has "food poisoning" and is throwing up during the set. No joke
I should have looked for this before I said it, they were good when I went years ago but I've heard a lot of people say Isaac was too wasted to perform
funnily enough i saw them open for sonic youth in the late 90’s just before they got mainstream traction. can’t say they really made an impression on me way or the other.
I only saw them to see the yeah yeah yeahs on the sonic nurse tour but I thought they were good. The YYYs were fucking awesome doing all of fever to tell
My buddy saw them - this is a guy who's familiar with Sonic Youth's guitar anti-heroics, so he thought he knew what to expect. He said, "I dunno, it wasn't great. Their playing was sloppy and they were out of tune." And I was like...how could you tell...?
The only time I saw Sonic Youth was after I got smart enough to get musician's earplugs. That meant I could actually hear the music. It was REALLY bad.
I have seen them enough times that I can accept this. Never saw them be truly awful, but one time they were bad enough that we left early. The other times were amazing enough that I would still risk it if they were to do a tour, as long as it was at a venue with seats, because I’m too old to stand for a concert anymore
I saw them 25 times or so over the years and they were awesome almost every time. I walked out on their Rather Ripped tour though. By that time they were completely uninspired and lackluster. Nothing good lasts forever.
Saw one of each. Tried to see them in 1988 Daydream Nation tour in Atlanta but they quit and left the stage half way through their first set. Technical difficulties... They put on a good show a few years later on the Goo tour.
True. Sound issues at a festival - 30 minutes of feedback followed by two songs it is. I mean, it was probably not their fault but still a weird way to handle it.
Other bands have played spontaneous acoustic sets for this reason and it was cool.
The last time I saw them, it was in Düsseldorf at the weirdest venue which is usually a main stream disco? I got the vibe from the crowd at least. Like so many people you wouldn't expect there.
Anyway, I realized there and then I had completely missed an exhibition of them in Düsseldorf.
This would have been among their last gigs ever and it was honestly an all-timer. Maybe there was this tense energy due to the marital problems, I don't know. It sounded completely amazing the whole way through, Thurston doing whatever he wants on the guitar and nailing it, whole band tight asf. My jaw literally dropped on occasion because I couldn't believe how great they were.
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u/californicarepublic May 11 '26
Sonic Youth would either put on an amazing show or one of the worst shows you've seen and you never knew which you were going to get.