Midway through the fall tour behind An Eraser and a Maze, Modest Mouse played a New York rooftop show that balanced new material with the older songs — and paused for a phone call to an old friend.
Modest Mouse concerts have never come with a guarantee. Isaac Brock’s band can be locked in or unravelled on any given night, which made this fall’s run behind An Eraser and a Maze worth watching for reasons beyond the new record. The lineup had changed too, with guitarist Simon O’Connor replaced by Les Savy Fav’s Seth Jabour. At The Rooftop at Pier 17 on October 8, the coin landed well.
Brock spent the night talking to the crowd rather than retreating behind the songs. When someone in the audience asked politely for “Cowboy Dan,” he agreed, slotting it in where the setlist had listed “Shit Luck” as the closer. He also remembered mid-show that a close friend named Dave was turning 86, asked someone offstage to remind him to call, then summoned Siri on speaker, told the room plainly that Dave mattered to him, and held up the phone so the crowd could sing “Happy Birthday.” Dave, apparently, had it pressed to his ear and saw none of it.
The set drew from across the catalogue: “King Rat,” “Gravity Rides Everything,” “Bury Me With It,” “Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset,” “Missed the Boat,” and a confident six tracks from the new album, closing with a four-song encore that ended on “Cowboy Dan.”
A band this unpredictable is usually reviewed by asking which version showed up. This time, the question answered itself early and was never raised again.
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