Kind of an old man opinion/rant coming in here-
My wonderful wife and I went to see The Black Keys with Modest Mouse on Wednesday evening. The Black Keys killed it, even if I don't love their new album as much as I wanted to. But they brought a lot of energy, let the blues riffs fly for an extended period and the show production was pretty great too.
But Modest Mouse, man.
Let me preface this by saying that for the last 20 years I've been saying that my three favorite bands are (in no particular order), Radiohead, Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips. The Lonesome Crowded West came out my freshman year, when I was ass-deep into punk rock and hardcore, and it completely rocked my socks. I got into their older shit, and loved the next like 3 albums they put out. Probably the best driving/road trip music ever. In the early aughts (probably 2001?) I flew to Philly to see them play a small festival (I think Sunshine Fest or something) with Cake, De la Sol and the Flaming Lips rounding it out. Modest Mouse crushed, though they were severely out-performed by the Flaming Lips (as is pretty much every band ever). Like two years later I saw them play back to back nights at a small venue in Tampa, probably 150 people, with completely different sets both nights. It was awesome. They just let it ride and their 6-minute tunes were 9 minutes and it was ear-bleedingly loud (which I love). I mean, they slayed for 90 minutes straight on a stage that was probably 15x20.
Then I saw them headline a night at the Gasparilla Music fest maybe 5 years ago. Thousands of people, tons of stage production, mostly new stuff, and I was in the top 20 percentile of age. Whatever, though, it was still a good show and they played Doin' the Cockroach which was manic as fuck. Had a really good time.
This show though- different. They had three drummers. There were 10 people on stage. I get it, their newer stuff is a bit more rich with horns and strings, but they lacked the energy, volume, depth of performance, passion. Nearly all the songs were toned-down versions of the music on the albums. That's not why I go to see live shows. They've never been very interactive with the crowd (at least that I've ever seen), which is fine, but they have always been very interactive with their music. I was disappointed.
That being said, I don't see a huge amount of live music anymore. I used to go to a show pretty much every week back in the day. We could go see whatever punk rock band was playing the State Theater in St Pete for $5-7 from the time I was like 13 all the way through my first couple years of college. I saw Hot Water Music literally probably 25 times. I miss those days. Stadium and even mid-sized venues just don't do it for me. Only a few of my favorite bands play small shows anymore. Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band and Vacationer were some of the last small shows I've seen.
TL;DR- I think I'm getting old, and music isn't keeping me young anymore.
