I slept for two hours. Not unusual.
After a short drive down to the Old City accompanied by a bit of “This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About,” I went about my business and setting up for the day. It would be hell.
However, I decided to push aside the pity party and make the best of the surroundings. After a chance encounter with a friend from high school, which turned into a nostalgic discussion of shows past and sticky situations encountered and avoided, I peeked in at warm-up band Morning Teleportation.
As a caution against the accusation of libel, I will say that the vocal mixing at the Valarium was atrocious, and thus whatever lyrics may have been sung were not audible. The band, however, still did not seem to merit such consideration. The band’s style stepped on the indie side of bro-rock, both danceable and still accessable to the aforementioned fist bumpers. Only their last song stood out, with a runaway train of talkbox, organ squeals and some fairly mad (yeah, I know) drum beats. But this only accentuated that it was their last song, and that much closer was Modest Mouse.
After almost an hour of setup and technical difficulties involving Isaac Brock’s megaphone, the band finally launched into “Dramamine” at 9:45, the first of a set that would prove that, while the band’s interests have shifted over the last few albums, they still never forget their roots. That they would start with the first song from their first full album spoke volumes. Classics like “Doin’ the Cockroach,” “Wild Pack of Family Dogs,” “Trailer Trash” and “Alone Down There” buffered out some of the lackluster numbers.
A funny note: every time the banjo was broken out, one man screamed for the literary metaphysical ode “Bukowski,” the only song in their repetoire featuring the instrument not played that night. Just goes to show that Brock and company know their business before they hit the stage and are never daunted. I shouted for “Trucker’s Atlas,” but after a night of many great renditions of classics galore, I wasn’t disappointed.
