Concert Review: Modest Mouse and Caroline Rose at ACL Live at The Moody Theater
On Oct. 12, Modest Mouse put on a stunning show sonically and visually in the ACL Live studio, with a virtuosic performance from frontman Issac Brock and a hypnotic light show.
Written by Zachary Bolash
Photo courtesy of Chris Tuite
On the ground floor of the ACL Live studio, a ragtag crowd gathers before the grandstand. The crowd is rife with elder millennials, post-glory aughties rockers, and classic punks, including a mohawked man wearing a vest reading “NOT SAVED.”
As opener Caroline Rose and her band took the stage, a mysterious industrial-sounding litany boomed through the array speakers: “Girls like dancing… girls like boys.” The mysterious chant then ceased, and Caroline Rose kicked off her opening with the bassy “RIDE (!!!)”. The track features such intense bass that it felt electrically transmitted through the floor; when one inevitably jumped during the set, a string of vibration followed them through the floor.
At 8:02 p.m., Rose introduced herself and her band, including an inflatable sex doll named Diego and his “intimidating chest hair,” as she put it. From then on, Rose’s set stood as equal parts electric and ethereal. It featured tracks explosive in their riot grrrl-ness and other more dreamy, ephemeral tracks backed by a synthesizer. As Rose concluded her set with “Jeannie Becomes a Mom”, she ended the track by triumphantly pumping their fellow bandmate, Diego the sex doll, in the air.
At a fashionably late 9:07 p.m., Modest Mouse took the stage to roars of applause. The band kicked off their set with a track from their latest album, “Third Side of the Moon.” The track stood as equally bassy and twangy, with sinister lyricism such as “Harsh words from my mother, but it turned out they were nice / She said, ‘If you continuе down this path, you're not the only one who diеs.’”
The band then transitioned to their next song, “Speak n’ Spell (Or Not),” which was the first of many songs to use the impressive lighting repertoire at ACL Live studio. Issac Brock delivered the haunting lyrics such as “Wеstern movies always end thе way they begin / Where somebody gets ended,” and the lights strummed, dazzled, and pulsated to match the song’s lyrical and sonic bite.
At 9:27 p.m., after concluding the opening leg of tracks, the band introduced themselves. Frontman Brock remarked that Austin is a “tiny burgh” and that “he should have bought a place in Austin.” The accompanying song transitioned smoothly from the wholesome introduction—dreamy guitars cut through the air, backed by silky blue-and-pink lighting that illuminated the venue as the band began playing “Dogbed in Heaven / Give It a Skeleton.”
From then on, the set wove between moods. For instance, at 9:33 p.m., a jangly guitar opening backed by velvety percussion glided through the venue, introducing “Gravity Rides Everything.” However, at 9:43 p.m., the band pivoted from their alt-rock roots and embraced a more groovy “Missed the Boat,” with a fittingly metaphysical question: “While we're on the subject, could we change the subject now?”
As the crowd roared through these many performances, it was perhaps ironic that Modest Mouse ended with “Spitting Venom,” a track that starts self-deprecatingly with the line, “we were spitting venom at everyone we know.” However, the eclectic performance from Modest Mouse, combined with a dazzling light show, was spewing the very antithesis of venom. They were spitting, if anything, the extremely connective force that music, especially indie music, can provide.