Visiting Luna Park’s Big Top is vastly more exciting than visiting any other venue in Sydney. The train ride over the bridge, walking through the giant face and past all the fairground rides always seem to lighten the mood, no matter how sullen the band might be. And that’s a good thing because Modest Mouse are playing tonight, and much like seeing Ryan Adams live or having dim sims from my local Chinese joint, you never what you’re going to get.
The V Festival is doing the rounds at the moment so what better way to get more bang for your buck than by combining two international drawcards together for a show. First up tonight is Hot Hot Heat, and singer Steve Bays is gushing his love for Sydney whenever he can. The crowd seems marginally interested but when big numbers like Bandages and Talk To Me Dance With Me get delivered early in the set there’s nary a head bopping, bar the people in the first two rows. Bays’ clambers on speaker stacks, does the keyboard solo thing and runs around the stage with his mini-mo-and-fro combo – the majority of their songs seemingly lost on the crowd. The band’s energy finally spreads and by the end of their set more people are moving as Goodnight Goodnight is fittingly played. Unfortunately for Hot Hot Heat, it’s a case of too little too late.
Modest Mouse takes to the stage and the Big Top is three quarters full at best. It’s remarkable that the only sold-out V Festival sideshows are Air and Queens of the Stone Age. None of that matters, as frontman Isaac Brock spits, “Please bury me with it! I don’t need none of that Mad Max bullshit!” to a sea of cheers for their opening number. It would appear that Modest Mouse are in high spirits, even though Ike apologises for his croaky voice early on. Bury Me With It gets followed by Fire It Up, taken from last years’ We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. You could easily be mistaken for thinking the song is years old, though, as the crowd sings the chorus louder than the band.
To the left of the stage stands Johnny Marr – legendary guitar player for The Smiths and current full-time Modest Mouse band member – looking cool as shit. Johnny grabs the mic a few times between songs and proclaims how happy he is to be here. Despite the other dudes – well, they just stand there all lanky with their Fidel caps covering their eyes – it becomes apparent that Modest Mouse has turned into the Ike and Johnny show.
When Float On gets dropped, it goes off like a sonic boom – suddenly everyone in the audience are best friends that sway arm-in-arm with beer cups held high above their heads. Ike even manages to crack a funny here and there and proclaims that Satin in a Coffin is their party song. The set is well littered with tracks from their last four albums, from Tiny Cities Made of Ash to more familiar numbers such as Dashboard and Black Cadillacs (which makes an appearance for the encore).
No one will contest that Modest Mouse didn’t give it their best tonight and sounded great. Maybe it was the downtime between festival appearances or a few days off in Sydney. Maybe it was Luna Park that gave everyone a glow. Whatever it was, even Johnny Marr and Isaac Brock was seen smiling at least once. Smiling! What is this world coming to?
