Photos: Modest Mouse and Brand New at the Forum

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Modest Mouse at the Forum (Photo by Michelle Shiers)

While there wasn’t much overlap in fans for both Modest Mouse and Brand New, the co-headliners seemed to entertain the nearly sold-out audience at the Forum on Wednesday. What they did have in common was their timing of emergence, in the early 2000s, and much of the audience were reliving some high school and early-college days.  Modest Mouse and Brand New have been alternating time slots on this tour and last night was Modest Mouse’s turn to headline.  They began their set with “The World At Large” from 2005’s “Good News For People Who Love Bad News.”  Their song choices have varied quite a bit each night with welcomed unpredictability.

Singer Isaac Brock showed off his signature bark and lisp as he stayed fairly glued to the right side of the stage.  The eight-piece band, including 2 drummers and an extra percussionist, experienced a few frustrating technical glitches throughout the night, but it didn’t seem to stop them from powering through their 20-song set.  Brock made a few wisecracks between songs but nothing really landed in such a huge venue.  The crowd appeared to be more of the Brand New persuasion and even with devoted Modest Mouse fans, the Forum seemed too big for the sum of the parts. Fan-faves throughout the night were “Bury Me With It” followed by “Dashboard” — the best 1-2 punch, after which the set seemed to meander.

They closed the main set with “Fly Trapped In A Jar” and anti-climatically exited the stage.  They returned for a 4-song encore which did not include their biggest hit “Float On,” much to the dismay of the lingering Brand New fans who were hoping to hear something they recognized. But Modest Mouse devotees were happy to hear the night end with 1997’s “Doin’ The Cockroach” and 2015’s “Strangers to Ourselves.”

Brand New opened a half-hour later than expected and toward the end of their almost-90-minute set, there were some grumblings about the band not playing more of their earliest material.  Nevertheless, fans on the floor were being particularly friendly and enjoying themselves, especially once “At The Bottom” kicked in from 2009’s “Daisy.”  Frontman Jesse Lacey had recently confirmed Brand New’s impending break-up and the merch booths featured T-shirts that read “Brand New, 2000-2018”.

While the band supposedly have a final album in the works, “Sic Transit Gloria … Glory Fades” from 2003’s beloved “Deja Entendu” satiated their screamo-hungry die-hards who were waiting for the best moment to get their emo on by yelling “Die young and save yourself!”  While Lacey used to be the only one with a floral mic stand, now the others at the front had them as well — something pretty for their large female fan-base to look at when they weren’t busy trying to figure out why Brand New needs two drummers.

At the end of their set the lights went down and their effects rang out until it was just Lacey on stage to do a solo acoustic performance of “Play Crack The Sky” followed by 2016’s hooky “I Am a Nightmare.”  They closed entirely with “You Won’t Know” from 2006’s “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.”