NOTE: All photos are copyright of Dean Keim 2025
90’s alt rock masters Modest Mouse played the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY as the last stop on their national tour, bringing along the complimenting legendary indie rockers Built To Spill as their opening act. Located about an hour North of NYC, the Capitol Theatre is a gorgeously regal movie palace built back in 1919. Taking a journey north to see two god-level rock bands of this caliber could not have turned out to be a more worthwhile voyage, as the venue happens to have some of the best acoustics and expansive views of any venue I’ve ever experienced. Among the many surprises of the night was that Modest Mouse was, in fact, playing their third album, 2000’s The Moon & Antarctica, in its entirety. This mammoth undertaking was not announced on any of their advertisements or social media and surely just about any other band would have made this the focal point of the whole tour and shouted it from the heavens, but that is not how this band operates and you have to respect that kind of fortitude. This album was their first major label release and was hailed for being a major expansion of their sound so I suppose it would be no huge surprise to their real fans that it would be their choice of discs to play, even though their bigger hits would actually come on the later albums. Lead singer Isaac Brock is the only member from that era still in the band but many in the expansive lineup of musicians have been with the group for many years. and they all played a nearly flawless set of gorgeously crafted rock songs that were loose and improved while still feeling tight and pristine.
Built to Spill opened the show and they definitely blew the crowd away. Frontman and guitarist Doug Martsch is also the only original member remaining, but the youthful rhythm section of bassist Melanie Radford and drummer Teresa Esguerra kept the music cooking. They were the ideal band to play along side Modest Mouse as the two have very similar sounds but that is no huge surprise as they were also a key influence on Isaac Brock early on, and they have a long-standing friendship and a shared history on the Pacific Northwest indie scene. There are numerous connections to explain their parallel echoing sounds, and with Modest Mouse opening for Built to Spill back in the mid-90s, it really did seem like a match made in heaven. Martsch’s voice has such a uniquely hypnotic harmony that you can’t help but be hypnotized by his fragile yet booming tenor. Paired with his ripping distorted guitar sound, the whole audience becomes bewitched by the spells he casts. He even looks the part of a wise old wizard with the bushy beard and all. The band has been a real indie act since they split with Warner Brothers a few years back but they did recently sign with the king of indie labels Sub Pop and are now in a kind of new renaissance in their long career. They didn’t play some of their biggest songs but I reveled in the inclusion of their classic “Car”. The crowd didn’t seem to mind the more compact setlist as the band got the loudest and most appreciative standing ovation I’ve seen any crowd give an opener for quite some time.
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Modest Mouse started their show with the The Moon and Antarctica LP and captivated the whole place with the opener “3rd Planet” and I subsequently lost my mind with their expansively psychedelic take on “The Stars Are Projectors.” The light show was impressive throughout and really highlighted the spellbinding magic of their music. After that album and a short break, they came back on for some more songs and, even though they left out many of the classics that you would have expected them to play, it definitely felt as though they were pulling from their personal favorites setlist. They did play the epic “Ocean Breathes Salty” but much of the rest were songs like “Fuck Your Acid Trip”, “King Rat”, and even a cover of the Cure’s “A Forest”, but no “Float On” or “Dashboard”. I did especially love the closer “Bukowski”, a personal favorite. Once again though, it really didn’t seem to matter to the packed venue, as everyone seemed totally enraptured throughout the whole show.
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