Salt Lake City does a neat thing each summer by sponsoring free concerts every Thursday. These concerts have been growing in popularity, and this year were moved to a more “accommodating” venue, Pioneer Park. Then came the announcement that the opening act of the summer would be Modest Mouse. Holy smokes! What sort of attendance was expected I am not sure; what I do know is that the expected attendance could not have been anywhere near 40,000, which is exactly was it was.
After waiting in a giant unorganized line, we found ourselves in a swarm of ant-like people. As we attempted to work our way toward the stage, Modest Mouse’s set began. That’s when all hell broke loose.
For some reason, the set beginning was everyone’s clue to yell, push, cram, jab, and otherwise enact whatever possible chaos they could think of upon all those around them. After being packed absolutely tight to the point of not being able to move for about 10 minutes, I found myself seconds away from a claustrophobic meltdown. (I am used to concerts: I spent half a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert on the front row. I have been to Disneyland on packed days. I promise you, nothing I have experienced compares to the crowd that night. NOTHING.)
After escaping the death trap which claimed the lives of many, we walked around the park, exited, and realized that we could see the show better from outside the fence. As people around us jumped the fence, got drunk, and cheered for Float On, we enjoyed a very mellow and relatively good (relatively being the key word) view of Modest Mouse.
Don’t let my pessimism thwart the joys of seeing these guys play live, it was just as expected: a blast. They are such a delight to listen to! And it was like our own little listening party outside the fence. They played mostly new stuff, but luckily graced our ears with my favorite of the night, Dramamine. It was great.
And so ended our adventure into and out of the heart of the devil: thousands of drunk people that want to hear Float On. All in all it was actually quite fun.
