Johnny Marr, a Modest Mouse all right
It was hard to believe it was actually going to happen, but there he was. On the far left of the Avalon’s stage in Hollywood on Sunday stood guitarist Johnny Marr, the co-founder and co-visionary behind the miserably romantic British rock group the Smiths, four microphones down from Isaac Brock, the talented frontman of Modest Mouse who has come to embody the American indie-rock dirtbag.
Several months ago, Brock announced that Marr was not only working on the band’s forthcoming album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank,†but that he’d also actually joined the group.
Sunday night’s show (the first performance in a mini tour that includes four concerts around L.A.) was the first time Marr played publicly with Modest Mouse, but Brock didn’t make a big deal of it. He didn’t introduce him, any of his other bandmates or himself. In fact, Brock barely directly addressed the crowd -- early on he thanked fans for coming, later he promised he wouldn’t play any of the songs they were requesting.
The addition of Marr is the latest unexpected development in the unexpected career path of Modest Mouse. Though the band became one of indie rock’s biggest draws in the ‘90s with its desperate punk Americana, it wasn’t until 2004 that the group had its first bona fide hit with “Float On.†That came 10 years into Mouse’s recording career and appeared on the group’s second major-label release, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News.†“Float On†was shuffled into the middle of Sunday night’s show, camouflaged by a conga intro from percussionist Joe Plummer, as part of a set that drew heavily from “Good News†and featured six new songs, including “Invisible in Your Car†and “We’ve Got Everything.â€
It wasn’t until the third number of the night that Marr made himself known, handling backing vocals on “Paper Thin Walls†from 2000’s “The Moon and Antarctica.†On the following new track, “Fire It Up,†he took lead guitar duties for the first time and even stepped up to sing the bridge by himself.
With his hair tousled into place and wearing a tight thrift store T-shirt from “Fort Jackson, South Carolina,†Marr almost looked as if he was still wearing his “Pacific Northwest rocker†Halloween costume, which is to say he fit right in with the band.
During the premiere of “Missed the Boat,†which combined the rootsy stomp of the Band with the hazy atmospherics of My Bloody Valentine, the worlds of Marr and Modest Mouse crossed explicitly for the first time.
The band ended the night with “Dramamine,†one of its earliest and best songs. With such lyrics as “Feeling spaced breathin’ out Listerine / I’d said that I’d said what I’d tell ya / And that’s you’ve killed the better part of me,†Brock demonstrated his abilities to be unapologetically, unrelentingly honest in his songwriting and, with his vocal phrasing, to deliver damnations as if they were praise. These also are talents of Morrissey, Marr’s ex-partner in the Smiths, so perhaps this new partnership isn’t that unexpected at all.
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Modest Mouse
Where: Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim
When: 8 p.m. today and Thursday
Price: $30
Contact: (714) 712-2700
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