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Modest Mouse and Brand New played Forest Hills Tennis Stadium (pics, videos & setlists)

photos by Mimi Hong, words by Andrew Sacher

Modest Mouse / Brand New @ Forest Hills Tennis Stadium – 8/9/14
Modest Mouse
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Brand New

Modest Mouse and Brand New played a few co-headlining shows this year, including Boston Calling back in May, and one in NYC this past Saturday (8/9) at Queens’ Forest Hills Tennis Stadium which reopened in 2013 after not hosting concerts for years.

Brand New went on first, with an early set starting at 6:30 PM (the venue has a strict 10 PM curfew) which unfortunately meant that their whole set — an otherwise killer light show included — was played in the light. But besides that, no complaints. Like at Boston Calling, Brand New eschewed the poppier material of their early years in favor of a heavy set of noisy post-hardcore. Other than “Seventy Times 7,” they focused on highlights from the darker Deja Entendu, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me and Daisy, plus Devil and God-era outtake “Brothers.” Of all the (relatively) modern bands I’ve seen, few can get a stadium of fans singing to every word of a non-single as loudly as Brand New did for “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t,” and the way they’ve been ending their sets lately with the abrasive one-two punch of “Degausser” and “You Won’t Know” is one hell of a sensory overload. Brand New’s live sets were getting mixed reviews a few years back, but they’re at an all time high right now. There’s been talk that new music is finally coming, and with the way these shows have been it couldn’t feel like a better time for that.

After Brand New’s searing post-hardcore under the sun, it finally got dark and Modest Mouse took the stage for a very different kind of set that somehow was the perfect complement to BN’s. Considering how much the music world has changed in the seven years since Modest Mouse last put out an album, you may not consider them as “relevant” as they once were. But their set on Saturday was a hit-after-hit reminder of how great Modest Mouse’s entire discography still is, and how weird. We of course got the danceable indie rock of “Float On” and “Dashboard,” but also the chilled-out wooziness of “Ocean Breathes Salty,” the raucous screams of “Doin’ the Cockroach,” the genuinely strange bass-heavy “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” and so much more. They gave us 17 songs in an hour and a half without a dull moment, and when that 10 PM curfew hit, it still felt like most of the crowd would have wanted another 17 more.

The next Forest Hills Tennis Stadium shows are Drake/Lil Wayne (8/19) and The Replacements/The Hold Steady/Deer Tick (9/19). Pictures of Saturday’s show are in this post. More, with videos and the setlists for both bands, below…

Brand New – “You Won’t Know”

Brand New – “Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades”

Modest Mouse – “The World At Large”

Modest Mouse – “Float On”

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BRAND NEW SETLIST:
Sink
Gasoline
At the Bottom
You Stole
Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades
I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light
Brothers
Okay I Believe You, but My Tommy Gun Don’t
Seventy Times 7
Sowing Season
Millstone
Luca
Limousine
Jesus
Degausser
You Won’t Know

MODEST MOUSE SETLIST:
he World at Large
Ocean Breathes Salty
Doin’ the Cockroach
Dashboard
Gravity Rides Everything
Lampshades On Fire
Cowboy Dan
This Devil’s Workday
Shit In Your Cut
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Never Ending Math Equation
Sugar Boats
Fire It Up
A Different City

Encore:
Custom Concern
Float On
The Good Times Are Killing Me