Mom: So what are you doing this weekend?
Me: I’m going to see Modest Mouse in Milwaukee.
Mom: Doesn’t that Mickey Mouse band sing that song, “Float On?”

This conversation with my mother before the Modest Mouse/Walkmen show in Milwaukee was a disturbing sign of exactly how popular Modest Mouse has become in the past few months. I guess I’d been able to block out their rampant commercial success since the release of Good News for People With Bad News by moving to new city where I didn’t have MTV or a car with a radio. Thus I was able to maintain in my mind Modest Mouse’s underground credibility, thus protecting the music snob in me that wants to be annoyed when my bands hit the mainstream. Finding out that even my music-clueless mom knew about “that Mickey Mouse band,” unfortunately, brought me quickly down to reality and reminded me how huge this sold out show was going to be now that Modest Mouse was making its way up the Billboard charts.

I insisted that my friends and I get there early to get as close as possible so I could block out as much of the audience behind me as I could, as I was sure they were going to be throngs of screaming high school girls dying to hear “Float On”; I also wanted to be sure to catch the Walkmen, whose new song “the Rat” is hands down the best straight up rock and roll song I’ve heard all year. Turns out I shouldn’t have been quite so cynical, as most of the people I saw (at least up by the stage) were your pretty standard indie rock fans. After 45 minutes of waiting in sweat-inducing heat without a single fan in the building to ease our discomfort, the Walkmen finally strolled out on stage and kicked things off with Bows and Arrows opener, “What’s in It for Me.” I’d always pictured lead singer Hamilton Leithauser with dark, shaggy hair and a black denim jacket or something; you can imagine my surprise when out sauntered a blond boy with a buzz cut and a polo shirt. The last thing I’d expected the singer to look like was a frat boy. And boy, was he intense; from song to song, he screamed and screeched so much I couldn’t believe his voice could survive the assault night after night. The entire set list came from the new album, with the exception of “We’ve Been Had,” best known for being featuring a car commercial. You could tell the Walkmen put all their energy into rocking out, but unfortunately the venue’s horrific sound (it’s basically a big gym) muffled much of the sound.

By the time Modest Mouse took the stage, I was bathed in my sweat and the sweat of everyone around me, a situation that didn’t improve once Modest Mouse took the stage and launched into “Paper Thin Walls” from Moon and Antarctica. Why didn’t it improve? Because the crowd sort of started . . . moshing. The minute I saw a girl crowd surfing I knew I was a long way from the small 21+ clubs that have spoiled me as of late. I hadn’t seen anyone crowd surf since a Goldfinger concert my freshman year of college, and I was more than happy to have that part of my concert-going life long behind me.

Eventually, though, people got a little tired and the moshing slowly turned into dancing, which I fully approved of and joined right in. The sound had moderately improved since the Walkmen, though when Isaac Brock tried to talk in between songs, his words were completely unintelligible. One intriguing item of note on stage was the fact that Modest Mouse had two drummers, the original drummer Jeremiah Green, and the drummer of the Helio Sequence Ben Weikel, who had recorded on Good News and toured in place of Jeremiah while he was taking time off to put his life back together. Jeremiah did most of the actual drumming while Weikel mostly crashed a few cymbals, again proving that having two drummers is somewhat pointless; however, considering the circumstances, it seemed nice that they decided to bring them both out on tour. It sort of had sentimental value I suppose.

The big question of the day was, “when will the band play “Float On,” if at all?” Thankfully, that question was answered pretty quickly as it was only the third song they played- the “get it over with approach” (as opposed to the “White Stripes Approach,” which is not to play the big hit at all). From then on, about 85% of the set came from Good News, which wasn’t unexpected, though I’d hoped for at least a little variety. Listening to the band live, I realized the vast difference between the new album and the older ones; the songs on Good News are much tighter, shorter pop songs, while on Moon and Antartica and Lonesome Crowded West, their sound was much more sprawling and experimental. Sticking with the tightness theme, the songs they played off of Moon were the shortest and poppiest of the album, including only the aforementioned opener, “3rd Planet,” and “Wild Pack of Family Dogs.” Not that I minded, because I love those songs, but it seemed odd that they were shying away from their more difficult material, possibly in order to cater to the fans that were only familiar with the new album. Which is too bad, because I think a 10-15 minute jam of “Stars Are Projectors” would have been absolutely amazing to hear, especially considering the vast amount of people around me who were partaking in various amounts of drugs (you haven’t lived until you see someone snort coke off his car keys). The closest I got to a Modest Mouse jam was with Lonesome Crowded West’s “Doin’ the Cockroach,” my hands-down favorite moment of the night. It was a brief glimpse of what Modest Mouse was truly capable of on stage, going downright crazy on their instruments for what must have been at least eight minutes. It was eight minutes that I really didn’t care that the overall-wearing, dreadlocked hippy I was standing next too kept rubbing his sweaty arm all over me, because I was too wrapped up in the awesomeness of that performance and the way Isaac Brock basically took over the stage with his breathtaking guitar playing.

Overall, though the show wasn’t what it could have been (at least, my idea of what it could have been), it was still a great time of good music. Modest Mouse has come a long way in the face of rape allegations, attempted murder charges, and suicide attempts to be selling out huge shows like this one. They’re an amazing band that deserves to be successful. If the high school girls are going to be taking down their Britney posters to put up Modest Mouse ones, and my mom can finally get a small taste of the music I like on her own, then I guess there are worse things that could come from mainstream popularity.