Modest Mouse - Dublin

Fruit1985

Can we get a refund?

I literally could not hear the lead singer. What a huge disappointment.

martybike

What an awful gig! The sound was rubbish, the venue was worse (long queues for a drink and the toilets). The band didn't help matters much with their lack of continuity, sometimes 2 minutes between songs and the longest wait for an encore I've ever experienced. Was the lead singer blaming us at the end? It was hard to tell, because I couldn't understand a single word he said all night. Some of their songs were very good and the band gave it socks on occasion, but they couldn't overcome all the other problems.

eyeball kid

Thought they played very good and were giving it loads but the sound levels just were not right. Especially couldn't hear the vocals. When he was talking it sounded like he was in a different room. I sure he was trying to interact with the crowd but we just couldn't understand him. They probably thought we were a bit weird! Pity, it could have been a brilliant gig.

I've waited to see this band for 7 years, and was looking forward to this gig more than any other this year. What a bittersweet affair it turned out to be. I realised after the 3rd song that the sound was as 'good' as it was gonna get and I could do things 1) Let it ruin my night, or 2) Just put the head down and go with it.

As much as I tried to go with the 2nd option, the 1st kept playing on my mind the whole night. I earn my living through music and audio, and am far from flawless myself, but I'm as sure as I can be that tonight's sound problems were nothing to do with equipment or infrastructure, and were solely to blame on human error/inaction.

Isaac Brock had to have went through 90% of tonight's gig (the 'banter' sections anyway) wondering in his mind 'These people speak and understand English, right? Man, my anecdotes are bombing here'. When you're up on stage in his position, the notion that the crowd simply can't hear you doesn't come into play. Not when you have a crew of sound engineers and experts on the payroll and you are presuming that they are doing their job while you're doing yours. Isaac finally asked the crowd about 3 songs from the end if we could hear him, and the crowd response was a resounding 'No!'. Immediately after this, there was a noticeable jump in the vocal level, and I spent the remainder of the gig wondering why the sound engineer couldn't have done that during the first song of the night. He was in an ideal place after all to hear what the rest of us were hearing.

Normally if I'm posting about a gig, I just write one sentence about the sound. Evidently though, tonight bothered me. I haven't even mentioned the feedback at Brock's monitor that was the worst I've heard at a proper gig in a long time. It was getting to the point of 'Is someone gonna deal with that before punters start getting hearing damage?'. Just a really bad night, sound-wise.

Given the above, I enjoyed the band as much as possible. It was a very interesting gig. Having not seen them before, I was blown away by the versatility of most of the musicians. The 2 drum-kits thing works better than I would have imagined previously. I ripped on the sound guy, but I thought their light show was great. Set-wise, after 7 years of waiting to see this band I was never going to get to hear all of the songs I wanted to at one gig, but it was still a strong set. Dramamine and Coyotes really hooked me in, Satin in a Coffin was great fun, The World Of Large (now with an audible singer) was immense.

I just can't get past the sound issues to deem this a 'great fúckin gig'. No matter how good the band were, if you can't hear the lead vocalist it's all fúcked. For those who weren't there, it wasn't just a case of the vocals being too low. I could hear drums clear as day, a warm bass guitar, and then the rest was mostly just a dose of noise. Oh, I got to hear some fortissimo brass too and a banjo at some point. Put it this way, when you can hear Isaac Brock's vocals better while he's singing through the pick-up of his distorted guitar than while he's singing through his actual vocal mic, something bad is amiss.

Could have been a genuinely great gig, but the sound problems were just too much for me.

DC10555

Another thread I see complaining about sound, this time a different venue. It's like the entire of Dublin decided to hire a bunch of amateur sound engineers fresh outta college or something. But then again maybe its a case that we've just been spoiled by the talented sound engineers at venues like The Academy or the Olympia (never had issues at either of these venues).

DC10555

DC10555 wrote: »

Another thread I see complaining about sound, this time a different venue. It's like the entire of Dublin decided to hire a bunch of amateur sound engineers fresh outta college or something. But then again maybe its a case that we've just been spoiled by the talented sound engineers at venues like The Academy or the Olympia (never had issues at either of these venues).

Unfortunately it's not so simple that it can be isolated to Dublin. Touring bands on the level of MM and above will travel with their own sound engineer and crew, the same one who will do the sound for all of their shows. They even tour with their own mixing desk which the engineer would be used to operating, so the reasons for the poor sound in the Helix last night were not technical IMO.

scudzilla

DC10555 wrote: »

Another thread I see complaining about sound, this time a different venue. It's like the entire of Dublin decided to hire a bunch of amateur sound engineers fresh outta college or something. But then again maybe its a case that we've just been spoiled by the talented sound engineers at venues like The Academy or the Olympia (never had issues at either of these venues).

Those 'talented' sound engineers at The Academy and Olympia are always the bands guys, 99.9% of bands that play these 2 venues will have their own sound man

RazorT

Have to agree with everything being said here. The sound just ruined it. It was like the band were playing in the room next door. Kept waiting for the sound engineer to tweak it but it wasn't to be. So disappointed.

TedR

Band had 40 foot truck full of their own sound equipment etc, they had their own audio desks out front and at monitor position onstage, and their own crew. Once sound checked, they didn't have to change anything as supports were run on separate house desks.
Just saying.

PropJoe10

Sound was absolutely disgraceful in fairness. Couldnt hear one word Brock said/sung for the entire show. Very disappointing. And the sound for the support was perfect!

cruhoortwunk

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Sound was absolutely disgraceful in fairness. Couldnt hear one word Brock said/sung for the entire show. Very disappointing. And the sound for the support was perfect!

I wasnt around for the support bands, but that's interesting that it was fine for them.

PropJoe10

cruhoortwunk wrote: »

I wasnt around for the support bands, but that's interesting that it was fine for them.

Yeah. The sound for the last support band was absolutely fine. Vocals were pretty clear. The minute Modest Mouse hit the stage, it was horrific. And never improved for the entire show. Very disappointing. No idea what happened.

eyeball kid

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Yeah. The sound for the last support band was absolutely fine. Vocals were pretty clear. The minute Modest Mouse hit the stage, it was horrific. And never improved for the entire show. Very disappointing. No idea what happened.

That's a good point about the support bands. Both of them you could hear perfectly fine. The room was a lot emptier at that stage, not sure if that could have made a difference.

It was dissappointing. Usually I can overlook something like that and just enjoy it, but the sound issues were that distracting it I couldn't really get into it. I'm sure the band could feel that on stage as well but probably couldn't figure out why the audience weren't really getting into it.

Hopefully they'll be back soon and bring a proper sound engineer with them.

Adrift

Easily one of the worst gigs I've been to. I seen Modest Mouse in the Royal Albert Hall some years back and that was an excellent show. Last night was a miserable experience.

Sound was atrocious, nothing to add there.

Band seemed lethargic and Brock especially seemed tired of it all. Some of those improvised sections like at the end of Tiny Cities Made of ashes were excruciating. Dud notes, out of time, out of harmony with each other - painful stuff!. Female vocals were shambolic.

Setlist was awful too. Lot of downbeat songs selected which added to the lethargic feeling.

Crowd were pathetic too, no atmosphere whatsoever, most of them there to hear Dashboard and Float On. In fact once Float on was played a sizable amount of people shuffled on out the door.

On top of it all Brock seemed very tetchy, maybe they've been on the road too long or something. One of my favourite bands, but I'll be in no rush to see them again

PropJoe10

Adrift wrote: »

Easily one of the worst gigs I've been to. I seen Modest Mouse in the Royal Albert Hall some years back and that was an excellent show. Last night was a miserable experience.

Sound was atrocious, nothing to add there.

Band seemed lethargic and Brock especially seemed tired of it all. Some of those improvised sections like at the end of Tiny Cities Made of ashes were excruciating. Dud notes, out of time, out of harmony with each other - painful stuff!. Female vocals were shambolic.

Setlist was awful too. Lot of downbeat songs selected which added to the lethargic feeling.

Crowd were pathetic too, no atmosphere whatsoever, most of them there to hear Dashboard and Float On. In fact once Float on was played a sizable amount of people shuffled on out the door.

On top of it all Brock seemed very tetchy, maybe they've been on the road too long or something. One of my favourite bands, but I'll be in no rush to see them again

I couldnt even hear any female vocals from where I was. The whole thing was a pure and absolute mess, sound-wise. I'm a fairly casual fan of Modest Mouse and I wont be in a hurry to see them again, to be honest

Xenji

Well there is precedent now in Finland about fans getting refunds on gigs if it is generally agreed the gig was a failure.

cruhoortwunk

Adrift wrote: »

Setlist was awful too. Lot of downbeat songs selected which added to the lethargic feeling.

I liked the setlist, just not the sound

DC10555

scudzilla wrote: »

Those 'talented' sound engineers at The Academy and Olympia are always the bands guys, 99.9% of bands that play these 2 venues will have their own sound man

My bad, I always presumed "in house" guys would do this sort of thing given that they would be familiar with the room/venue acoustics. If the warm up bands were run off the house desk and sounded fine as others have mentioned this would confirm my point, but then again maybe they had their own crews running the desks. Personally I think it's a little backwards to have some guy go in randomly and do it in a venue he's unfamiliar with, but then again I guess they're used to balancing the audio for that specific band and they've time to adjust during the sound checks. :eek:

symbolic

I thought the setlist was great, don't think they could really go wrong though imo, personally I could've listened to an hour long rendition of Dramamine and been happy out.
Thought Brock was well into it. Really enjoyed his performance actually.
The people around me seemed really into it too.
Funny how differently people perceive a gig.

The sound was awful overall but I floated along with it!

I'll definitely be in a rush to see them again.

Fruit1985

Off Topic a bit: Are people 100% sure this was the sound engineer's fault?

I have tickets for Sufjan Stevens for 2 nights in the Helix and am seriously reconsidering based on seeing Modest Mouse there. Still not over how bad it was.

K

PropJoe10

Fruit1985 wrote: »

Off Topic a bit: Are people 100% sure this was the sound engineer's fault?

I have tickets for Sufjan Stevens for 2 nights in the Helix and am seriously reconsidering based on seeing Modest Mouse there. Still not over how bad it was.

K

Well judging on how good the sound was for the support acts, I'd blame the Modest Mouse sound engineer 100%. The vocals were crystal clear for the second support, but the minute Modest Mouse hit the stage, it sounded like Brock was singing underwater.

A Neurotic

To whom should we formally complain? MCD? May as well seeing as how many people are unhappy with it.

PropJoe10

A Neurotic wrote: »

To whom should we formally complain? MCD? May as well seeing as how many people are unhappy with it.

I'm quite sure they'll tell you to do one, but yeah you'd need to complain to the promoter.

Adrift

Adrift wrote: »

Easily one of the worst gigs I've been to. I seen Modest Mouse in the Royal Albert Hall some years back and that was an excellent show. Last night was a miserable experience.

Sound was atrocious, nothing to add there.

Band seemed lethargic and Brock especially seemed tired of it all. Some of those improvised sections like at the end of Tiny Cities Made of ashes were excruciating. Dud notes, out of time, out of harmony with each other - painful stuff!. Female vocals were shambolic.

Setlist was awful too. Lot of downbeat songs selected which added to the lethargic feeling.

Crowd were pathetic too, no atmosphere whatsoever, most of them there to hear Dashboard and Float On. In fact once Float on was played a sizable amount of people shuffled on out the door.

On top of it all Brock seemed very tetchy, maybe they've been on the road too long or something. One of my favourite bands, but I'll be in no rush to see them again

Ah here now by the time float on was played everyone there would have been ready to do the same at that stage.

ElaElaElano

To echo (no pun intended) what everyone else is saying, yes the sound was absolutely awful BUT, we were sat to the right hand side of the stage, feet above both Isaac and the sound guy. As early as after Ocean Breathes Salty (2nd song in) Isaac was giving yer man the most terrifying evils I've ever seen - so I don't think he was oblivious to the issues. He was gesturing at him to raise the mic levels a good few times but nothing came of it.

Overall, as someone who's been a lover of MM for many years it was pretty disappointing and hard to overcome all the issues. There were a few brilliant moments though - the extended Dramamine intro was spine tingling and The View, which I don't think gets played that much, was a treat.

Also shout out to drummer #2 for coming back for the encore wearing a dog mask. Yes. Dog mask.

ElaElaElano

ElaElaElano wrote: »

To echo (no pun intended) what everyone else is saying, yes the sound was absolutely awful BUT, we were sat to the right hand side of the stage, feet above both Isaac and the sound guy. As early as after Ocean Breathes Salty (2nd song in) Isaac was giving yer man the most terrifying evils I've ever seen - so I don't think he was oblivious to the issues. He was gesturing at him to raise the mic levels a good few times but nothing came of it.

Just out of interest, was the person you saw who was on the receiving end of Isaac's evil eyes at the side of the stage, or the back of the room? From the floor I noticed Isaac having a lot of interaction with someone to the side of the stage, that would have been the guy/girl who controlled the levels of the onstage monitors that he and band use to hear themselves and are vital to a smooth performance. There was unreal feedback coming from Isaac's monitor. It was making me cover my ears halfway back on the floor and the audience let out a few groans, it had to have been landing him out of it onstage with the monitor pointing right at him. I've seen unnecessary 'evil eyes' and diva-like tantrums, but in this case Isaac would have been well within his rights to express a bit of concern.

If you saw Isaac send evils towards the back of the room at the front of house sound engineer (person who controls what we in the crowd are hearing) well then the mic level should have went up long before it eventually did, which was minutes from the end after Brock asked the crowd could they hear him. I've never seen a singer have to resort to doing that before. He did seem a bit surprised to find out that we couldn't.

As for the venue itself. I've never been to The Helix main room before, but Friday night's sound problems would not put me off going there again. The room seems to be well built and have appropriate acoustic treatment. Whether MM brought in their own front of house speakers or not, I can't be sure. But I can be fairly sure that the sound problems were little to do with the venue and that the speakers which were used and their placement were adequate. It's the operation of them that was off in my opinion. Everyone has an off day at work but I wonder was it due to genuine problems or just "fúck it, last night of a 4 night run, off tomorrow, auto-pilot you can take it from here". I imagine that doing the sound for MM who have up to 10 different members onstage and probably 20 different instruments to be used through-out the set, as well as a set-list that changes from night to night, is a job that requires you to not ever have an off day.

I've chimed in more than enough at this stage. I'm not disappointed cause I spent the money and feel short-changed, but because I think it would have been very easy for a very small amount of people to make that gig so much better. I finally got to see a great band who rarely make it to these shores and I had to fill in the blanks, all of them, with my imagination on the night. Now the predominant memory is the fúcking sound rather than anything else.

ElaElaElano

stankratz wrote: »

Just out of interest, was the person you saw who was on the receiving end of Isaac's evil eyes at the side of the stage, or the back of the room? From the floor I noticed Isaac having a lot of interaction with someone to the side of the stage, that would have been the guy/girl who controlled the levels of the onstage monitors that he and band use to hear themselves and are vital to a smooth performance. There was unreal feedback coming from Isaac's monitor. It was making me cover my ears halfway back on the floor and the audience let out a few groans, it had to have been landing him out of it onstage with the monitor pointing right at him. I've seen unnecessary 'evil eyes' and diva-like tantrums, but in this case Isaac would have been well within his rights to express a bit of concern.

If you saw Isaac send evils towards the back of the room at the front of house sound engineer (person who controls what we in the crowd are hearing) well then the mic level should have went up long before it eventually did, which was minutes from the end after Brock asked the crowd could they hear him. I've never seen a singer have to resort to doing that before. He did seem a bit surprised to find out that we couldn't.

As for the venue itself. I've never been to The Helix main room before, but Friday night's sound problems would not put me off going there again. The room seems to be well built and have appropriate acoustic treatment. Whether MM brought in their own front of house speakers or not, I can't be sure. But I can be fairly sure that the sound problems were little to do with the venue and that the speakers which were used and their placement were adequate. It's the operation of them that was off in my opinion. Everyone has an off day at work but I wonder was it due to genuine problems or just "fúck it, last night of a 4 night run, off tomorrow, auto-pilot you can take it from here". I imagine that doing the sound for MM who have up to 10 different members onstage and probably 20 different instruments to be used through-out the set, as well as a set-list that changes from night to night, is a job that requires you to not ever have an off day.

I've chimed in more than enough at this stage. I'm not disappointed cause I spent the money and feel short-changed, but because I think it would have been very easy for a very small amount of people to make that gig so much better. I finally got to see a great band who rarely make it to these shores and I had to fill in the blanks, all of them, with my imagination on the night. Now the predominant memory is the fúcking sound rather than anything else.

It was the guy at the side of the stage, just below me. Whenever Isaac looked over or gestured for him to change something he'd throw his hands in the air as if to say 'there's nothing wrong, stop annoying me!'.

I definitely wouldn't say Isaac was diva-like in his reaction but as you say was right to be concerned/irritated by what he could hear. Whatever the cause though it left a room full of people very disappointed.

PropJoe10

ElaElaElano wrote: »

It was the guy at the side of the stage, just below me. Whenever Isaac looked over or gestured for him to change something he'd throw his hands in the air as if to say 'there's nothing wrong, stop annoying me!'.

I definitely wouldn't say Isaac was diva-like in his reaction but as you say was right to be concerned/irritated by what he could hear. Whatever the cause though it left a room full of people very disappointed.

I did see a guy come on and change Isaac's mic at one stage, but it made absolutely no difference. It was like they were playing through a sea of treacle. Very disappointing evening!

cruhoortwunk

Got a response from MCD:
Good Morning x

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your feedback regarding your recent attendance at Modest Mouse in The Helix and thank you for your continued patience regarding a full response to your feedback. Your comments have been passed to myself to respond to on behalf of the concert promoters, MCD Productions .

I am very sorry that you were unhappy with the sound quality at this concert. Although it may not be apparent to all of our patrons, the sound equipment that is installed for a touring show and the subsequent sound mix for the concert is controlled by the tour production manager and his sound engineer, and is not directly under our control as the promoter. Clearly the sound from concert to concert will vary, as there are countless variations of sound equipment that can be employed, but the specification of equipment used will have been approved by the band and their management directly, and the concert sound will be monitored by the bands own engineers throughout the event. We can confirm that the artists team used their own touring desks for front of house and monitors and they also used their own control systems/multi and mic set. They had ample time to do all required sound checks earlier in the day, no restrictions and they themselves controlled all sound aspects throughout the event.

Inevitably the way that patrons experience sound is entirely subjective, and what may be right for one listener may not suit another .Whilst I very much regret that you felt the sound to be not to your satisfaction, we did not receive any complaints on the night from yourself or anyone else in attendance at the event and therefore would have to advise in future if you are unhappy with any aspect of an MCD promoted event to please bring it to the attention of a member of staff at the event so we might be able to review any reports and assist accordingly on the night. Unfortunately on this occasion I cannot assist you any further regarding your feedback and would therefore have to advise that if you wish to discuss this further you would need to contact the artists management team directly.

I am sorry you did not enjoy the show as we intended, though I assure you of our best intentions at all times.
Kindest Regards
Kim

ionapaul

My wife got the exact same cut-and-paste response earlier in the week!