Ever been dying to see a band forever and you finally get the chance to see them only to be let down and disappointed? This is one of those times. I was not disappointed by the performance of the musicians but the horrible venue.

So the band is Modest Mouse. I’ve wanted to see them forever, even more now just to see the former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Not that I actually listen to the Smiths but I do appreciate the influence they have on much of the music that I do listen to.

Starts bad and only gets worse

First, I was not happy about the price of the tickets, they where $30.00 plus the Ticketmaster fees. I think my total cost was over $40 for the tickets. This didn’t upset me too much because it was a band I really wanted to see. A co-worker of mine told me that the venue was an ice rink and it’s a horrible place to see bands. Needless to say I was not happy to hear that after just spending $40 on tickets. In my mind I was convincing myself that it’s still worth it and I’m going with a good friend of mine and we will have a good time.

I show up at the venue and it’s a long wait of cars to get to the parking lot. I’m shocked to see the amount of teenagers, I was expecting to see more people around the age of 30 like myself. I notice the rent-a-cops and I pull up and see the sign for $5 to park and my first glimpse of the Rostraven Ice Garden. Not only am I upset of forking over $5 to park but one look at the exterior of the Ice Garden I knew this was going to be bad. The rent-a-cops directed me to park in the grass field. It’s been raining for days and it was pretty muddy.

I make my way through the parking lot and get inside the building. The interior is very dilapidated and was probably built in the late 60’s early 70’s and hasn’t been touched since then. I get to the rink part where the opening band was playing and was happy they actually melted the ice, I’ve heard sometimes they just lay carpet over the ice and it becomes a big slushy mess, someone actually recommended that I should wear snow boots.

I take a look at the sound system and the engineers which appeared to be high school teenagers that would be running sound at a high school musical production. The place sounded horrible, everything echoed. I was feeling anxious to see Modest Mouse and was praying the sound would be better. I look over at the beer cart and the choices are Miller Lite or none, so I chose none.

Finally Modest Mouse

They show up on stage and all the teenagers go crazy and push towards the stage. If you never heard of Modest Mouse, I’ve made a muxtape so you can listen. They have a very interesting sound that I can’t really explain. Needless to say they have two drummers, guitars, bass and keyboards. Also they switch it up with other instruments like the Upright Bass, Banjo, Squeeze Box and assorted other instruments.

The sound seemed to get a little better but it still echoed. It was interesting to see Isaac Brock use two different mics for vocals for his different vocal styles. I was happy to finally see them play, they impressed me but it was unfortunate that the sound sucked and the venue was horrible.

It only gets worse

So the show is over, I got to see Modest Mouse finally, I was pleased but not happy. It’s pouring outside and thousands of teenagers are trying to leave a drenched parking lot. I get to my car and don’t move for about 45 minutes. Kids are stuck in the mud everywhere they don’t know what to do to maneuver the car to get out of the mud so they just put the gas peddle to the floor and dig themselves even deeper into the mud. I can’t help but to chuckle a bit. I’m wondering why I paid $5 to park because noone is directing traffick and it’s a total cluster fuck of teenagers all trying to exit the parking lot. Some attempt bold moves to get around the stagnant traffic and wind up in ditches. It’s almost a scene from a post apocalyptic movie. All I could do is feel sorry for all these kids, they paid good money for this show, paid to park and the venue failed on them and didn’t help with directing traffic and providing safety.

I will never go to Rostraven Ice Garden ever again, not even if John Lennon rose from the grave and the Beattles did one more show at the Ice Garden.

Enjoy Modest Mouse (I couldn’t add songs from a few albums due to DRM)