Photo: Cambria Harkey
One of the more left-field bands to play the Orion Music + More festival this past weekend was Modest Mouse. They weren’t touring behind a new album, they’re decidedly an indie rock band, and the only point of reference for most of the crowd was likely their eight-year old crossover hit “Float On.” Yet the band gamely played the festival on Saturday night in front of a polite but nonplussed crowd, and everyone was happy, right? Wrong. The band performed the following night at New York’s Randall’s Island for the Governer’s Ball festival alongside Beck, Fiona Apple and Built To Spill. According to the Village Voice, frontman Isaac Brock said the following.
“We played with Metallica last night [at Orion Fest], and I gotta tell you, you guys are so much more attractive—and you probably don’t still live at home”
Pure class, Isaac. First off, way to bite the hand that feeds to prove how “indie” you are. Most Metallica fans probably own their own homes at this point. The band have been around for 30 years, and a large number of their fans are at least in their ’30s. Relying on the ‘metal people are ugly and still live at home’ trope is old and tired, especially at Orion, where the opposite seemed true. Yes, there were plenty of metal fans there, but there were a decent amount of indie rockers that turned out to see bands like Modest Mouse and the Gaslight Anthem. And as stated earlier, the crowd seemed open to checking out music outside of their comfort zone. Guess Isaac Brock didn’t have as open a mind.
