Girl at the Rock Shows

I’m going on my annual pilgrimage to the Iowa State Fair today. I’m stoked, and it’s always one of my favorite weekends of the year. Not only do I get to spend time with a good friend from high school, but I also get to experience the best state Fair in the country (and no, that’s not up for debate). I could have left Thursday night to get a full extra day at the fair, but there was a show in town that I just wasn’t willing to skip:s Califone and Modest Mouse at the gorgeous Palace Theatre in Saint Paul.

Chicago-based Califone came out as a duo on Thursday night. Since I’d never even heard of this band, it felt normal to me, but someone in the front row was quick to yell, “Where’s the third guy?!” Guitarist/vocalist Tim Rutili quickly snapped back, “We left him in Chicago.” It was straight-faced, quick and to the point, and I instantly wondered if this project typically comes in the form of a trio, not just a duo but then Tim and his bandmate Ben Massarella on drums (who we would see later on with Modest Mouse) jumped into their set and I honestly didn’t give two shakes if this was the band in the final form or not, I was hooked.

Califone’s sound was soft and sweet, but it had a grit behind it. Stylistically, the first song instantly reminded me of bands like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, but as the set went on, their sound seemed to shift into a million different forms. There were rockin’ moments that had a bit of a heavy beat, followed up by more of an ambient tone that drifted me off to a whole other world. Other than taking photographs for the first couple of songs, I feel like this band kept themselves in the background. Typically, that is a terrible thing because it means the band didn’t have the stage presence needed to keep me engaged, but that wasn’t the case here. I was still all ears for Califone’s sound, but their overall sound lent itself to an atmosphere that felt free and friendly. Instead of standing there with my eyes glued to the stage, I stood there with my ears glued to the stage, but my eyes watching the nearly sold-out audience around me. It made for a truly immersive experience and one that not only had me hooked, but had me intrigued. Thursday night was my introduction to this band, and I truly can not wait to dig into their sound a bit more as I make the trek back to the homeland of Iowa.

Modest Mouse is a staple. That is all—just a staple. Not a staple in my life or a staple on the radio, just an overall staple, and that’s what makes seeing them live so freaking special. Formed in 1993, Modest Mouse has had some highs and has had some lows. The highs came with many hit singles, including “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty.” The lows include the death of founding member and longtime drummer Jeremiah Green back in 2022. Through all of those highs and lows, Modest Mouse has kept going. They have kept putting out innovative, extremely catchy tunes while traveling around the world to share them with anyone and everyone who will listen. Thursday night was my fourth time seeing this legendary band live, and like their career, there have been highs and lows to seeing them perform live. Thursday night was absolutely a high.

The band opened up the set with “Third Side of the Moon” and then powered through seventeen songs before ending the night with a four-song encore. There were definitely some songs missing from their setlist, most notably “Float On,” but I was oddly okay with that. Not only did I get to hear “Ocean Breathes Salty” fairly early on in their set, I got immersed in the world of their new album ‘An Eraser and a Maze.’ For a band that has been doing this for over three decades, Modest Mouse never stops creating and never stops innovating, and I feel like this new album is proof of that. From hearing that opening track to hearing “Life’s a Dream” and about four other songs from the 2026 album, I feel like seeing and hearing these songs live really brought this album that I had already been jamming fairly regularly to life in a beautiful way.

Outside of a few statements between songs, I feel like this band was all business, which was a turn from the last time I saw them at The Armory in 2025 with The Flaming Lips and Friko. That night, I feel like vocalist Isaac Brock went off on a million tangents and made the night more about stories than song. It was an interesting way to approach the set and definitely drew some criticism, but that was not the case on Thursday. You could tell that the band wanted to play as many songs as they possibly could given their set length, so that’s exactly what they did. That being said, the magic of this band was still there. There was this feeling of improvised freeness throughout each song. That’s not to say they improvised songs or anything like that, but it just had the feeling of something a bit more free-flowing than a buttoned-up set, and I was ready to eat up every second of it.

Now I start my trek to the homeland. The place where dreams go to die. The place that I grew up in and appreciate so much more now that I’ve left. There will surely be some live music when I’m in Des Moines, but it won’t hold a candle to the magic that I felt on Thursday night at The Palace Theatre.

Line Up:

Califone

Modest Mouse

Venue: Palace Theatre

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 43

Crowd Surfers- 0

Stage Divers- 0

Dance-ability- 4 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On My Friend While Walking Around- $27.12

Broken Bones- None

Spotted Flying Through The Air- Nothing

Fights- None

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

Califone – 0

Modest Mouse – 3

Show on Deck – The Bends / The Red Clay Strays

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee (Seriously!)

Check out my playlist HERE!