After a four-year absence, we’re just excited to have Modest Mouse back in town, but we’d be over the moon (and Antarctica) if the band wouldn’t mind including a few of our favorites.
1. “Classy Plastic Lumber” (Sad Sappy Sucker, 2001) Not sure if they’ve ever played this mid-’90s-era oddity, but there’s always a first time, right?
2. “Tundra/Desert” (This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About, 1996) Easy to imagine Johnny Marr having fun with that hard-driving riff when “Desert” kicks in.
3. “Dirty Fingernails” (That Fruit That Ate Itself, 1997) Just save it for the end, when your voice is already torn up, okay Isaac?
4. “Heart Cooks Brain” (The Lonesome Crowded West, 1997) With so many DJs in town, surely they can find someone to sit in and scratch.
5. “Cowboy Dan” (The Lonesome Crowded West, 1997) No set-list rarity, but we’ll cry if we don’t get to shout “God if I have to die you will have to die!”
6. “Never Ending Math Equation” (Building Something Out of Nothing, 2000) Once a concert staple, The Mouse seems to have abandoned it in 2005. Why? Why?!?!
7. “The Stars Are Projectors” (The Moon & Antarctica, 2000) Mainly just ’cause we’re suckers for nine-minute rock epics.
8. “The Devil’s Workday” (Good News For People Who Love Bad News, 2004) Is that horn part up for grabs, per chance?
9. “Parting of the Sensory” (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2007) Good to hear it’s finally been making live appearances recently.
10. “Spitting Venom” (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, 2007) We’ll eat he merch table if the best track from the latest disc isn’t proffered.
With Matt Costa. September 15, 8 p.m., $30. The Joint, 693-5066.