Modest Mouse @ ABC

"I can't understand what's going on down there", chirps Isaac Brock in the general direction of the latest vocally adoring devotee to violate his lobes. So it falls upon Johnny Marr to play mediator and affable spokesperson for Modest Mouse to a particularly lairy ABC tonight, coerced in no small part by a medley of Bay City Rollers' Saturday Night with a rambunctious crack at their own shouty go getter, Dashboard. The Washington quintet plus one Manc blaze through numerous portions of what Brock himself has referred to as their "nautical balalaika carnival romp" with the playful, devilish dirge of Fire It Up, Talking Heads-flavoured We've Got Everything and the all-out four to the floor glory of Steam Engenius fighting for rank in the memory banks. So by the time the chords to Float On strike up, Marr looks right at home and his cohorts couldn't appear any more focused. Far from "some sad ass little canoe," Modest Mouse are sailing along the lines of a well-weathered battleship. [Dave Kerr]