On September 7, 2025, the Greek Theatre in Berkeley hosted a remarkable double bill featuring Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips -each band delivering at least a 75-minute set, separated by over 20 years from their breakout records. The evening carried the last heat of Indian summer, light winds hinting at fall as music fans filled the amphitheater. It was a night that underscored not only the legacy of both acts but also the profound evolution of their sound over the decades.
Modest Mouse’s set was nothing short of flawless, a realization that surprised me given their long career. Somehow, they managed to maintain the grit and rawness that launched them into indie stardom while sounding polished and tenured. Their prolific catalog traces the tumult of urban sprawl, road trips, drug use, and late nights intertwined with witty commentary and tender anecdotes about a world seemingly gone awry amid corporate takeovers.
I saw all of their early shows in the Bay Area in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. They played with bands like The Aislers Set, Seam, The Sunshine Club, Califone, and Red Stars Theory, which was Jeremiah Green’s band. Jeremiah, one of the co-founders of Modest Mouse, put out “But Sleep Came Slowly,” which, if you have not had a chance at it, is one of the most underplayed, quintessential shoegaze/emo/math/indie pieces ever made. Isaac and the boys were in their 20s then, fueled by what seemed to be truckers’ speed or something like it, and I remember being 15 to 17, thinking, ‘Wow, these 20-year-olds seem jacked up on something.’ Jeremiah passed away just after the reunion tour for The Lonesome Crowded West several years ago; the weight of that loss still lingers over the band’s history.
Their early work, particularly The Moon and Antarctica and The Lonesome Crowded West, stands as some of the most quintessential indie records, breaking through with their cacophonous soundscapes that sound like they are falling apart just as they come together—perfectly disjointed and tight at each sudden stop. Listening to the band’s early LPs is to hear a commentary on a rapidly changing world: what it was, what it became. Despite some solid releases post-2004, as a critic, I would argue that none of their later albums quite touched the raw, revolutionary energy of their first decade.
The band’s resilience was palpable, especially considering the loss of an original member to cancer just a few years before this show. I witnessed them at the Fox Theater last, where a heavy feeling lingered, the shadow of impending loss. But at Berkeley, the mood was more relaxed, more awake. They played with a sense of presence and acknowledgement of their history. Something rare happened, making it feel like their early days; no one in the crowd had their phones out. There was even a phone-free mosh pit during Modest Mouse, reflecting the band’s beginnings when Nokia phones ruled and stayed buried in your pocket.
Setlist:
Gravity Rides Everything · Breakthrough · Float On · Never Ending Math Equation · Fire It Up · Dogbed/Sheetrock · King Rat · Fly Trapped in a Jar · Heart Cooks Brain · What People Are Made Of · Dashboard · Tiny Cities Made of Ashes · Third Side of the Moon · Dramamine · Night on the Sun
My first experience of the Flaming Lips was on 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield on MTV, “She Don’t Use Jelly” music video. I remember a lot of swirling color and Wayne Coyne crooning about jelly and tangerines. I was a confused 13- to 17-year-old—I honestly don’t remember my exact age—but I was impressionable and definitely forever changed.
The next time I gave the Lips a chance I was 18 or so and my neighbor brought over their experimental album, Zaireeka, a record where you have to play four different CDs on four different audio systems. Very art school, very annoying, very complex, but what is art if it is not that? I was still confused.
Fast forward to Coachella 2004, I was 23, on drugs, and definitely not accustomed to large festivals. At that point in music, going PHISH and what was left of the Dead, some rave scenes, and of course, the underground scenes put all the big-deal stuff on. Corporate takeovers for year-round, drug-addled, college-free fun started around that time, and multiple bill fests like Bonnaroo and ATP NYC tested the grounds for larger events. As a young, hungry music seeker, even I had to get used to running from stage to stage to catch maybe two-thirds of an act and run off to the next. At the time, it was confusing and fun. Now I look back and think, hmmmmm, would dirty dreads even be a thing on white kids without year-round corporate festival culture? No time for family and college kids! You gotta sell those drugs and T-shirts to get to the next watered-down corporate fest. I digress.
I saw the Lips at Coachella peaking on Molly…it was way too much Molly…I was terrified. Wayne came out in his bubble and rolled across the crowd, and I thought for sure I would be pummeled. The music was all over the place…so was I….and I literally ran from the set. I have seen the Lips at the Warfield with the bubble, and I have seen the Lips at Desert Daze without the bubble. I have experienced this band under duress and happily and moderately sober in my 30s.
The Greek show was a wonderful exhibit of all the eras of the Lips, but the mystique was there, as it had been the whole time. Wayne is a man of smoke and mirrors. Giant pink vaginal robot blobs blew up around him while he navigated seamlessly around them. He has a full head of Neil Diamond-quality locks and a troubadour’s foppish psychedelic wardrobe. He kept releasing giant balloon bubbles from the stage directly above photographers, bopping them on the head as 5-foot balloons sailed while smoosh robots came to life and danced above. Wayne closed the set with a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who had passed earlier that week.
Setlist:
Sleeping on the Roof · Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 · Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2 · Turn It On · Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung · Five Stop Mother Superior Rain · The Golden Path · Feeling Yourself Disintegrate · The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power) · She Don’t Use Jelly · Do You Realize??
Encore: War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover) · Race for the Prize
Together, this night showcased two bands whose careers span decades, each shaped by shifting landscapes of music and culture. Standing there in the last warmth of summer, small crisp winds hinting at fall, I laughed, I remembered, and I realized again why I have always chased this music.
