Pop Smart - See & Do: Music: R.E.M., Modest Mouse, the National
Three generations of underground crossover acts provide an astounding level of craftsmanship. Rootsy elder statesmen R.E.M. are supporting their best album in a dozen years, Accelerate, on Sat. JUNE 21. There’s a cloudy Northwestern pallor shading the shimmer and softening the edges of Modest Mouse’s jagged windy guitar and percolating rhythms. Isaac Brock’s spindly mumble-shout echoes the tension between dreamy drift and the hard edge of reality, reflected in Brock’s self-doubting lyrical circumspection. The National’s shadowy orchestral swoon is at its most modulated and balanced on last year’s The Boxer, a stylish cape around Matt Berninger’s smoky baritone. $35-$75. 6:30 p.m. Lakewood Amphitheatre. 404-443-5000. www.livenation.com.
(Photo by Charlie Brewer)