Festival Downloads Intimate Setting at Tweeter Center

MANSFIELD - What started as a sedate concert Saturday on the back lot of the Tweeter Center ended in a raucous high-energy set from alternative rockers Modest Mouse.
Where Ozzfest and the Warped Tour are about excess heavy metal and punk rock, respectively, the Download Festival reaches for a more intimate approach when dealing with the fans.

With the back lot open at the Tweeter Center, the festivals are afforded extra space with which to spread out and allow room for booths and multiple stages. Here the fans were offered space to spread out and enjoy their favorite bands.

Nearly a week ago, the pavement was choked with booths selling their goods and services, now only a handful of them ringed the area and offered fans a better chance to spread out in front of the second stage and participate first hand with featured bands.

As the opening acts on the second stage played their songs, concert-goers casually roamed the grounds playing video games at media installations, grabbing food or talking with their friends.

Wolf Parade was a band playing on the second stage, and it was the type of jam band that focused on the way they play music and experimenting with various sounds and vocals.

While they played their songs well, they had trouble connecting with the crowd, which only managed to keep the energy low even when they played some more upbeat tunes.

The highlight of the back lot came when the second stage closed for the day and the small mock garage played host to a question-and-answer session, and acted as a third stage for local talent to showcase their songs.

During the question-and-answer session, Adam from the band Guster, playing the main stage later in the evening, talked about the environment, alternative fuels and living green.

When they were finished, the local bands drew a fair-sized crowd that were surprised at the amount of talent the area had to offer.

The main event for the day was Modest Mouse. Even before they came to the stage, the crowd filled the canopy with rhythmic sounds of clapping and shouts.
Modest Mouse is an alternative rock band that made waves with its 2004 release "Good News for People Who Like Bad News."

They play like the aforementioned jam band, but while focusing on their musicality they also know that their songs have to have heart.

Modest Mouse played with the vigor and energy found on their albums, which is a raucous mix of rock and bluegrass sounds. The songs that received the loudest and vigorous applause were "Dashboard" and "Fly Trapped in a Jar."

Knowing that you have to connect with the audience, the band stopped in the middle of its set, and rambled on about the effects of too much alcohol, and then called out to the ticket checkers to let the fans in the back come up front and fill in the vacant seats at the front of the venue.

The fans rushing the stage (in an orderly fashion, of course) will do well to remember the hit "Float On" as the song that played when Modest Mouse invited their fans to the front of the crowd.