[ATTENDED: March 6, 2018] Spoon
I couldn’t believe that Spoon was the second band on this bill. I had seen Spoon last year at the TLA in Philly and they played a huge set and the fanbase was rabid. It was weird to see them in the setting sun (Britt Daniel came out and acted like he was a vampire when he saw the bright sun).
The crowd had filled in somewhat between Sunflower Bean and Spoon, but they were still going on at 6:45–not an ideal concert time, to be sure.
Regardless, the folks who were there were there for Spoon and they reacted appropriately. There was lots of dancing and singing along. And Daniel either saw people he recognized or just acted like it because he was engaging and a lot of fun.
A few days before this tour started, it was announced that bassist Rob Pope was leaving the band [he’s going to spend more time with his other band The Get Up Kids]. It seemed liked terrible timing, but I gather they had his replacement Ben Trokan all lined up because they didn’t miss any dates on the tour and Trokan was great when I saw them.
Britt Daniel was dressed in a shirt and jacket (again, it was very hot, what’s up with these singers?). He immediately started interacting with the crowd, climbing on his monitors and putting a foot on the fence that kept the crowd from the stage. Like last time, they opened with “Do I Have to Talk You Into It” and everyone sounded fantastic. Daniel’s voice was in great form and his guitar playing (when he played) was right on.
Since the previous show was nearly two hours and this one was barely 40 minutes, I assumed we’d get the truncated version of the previous set list. But it seems that Spoon likes to mix things up a bit from night to night. So up next was “The Way We Get By” which I didn’t hear last time (nice!). They followed that with another favorite of mine, “My Mathematical Mind.”
They played the new song, “No Bullets Spent” which fit in perfectly with the rest of their set. Then everyone went crazy when they started the rumbling guitar for “The Underdog”. There were no horns like on the record, but the keys and piano were a great substitute.
I love watching drummer Jim Eno. He seems to be having so much fun out there. He definitely feeds off of Daniel’s energy–there were a couple of times when Daniel slashed his guitar through the air and Eno accented that with some drum hits. During “The Underdog” he was playing the maracas and when he was done he hurled it across the stage to the roadie–who caught it!
The slow piano intro that started the next song sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure if I knew it. It turned out to be a cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation.” It sure sounded like a Beatles song when they were playing it, but they put a nifty Spoon spin on it.
On the left side of the stage was Gerardo Larios and Alex Fischel both on keys and guitars. Larios was standing in the back playing mostly keys but the occasional guitar. I enjoyed watching Larios play the harp-like keyboard sounds during “Inside Out.”
Alex Fischel is a rocking lunatic on his side of the stage. Mostly he’s bouncing and pouncing on his own keyboards and effects arrays but every once in awhile he would strap on a guitar and come out to the center of the stage for a minute, playing some noisy angular guitars like in “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” (a song I can’t believe they didn’t play last time and which I was super exited to hear tonight).
I knew that Trokan would fit in fine with Spoon once he played the throbbing bass of “I Turn My Camera On” which sounded perfect.
They ended the set with a rocking “Don’t You Evah” and hen followed it with two songs from They Want My Soul, “Do You” and “Rent I Pay.” Las time, they ended the TLA show with “Rent I Pay” as well. So the first and last songs were the same, but much of everything else was different.
The sun started to set on them before their set ended, and that seemed to make their set a bit more fun.
Spoon were very loud though and I should have put in ear plugs. But since they only played for 40 minutes, it wasn’t too much over-exposure for me.
All in all a great set and a good introduction to Spoon for S. who didn’t really know them.
| 2019 PNC | 2018 TLA |
| Do I Have to Talk You Into It [Hot] | Do I Have to Talk You Into It [Hot] |
| The Way We Get By [Moon] | I Turn My Camera On [Gimme] |
| My Mathematical Mind [Gimme] | Lowdown (Wire cover) |
| No Bullets Spent [Hits] | The Fitted Shirt [Girls] |
| The Underdog [Ga] | Don’t You Evah [Ga] |
| Isolation (John Lennon cover) | Do You [Soul] |
| Inside Out [Soul] | Via Kannela [interlude] |
| You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb [Ga] | I Ain’t the One [Hot] |
| I Turn My Camera On [Gimme] | Everything Hits at Once [Girls] |
| Don’t You Evah [Ga] | Can I Sit Next to You [Hot] |
| Do You [Soul] | My Mathematical Mind [Gimme] |
| Rent I Pay [Soul] | Don’t Make Me a Target [Ga] |
| The Underdog [Ga] | |
| Got Nuffin [Trans] | |
| Black Like Me [Ga] | |
| encore | |
| Small Stakes [Moon] | |
| Hot Thoughts [Hot] | |
| Rent I Pay [Soul] |
[Girls] Girls Can Tell (2001)
[Moon] Kill the Moonlight (2002)
[Gimme] Gimme Fiction (2005)
[Ga] Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)
[Trans] Transference (2010)
[Soul] They Want My Soul (2014)
[Hot] Hot Thoughts (2017)
[Hits] Everything Hits at Once (2019)
Evidently Eno has different bass drum heads. I wonder how often he changes them.
This time it was the one on the left. Last time it was the one on the right.
I Just Read About That... 