Spoon was one of the biggest indie acts that had managed to elude me for some time; with smaller bands, you don’t necessarily kick yourself when shows repeatedly don’t work out. But this is Spoon, and they are really fucking good; they deserve better than that.

I almost missed this show as well; I was having a few drinks after work with coworkers, and it started pouring outside. The torrential downpour, along with me feeling a little on the happy side, nearly made me decide to just go back to Brooklyn to wait out the storm until it was time to catch Deerhunter later that evening. However, a friend of mine who was more dedicated than I went while it was still raining, and told me that although the openers were cancelled, the rain was letting up and the show was still on. So I headed down to the park where the show was going down, and saw a mob of people trying to dry everything off the stage. Apparently, they did a good job; Spoon went on a little late, but with enough time to get a set in. The crowd was impressively large, I can only imagine how many folks would’ve showed up with better weather.

As has been widely discussed by many much bigger fans than me, Spoon’s best quality is their stark minimalism. You only get the bare necessities of a song: rhythm, restrained arrangements and a catchy vocal melody with a swagger in the delivery that rightfully makes everyone else envious, if not completely jealous. This translates extremely well live, as what you’re used to hearing on the record, you also get from the concert. The set, from what I remember, was a little light on the new record Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which was a little disappointing as it’s one of my favorite releases this year. They did, however, have a horn section with them for a few songs, which was excellent. I look forward to seeing them play a longer set in a room; Spoon are definitely worth checking out.

Labels: Concert Reviews, Spoon