Spoon
Irving Plaza, New York (April 9, 2003)
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Spoon
Irving Plaza, New York
April 9, 2003 |
The group is fronted by Britt Daniel, whose vocals paint each Spoon song with a delicious sneering drawl that does a lot to cement their personality. But the band's oeuvre is primarily distinguished by the individuality of the songs themselves. Daniel has grown into one of those songwriters who can create unique-sounding rock songs without relying on any sort of instrumental crutch or aping any tired styles. A good deal of the songs on the group's latest Merge album Kill the Moonlight -- including opener "Small Stakes" and the aforementioned "The Way We Get By" -- thrive with pockets of open sonic space, communicating their catchy rhythms and melodies much more strongly in their bare state than they would with fleshed-out instrumentation.
Daniel is a proficient guitarist -- his first two albums with Spoon drew comparisons to the Pixies and Sonic Youth -- but it says something about his songwriting skill that he has gained more love as he's moved toward a less guitar-reliant sound and down more musically adventurous avenues. The undulating rhythms of songs like "All The Pretty Girls Go To The City" and "Everything Hits At Once" let Daniel's stellar sense of melody spread out and resonate.
The entire concert, including a four-song encore, only lasted a few minutes over an hour, but it felt right. Spoon was not there to blow out the amplifier stacks or drench the front row with sweat, but rather just to give the audience a healthy dose of its original music, with the bulk originating from Kill The Moonlight and its excellent 2000 predecessor Girls Can Tell.
Daniel introduced the latter's "Lines In The Suit" as his favorite song, and it proved one of the night's highlights, with its pulsating guitar-and-keyboards progression drawing audience members under its spell. Another impressive tune was "Me And The Bean," its cascading piano melody morphing into a dub-inspired instrumental section before Daniel returned to the mic, belting out evocative lines like "I am your shadow in the dark / I have your blood inside my heart."
And so it went, Spoon delivering the goods and keeping everyone in the house smiling throughout the performance. The band isn't out to change the world or inherit the future of rock and roll, but it sure has damn good songs.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.