“We want to play all the songs you want to hear tonight,” said Spoon frontman Britt Daniel. The Austin, Texas five-piece made good on that promise and delivered a tight hits collection at the House of Blues during last Wednesday night’s tour opener.
The band started with a cover of “Held” by Smog, a.k.a. Bill Callahan, from their most recent album, Lucifer on the Sofa. Whereas the original has a creeping sense of dread and whirring psychedelia in the background, Spoon switched things up by adding their signature plucky chug and pushing the guitars to the front with Daniel and touring guitarist Gerardo Larios trading stabs on their respective Fenders.
They followed it up with another Lucifer cut, “Wild.” With rollicking guitar and major piano chords underscoring Daniel’s lyrics about the world calling out to him, it sounded like their own version of Primal Scream’s “Movin’ on Up.”
“We’ve been prepping for this for a long time,” quipped Daniel afterward. It may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the group didn’t show any signs of rust. The lead singer’s snarling bark sounded crisp, especially on “Do You” and “Don’t Make Me A Target.” Drummer Jim Eno, the group’s only other original member, kept things steady with a snappy snare that allowed Daniel and Larios’ guitars to shine. Both Ben Trokan and Alex Fischel filled the gaps by adding keyboards, bass, guitar, and backing vocals.
Larios was the evening’s other star — besides Daniel — adding a pedal-assisted wall of noise at the end of “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” and a distorted organ solo before launching into “The Underdog.”
Overall it was a relatively straightforward affair. The lighting was nothing special, and the only bit of production design was a single line reminiscent of the one on the Lucifer cover that split up a black backdrop.
There were other highlights for sure. Fans bounced during the start of “Inside Out,” bathed in the same blue light of the album’s alluring cover as Daniel crooned to the front row from atop the stage monitor. The groovy syncopated guitar chugging to start “I Turn My Camera On” also drew an appreciative roar from the crowd. A touch of pogoing happened when the kick drum of “Rent I Pay” started.
Daniel made sure to play to the crowd the entire evening. He held his Fender Telecaster alongside his head while strumming, kneeled while slashing away at it, and stumbled across the stage to interact with other band members.
And then it was over. The main set lasted 70 minutes. Like all their albums, it was punchy, focused, and without an ounce of fat.
The encore, by comparison, felt like a bit of a letdown.
Covers of John Lennon’s “Isolation” and the Modern Lovers’ “She Cracked” fell flat before the opening piano chords of “The Way We Get By” revived the crowd. The Cramps’ “TV Set” cover faired slightly better than the previous efforts but still felt forced. When the band reached Kill The Moonlight cut “Jonathan Fisk,” the crowd felt antsy. As the band proved for the last 25 years, less is often more. For the first hour plus, the band was pure perfection.