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Words & Images by: Jake Krolick
Spoon :: 10.19.07 :: Electric Factory :: Philadelphia, PA
 Britt Daniel :: 10.19 :: Philly |
Chances are you have heard Spoon before. The band has coined a pocketful of licks instantly identifiable from soundtracks, commercials and a hearty stack of stellar albums. So why isn't Spoon bigger? They seem to have everything needed to break out and fly skyward. Yet, they've barely ascended over the last few years and their last few albums. Spoon writes songs with painstaking measures and they release progressive, thought-provoking records. Their songs have a calculated build but somehow manage to step off the main path and carefully touch aggravation and fear. Their just-below-the-mainstream-radar status landed them in front of a tame-yet-full Friday night Electric Factory crowd.
The performance started like a car on a sub-zero day. Eventually, after a few extra turns of the ignition and pumps of gas, the band warmed and sputtered to life. You could blame the tough start to not one, but two missing opening bands that forced Spoon to act as both warm-up and headliner. Even so, the band stepped up to deliver 24 songs and a pair of encores that spanned their last five albums. It was no small feat interpreting such a series of meticulous studio songs into a four-man show, plus horns, all in a glorified concrete crate.
Clearly, Spoon values their live show as much as their immaculately produced records. Britt Daniel was friendly, energetic and let loose touches of a greater stage presence. Jim Eno's drums dominated the reverberation of the Factory and retained much of their studio juiciness. Rob Pope's bass dipped and Eric Harvey's keys pounced into a few treats from Girls Can Tell and Gimme Fiction. "Fitted Shirt" was a crowd favorite and "I Summon You" was fantastic. The strips of LED lights synched with the beat of the songs, adding a slick element to the show. The couple of missteps were quickly noted and passed over by the band and crowd.
The mid-set grouping of Gimme Fiction's "My Mathematical Mind" and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga's "The Ghost of You Lingers" offered a glimpse of what the band could really do. As Daniel moved the band from one of their most tightly wound pieces to an all-out guitar assault, his playing was greeted with frenzy over its formlessness. Both songs moved perfectly and stuck close to the album versions until they peaked. Then, with a shoulder spin away from the crowd, Daniel's guitar erupted into angst. Emulating Miles Davis by turning his back to the audience, the frontman dropped to his knees in a Jimi Hendrix style rock salute to his Vox stack. He struck the strings with a wild right hand, beating them into submission. He popped to his feet, heaving his guitar to the heavens and bowed down to finish. The moment stole words from the crowd but not audible cheers. It's well known that with Spoon there are no frivolous climaxes or abrupt changes in their sound. "The Ghost of You Lingers" live tossed that notion right out the door. It was unbelievably powerful, amazing and worth going to the show just to hear it alone.
 Britt Daniel :: 10.19 :: Philly |
So, why isn't Spoon bigger? Perhaps it's because they strive for the refinement of a recording while playing live. Aside from a few choice moments, they lacked much of the listless abandon of a performance by a road-tested band like My Morning Jacket or Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons. Those bands are able to put the unscripted moment over studio sheen. This performance was like watching a Spoon album unfold. The effort and commitment was there, but also a lingering notion that Spoon lets their quest for perfection hold them back.
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