Spoon @ Webster Hall, 12/30/06

Spoon played a short, tight set this past Saturday night at Webster Hall in Manhattan. They were filling in for The Silver Jews, who had cancelled several weeks ago. "They said if we played, you guys would show up. And here you are," singer/guitarist Britt Daniel quipped midway through the set. Daniel didn't share many other thoughts with the audience, and didn't need to, as the band barely came up for air between songs.

The sold out crowd was enthusiastic throughout most of the set, especially during the Gimme Fiction numbers. Spoon plowed through an (almost) 90 minute set, touching on every album at least once (except Telephono), but relied most heavily on Kill the Moonlight and Gimme Fiction, their two most recent collections of new songs. The Kill the Moonlight material especially comes to life on stage, as the skeletal pop songs of the album were fleshed out, often featuring fuller arrangements and plenty of the spastic guitar outbursts that populate Gimme Fiction. "Paper Tiger" and "Small Stakes" particularly amazed. Minimalistic on record, these songs were morphed into blazing war horses.

There were a few nice surprises, such as "Utilitarian" and "I Could See the Dude", from A Series of Sneaks and the Soft Effects EP, respectively. There were also several catchy new songs showcased that should pop up on the slated 2007 release Spoon is currently working on. The only thing to complain about was with the length of the show. When the house lights came up after the first encore many people standing around me were a bit surprised. At 10:15 there was plenty of time for a few more songs, especially considering they hadn't yet played "Sister Jack", perhaps their most well known song.

Spoon is an exciting band, and one certainly at an interesting point in their career. Thanks to a fantastic string of records so far this decade, and some strategically placed song tie-ins in commercials, more people than ever are aware of Spoon right now. Never a band to play it safe though, it'll be very interesting to see what they throw out to us in '07.

Also, check out Spoon at:
www.myspace.com/spoon
www.spoontheband.com