Me and my friend Alex have been desperately trying to see Spoon for years. We stupidly missed out on their Ga Ga tour, but we were smooth enough to grab tickets for their huge show at Radio City Music Hall. It was completely worth every penny (I’m not big enough to get press passes at Radio City, who are you kidding?)
Openers The Strange Boys played exciting country inspired garage rock. They honestly sounded like the old Kings Of Leon (try 4 years before they used somebody) with a young Caleb singing.
Deerhunter followed with a very strong set full of dense reverb rock They mixed their slower ambient stuff with Microcastle hits like “Never Stops”. Bradford dedicated the set to Alex Chilton, the legendary Big Star member who recently passed away.
The crowd was full of a lot of older fans who had no interest in either of the opening acts. So it was easy to tell people were impatiently waiting for Spoon to take the stage. Once they finally did, things settled down and the mood was set right. Spoon’s set started with Britt Daniel performing “Me and The Bean” solo. They followed up with three Transference cuts, The Mystery Zone, Written In Reverse, Got Nuffin, all of which got pretty good responses from the crowd.
The band played their songs true to form on the record with precision and ease. They played many classic cuts from all of their albums as far back as Girls Can Tell. I extremely enjoyed hearing songs that I have spent plenty of time with over the past few years, such as the excellent Ga Ga Ga opener “Don’t Make Me A Target” to “The Beast And Dragon, Adored”. However, the crowd was more enthusiastic about the Ga x5 standouts such as The Underdog, Don’t You Evah, and Cherry Bomb.
Spoon messed up the begging of The Ghost Of You Lingers, but they restarted it and gave it a new life live. Personally the best song of the night was “I Summon You”. It’s probably my favorite Spoon song, and it was just so sincere live. One of the coolest concert moments for me – ever. The cuts from Trasnference were handled with delicate care, but it was the older cuts that really shined tonight and made the night unforgettable.
It was a big show for the band, and they knew it. They had plenty of guest and surprises for us to make the show quite memorable. Eleanor Friedberger from the Fiery Furnances came out to help Spoon cover their song Waiting to Know You, as well as Spoon’s Someone Something. Then later on in the show Wolf Parade’s guitarist/vocalist Dan Boeckner came out to help the band cover Wolf Parade’s song, “Modern Love”. As a big Wolf Parade geek, this was an amazing treat and I was able to record it for you all. What a great moment. Watch the video below:
I would totally go to see Spoon again live, and hoped that they will play The Way We Get By, I Turn My Camera On, Everything Hits At Once, and Sister Jack. All of which were notably omitted from the setlist.
I took notes on the setlist with my phone, here it is:
1. Me and the Bean (Britt Solo)
2. The Mystery Zone
3. Written In Reverse
4. Got Nuffin
5. My Mathematical Mind
6. Don’t Make Me a Target
7. Ghost Of You Lingers
8. Love Song (The Damned Cover)
9. Is Love Forever?
10. Waiting To Know You (Fiery Furnaces Cover w/Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
11. Someone Something (w/ Eleanor Friedberger of the FF)
12. Beast and Dragon Adored
13. Don’t You Evah
14. I Summon You
15. Nobody Gets Me But You
16. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
17. Rhythm & Soul
18. Jonathon Fisk
19. The Underdog
20. Black Like Me
Encore 1:
21. Trouble Comes Running
22. Modern World (Wolf Parade Cover w/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade)
23. I Saw The Light (Dan Boeckner on guitar)
Encore 2:
24. Small Stakes
After the jump check out the photo’s I took, plus a full video of Black Like Me that I captured:
Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces (below) 
W/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade (below)
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Deerhunter
The Strange Boys:
WillDewBadley — 27 Mar 10
Spoon perform one of the most engaging live shows I have ever seen. I hope I can catch them during this tour.
B Money — 27 Mar 10
Great review and great show! You’re spot on that I Summon You was the highlight. I got the sense that the second encore was supposed to be longer and Britt was almost annoyed they had to end on Small Stakes b/c of the curfew – he threw down the mic at the end. Thoughts?
ParallelComics — 27 Mar 10
I’m just leaving the house now to go see the Boston stop on this tour! It’s a shame they haven’t played Out Go The Lights on this tour (as far as I can tell,) ’cause it’s my favorite jam from Transference. Oh, well- with I Summon You, Black Like Me, and all their other modern classics, I am still EXTREMELY EXCITED, to say the least.
Excellent tour report as usual!
Matt — 27 Mar 10
Here’s a great montage of clips from last night’s show:
http://www.musicvagabond.com/post/477868943/spoon-live-at-radio-city-music-hall-i
ParallelComics — 27 Mar 10
Ok, so Boston was QUITE different- which is to be expected, because of that “making of a Spoon setlist” article linked here a while back.
1. Before Destruction
2. Nobody Gets Me But You
3. Rhythm & Soul
4. You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
5. Vittorio E
6. Don’t Make Me A Target
7. Got Nuffin
8. Stay Don’t Go
9. Who Makes Your Money
10. Written in Reverse
11. Metal School (!)
12. The Beast and Dragon, Adored
13. Don’t You Evah
14. They Never Got You
15. I Summon You
16. I Turn My Camera On
17. Trouble Comes Running
18. The Underdog
ENCORE
19. Something To Look Forward To
20. Is Love Forever
21. Finer Feelings
Someone asked for Quincy Punk Episode… Britt said they hadn’t practiced it. They were driven off at 10 PM by a curfew to start a disco. Shame, shame. A wonderful show all around. Rhythm and Soul was a standout, but that’s probably personal preference.
Sixta Spicuzza — 24 Jun 11
thanks for your ideas and those equipment soon after a lengthy time i read this sort of write-up. thank you once more.