Spoon
Centre Stage, Atlanta, GA
14th April 2008

It’s Britt Daniel’s birthday but you wouldn’t know it. There’s no cake and candles, no rambunctious behaviour or jokes. You’d be expecting the band to be soused and swaying, playing covers and celebrating the occasion, using the opportunity to cut loose. In fact Daniel looks embarrassed as the audience participate in a singalong and the affair is swiftly swept under the carpet and the show continues on. Spoon are seasoned professionals now. Having existed on the fringes of wider acceptance and acclaim, it was as probably as much surprise to the band as anyone when the cards stopped being stacked against them. Their most recent album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga only solidifying their position as indie superstars, and the audience in attendance recognise this in spades.

Despite excuses to live it up a little, the band play a safe set, breaking ice with “The Beast and Dragon, Adored”, the opening track from 2005’s Gimme Fiction and then moving into two tracks from 2003’s Kill The Moonlight, which seems strange for a band to wait until the fourth song before playing something from an album they’re currently promoting, pairing up the hip-shaking “Don’t You Evah” with the shuddering ambience of “The Ghost of You Lingers”. They momentarily drift out of the safe confines of fan favourites to play a cover of Paul Simon’s “Peace Like A River” which is unexpected as it is odd, a song that the college-aged crowd would be hard pressed to place and even within Daniel’s influence it’s a curious choice.  The brass-absent “The Underdog” receives the loudest of cheers with Daniel affording himself a wry smile in what is probably the bands largest Atlanta show to date. These days it’s more of a truism than a cliché, but it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll and I think he’s more aware of this than anyone.

Setlist
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Someone Something
Stay Don’t Go
Don’t You Evah
The Ghost of You Lingers
I Summon You
Finer Feelings
Peace Like a River
Chips and Dip
Eddie’s Raga
Don’t Make Me a Target
They Never Got You
Everything Hits At Once
I Turn My Camera On
The Underdog
My Mathematical Mind
Black Like Me
—————————————-
I Could See The Dude
Rhythm & Soul
Fitted Shirt
Small Stakes