Concert Review
Spoon
April 1, 2010 @ Aragon
By Dave Miller
Zo
Chalk up another victim to the Aragon’s notoriously horrible acoustics.
The ol' ballroom in Uptown ate up Spoon’s sound and spit it out at Thursday's disappointing concert. The show started promisingly enough as Britt Daniel opened with a solo acoustic “Me and the Bean” and, joined by keyboardist Eric Harvey, “The Mystery Zone.” Then the venue started sabotaging the sound when the volume was cranked after the entire band joined Daniel onstage. The rest of the main set saw Spoon’s sound tossed around the venue like a small boat in rough seas. Daniel gamely tried to keep a strong hand on the steering wheel, but it was a losing battle. The band went down with the ship.
“Thanks for still being here,” Daniel said at the start of the encore. “You guys are great. It’s been weird being up here. In my 22 years of playing rock shows I’ve never heard anything like this. To be in Chicago, this was a huge crowd for us. We really wanted this to be good. I’m sorry. I’m trying.”
I watched the show beside the soundboard, normally a good spot for listening, even at the Aragon. But not on this night. The sound was sludge-y and the vocals were tinny. The high volume only exaggerated the problem. I can only image what the sound was like on the sides or in the balcony of the venue. Daniel repeatedly motioned for the help to make adjustments. His comments to the crowd centered almost exclusively on the problems. “Can you guys hear anything?” Daniel asked after “The Ghost of You Lingers.” “I can’t hear anything onstage. It’s like walking blind down a real long highway.” The band played like it was preoccupied with the problem. At a loss, Daniel even had a soundman come to the center of the stage during, ironically, “I Summon You” to listen to his monitor for 30 seconds before the guy left to try to make adjustments. The time between the end of the main set and the encore saw the soundman at the back of the floor discuss the sound on a board telephone.
Thankfully, the sound improved a bit for the encore. Spoon gave a near-capacity crowd a glimpse of what it came to hear with strong versions of "I Turn My Camera On," “Trouble Comes Running,” “The Way We Get By” and “Jonathon Fisk” to close the show on a high note. “You must be the greatest crowd in the world,” Daniel said. The fans definitely deserve props for their patience.
It was my first time seeing Spoon. I can see them putting on a good show when their sound isn’t being distorted at high volume. I dug the heavy groove and Daniel’s sharp guitar work over it on songs such as “Got Nuffin’” and “I Turn My Camera On.” The band doesn't have much stage presence outside of Daniel, who carried the show in that regard. Even when leaving the stage for the night they just sort of slinked off it. However, you can tell Spoon is more about its, ahem, sound than stage theatrics, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. And it must be noted that as bad as the sound was, that’s how good the lighting was.
The setlist:
Me and the Bean
The Mystery Zone
Written in Reverse
Got Nuffin’
My Mathematical Mind
Don't Make Me a Target
The Ghost of You Lingers
Who Makes Your Money
Small Stakes
Modern World (Wolf Parade cover)
Is Love Forever?
Someone Something
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Don’t You Evah (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFOb72z0n-c)
I Summon You
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Nobody Gets Me But You
The Underdog
Black Like Me
----------------------------
Everything Hits at Once
I Turn My Camera On
Trouble Comes Running
The Way We Get By
Jonathon Fisk
Start: 8:15 p.m./Finish: 9:48 p.m.
Totals: 24 songs, 1 hour and 33 minutes