Caught Live: Spoon

The rain seemingly hasn’t stopped for a moment as the Electric Ballroom spills out another bellyful of indie lovelies onto the ever-depressing streets of Camden Town. But the weather, despite its efforts, doesn’t for a moment dampen the spirits of those who've been treated to what can only be described as, well, multiple eargasms. 

One and a half hours from the moment they took the stage, frontman Britt Daniel gives the room one last wave goodbye and they’re off, seeping slowly into the shadows as the crowd lift the air with a subdued-yet-appreciative cheer that can only come from the mouths of London's Über cool. We finish our final pints of the evening, as the band confidently swagger from Gimmie Fiction’s slow-burning highlight ‘I Turn My Camera On’ into roaring set closer ‘Jonathon Fisk’. A one-two closing combo that even Muhammad Ali would struggled to dodge. 

Although you’d be forgiven for thinking the band was done before their four-song encore. ‘Black Like Me’ could’ve happily closed the show, the people around me on the balcony sing a long at a credibility-keeping low level, but the band aren’t ones to shy away from the unexpected. As proved with a timely left-field cover of The Damned’s classic 'Love Song', roping in a member of support band White Rabbits to fill out the sound by doing what they seemingly do best… hit things with sticks loudly and passionately. 

The song has never sounded so ethereal and urgent and it’s a testament to the talent up on stage. It breeds new life into a song that needed no such resuscitation but this is a band who've never settled for the straightforward, and they work the very same trick with ‘The Ghost Of You Lingers’. Once a lingering and sparse album filler, in the live arena it has grown into a dark, brooding monster that genuinely brings both fright and excitement to something largely forgettable in the past. But then there is something special about Spoon and they prove this throughout a set in which Ragged Words can’t believe its ears half the time. Can music really be this good? 

As the room slowly reaches maximum capacity, the headliners quietly amble onto the stage, strumming the opening notes of ‘Don’t Make Me A Target’. They ring out as the house-music continues to play, drawing a few smiles from the band as they playfully nod along to the beat. But it only last a moment and as soon as it kicks in the only music that matters for the rest of the evening will be performed by the band who we are all here to see and that band is Texan’s favourite export, Spoon. 

Setlist: 

Don’t Make Me A Target
The Mystery Zone
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
My Mathematical Mind
The Ghost of you Lingers
Is Love Forever?
Don’t You Evah
Small Stakes
Love Song
Written In Reverse
Who Makes Your Money
The Way We Get By
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
They Never Got You
I Summon You
Rhythm & Soul
Got Nuffin
Black Like Me 

Encore: 
The Underdog
Nobody Gets Me But You
I Turn My Camera On
Jonathon Fisk