all these phone pictures were taken by Megan.
First, the short version:
So how was the show? It was fine. The sound was mostly lousy. The Aragon will be avoided by me from now on. I envy people who are going to see Spoon in smaller, better-sounding rooms, like the 2-day stand they have at the Moore Theater in Seattle.
The day after the Chicago show, Spoon played live on the air at the Current in Minneapolis; click here to listen.
The day after the Chicago show, Britt did an interview with the Seattle Weekly, previewing their stand at the Moore, and complaining about the sound at the Aragon. Click here to read it, and try to really taste the frustration I feel.
Now the long version:
"In 22 years of doing this, I have never had onstage sound like this." - Britt Daniel
Yeah. So the sound was terrible. Spoon was their usual reliably sturdy self, I think, but Britt was unhappy, and admitted prior to the encore that he "had no boner" for rocking us that night, and that we were a very good crowd for being patient about the whole thing.
But I wasn't patient. I have the worst goddamned Spoon luck the last few times I've seen them... There was drunken flailing all around me at the Edgefield, ruining one of the best performances I've ever seen of theirs, with the hottest horn section I've ever seen them with. At the Crystal Ballroom, Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, and their girlfriends stood directly in front of me and shouted the song titles at the band as they started each song... at the band.
So the lesson I learned at those shows was to give up dealing with Spoon's newest, douchiest fans down in front, and take a spot with a good view that's not down in front. The Aragon is another Chicago building with this amazing, fancy looking old ceiling in the lobby and polished, ancient floor tiles. It's beautiful. The ballroom itself has a second floor that rings the room, creating a wide, shallow balcony seating area situated between the balcony boxes; that's where we headed. All of this stuff is made up to look like a gaudy Spanish villa, with turrets and windows and such which, upon first impression, seemed special and awesome to me. I appreciated the fact that it felt really thought out. The ceiling of the ballroom, instead of being one of those ornate jobbies like at the Paramount in Seattle, was a smooth surface with spacey planets and stuff painted on. Twinkly lights faded on and off, sort of like the Cinerama in Belltown.
Deerhunter played. They were fine, not really my cup of tea. They commented on how they felt like they were in "Phil Spector's bowels". Apparently the sound in the room is loud in just such a way that the performers on stage, even with monitors pointed right at them, could not hear themselves. They can't hear anything... So Deerhunter dutifully played a set of esoteric avant pop that didn't make me want to own their music, but nevertheless was propulsive and interesting as an opening act for Spoon. They smartly played their token dance-drumbeat song toward the end. They fiddled with knobs and danced badly, blew kisses to their friends, and left.
Spoon had four-sided shapes in varying sizes and proportions ringing the stage around and behind them, accented with simple white lights strung through the drum kit and around them and in front of them. It was tasteful and crisp, and as the band members played, they were silhouetted by the illuminated shapes, which changed color. It was the best visual show from Spoon I've seen, but I'm not surprised either, since they play progressively larger rooms each year, requiring fancier staging. The band was decked out in black.
Britt opened the show with an acoustic version of "Me and the Bean", one of my favorite Spoon recordings. It was quiet and clean, very pretty, drawing out the urgency. He was joined by Eric Harvey on keys for the next song, an acoustic version of "The Mystery Zone" that also benefited from the spare treatment. Finally Jim and Rob completed the lineup, and the set proceeded the way Spoon sets usually proceed: methodically.
They played most of the new album, plus favorites from the past 3 albums, and very little older material. They were sharp and rocking where they were supposed to be. But the bass tones were so overpowering it was hard to enjoy it at times. Certain songs where Jim pounds his floor tom turned the room into an unbearable reverberation chamber. We had earplugs, by the way. The dude sitting next to us has his fingers in his ears the entire time.
The best moments were when the rhythm section dropped out and the guitars, vocals, and keys were alone in the mix. It was a bummer for that reason, but it was still Spoon, a band I love with songs that are better than other band's songs. I still dug it, in spite of the crappy sounding room. All the decorative stuff I previously thought exotic and fancy now appeared gaudy and cheap...for a reason.
I approached "Hot Pockets", Spoon's notorious sound man, who acts like a kind of Martin Swope for the band, mostly just adding reverb and echo to Britt's vocals at the ends of melody lines, and his varying shouts and grunts. He told us his name is Jeff, and he agreed it was a tough night, but said the band had "been warned" about the bad sound at the Aragon. Where the other band members wore in-ear monitors (and loved them), Britt tried them during soundcheck and didn't like the way it felt. They went with on-stage monitors, and evidently that just wasn't enough.
So how was the show? It was fine. The sound was mostly lousy. The Aragon will be avoided by me from now on. I envy people who are going to see Spoon in smaller, better-sounding rooms, like the 2-day stand they have at the Moore Theater in Seattle.
Spoon's next appearance in Chicago will be at Lollapalooza. Hmmm.
!BONUS!BONUS!BONUS!BONUS1
- The Chicago Tribune reviewed the show, and I commented on the review. You can read it all by clicking here.
- A Chicago blog called Gaper's Block also reviewed the show, but I didn't comment. Read it here.
- Lastly, a blog called Baby Stew took some pictures.
