Playing to a sold-out crowd at the Monday night, indie darlings kept it simple — no chatter, no banter, just music. The band, touring in support of its latest release, “Transference,” went through the goods one-by-one with few distractions.
The set list primarily displayed the group’s most recent releases. The bulk of “Transference” was covered, along with the strongest hits from 2007’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.” A small handful of tracks from “Gimme Fiction” snuck into the set, and the encore celebrated “Kill the Moonlight” with “The Way We Get By.”
The good news? The guys can play live. Each song was well-rehearsed and carefully executed without rushing. Britt Daniel’s signature raspy rock-n-roller voice was as strong as ever, and backing him, the band didn’t miss a beat.
The bad news? It wasn’t much different than listening to their albums at home. The live songs contained almost no variation from their original recordings, and a lack of stage presence left the whole experience feeling a little flat. With few displayed moments of pure excitement, the crowd seemed to reflect this — the dancing and screaming were sparse, and appeared contained when they did occur.
And even though Spoon would probably be proud of how well each song sounded, you’d have to wonder if they were even having fun on the stage.
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Erica Grossman is a Denver-based writer and photographer. You can contact her at eagrossman@gmail.com or follow her on .
Joe McCabe is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb. Check out his .
