04/02/08 Uptown Theater, KC
Austin band Spoon has been at the top of my list of bands to see for a long time. I missed a Bottleneck show six years ago because it was already sold out when I showed up and I am still kicking myself, especially considering it may very well be possible that they never play somewhere that small again. If you look at their recent appearance on Saturday Night Live (for which they canceled a Lawrence show they'll make up at Liberty Hall on April 20th), a fair amount of radio play and filling the Uptown Theater they've become one of the biggest names in "indie" music. Spoon has released six albums now with the last four all full of brilliant pop songs, so they have a quite the selection of songs to choose from. They played for 70+ minute set that never got dull and held a very diverse audience captive the whole time. There is a reason why they are getting so much recognition and it starts with a pretty great live show.The Walkmen played before Spoon and hail from New York City. I was fairly familiar with their stuff but even with owning a couple of older albums of theirs I didn't recognize much of what they played. The Walkmen are a solid live band with singer Hamilton Leithauser having one of the most unique voices is rock today behind Spoon's Britt Daniel.
The first band of the evening was Columbia Missouri's own White Rabbits (they call NYC home now). There weren't a whole lot of people there when they played which might have had something to do with them going on around 7:30 when the tickets said 8:00, but those in attendance at the time were treated to an extremely talented band. Their debut album, Fort Nightly, is full of memorable and almost theatrically grand songs and their live show is just as impressive. They have the same vibe of seeing a band like Arcade Fire or Explosions in the Sky where ever song sounds like it's building to something huge. Having three drummers play at the same time for a few songs doesn't hurt either. A few sound problems seemed to plague the band, with the vocals being a bit distorted and everything being way too loud. Or maybe I was just standing to close, who knows? White Rabbits are headlining a show on June 1st at The Record Bar which will be a much more appropriate venue to see them play. If there is one thing about shows like this, where it's all ages and a band that gets a decent amount of radio play, is it reminds me of how much I'd rather see a show at The Record Bar or The Jackpot.Spoon Myspace
The Walkmen Myspace
White Rabbits Myspace
1 comment:
I was there too. Very solid show from start to finish. All 3 bands were great.
Post a Comment